In 2022, an exciting project began at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with community partner Artes de México en Utah. The UMFA invited community members to visit the Ancient Mesoamerican gallery and share their thoughts on the space. Almost 50 people came to the first Transformación cultural: Nuestro pasado es presente meeting, from which a dedicated group formed to collaborate with the Museum over the next three years. This group of amazing people set to work re-envisioning the Ancient Mesoamerican gallery as a new space that reflects the richness of living cultures, identity, and the art of Mexico, Central and South America.
Community work-group members:
- Alejandra Quechol Delgado
- Ana Martinez
- Andrea Silva
- Clara Amezcua
- Esmeralda Torres
- Fanny Guadalupe Blauer
- Hazel Rodriguez Coppola
- Horacio Rodriguez
- Jorge Rodriguez
- Karina Villalba
- Kathleen Garcia
- Luis Novoa
- Monique Davila
- Pablo Ayala
- Stephanie García
After nearly three years of work, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts is thrilled to announce the new galleries will be unveiled in October 2025 with an opening celebration October 18!
The goals of this project were to:
- Elevate and infuse community perspectives and voices into the UMFA’s exhibition space.
- Highlight and discuss objects in the present, not past, tense.
- Create an installation that celebrates the living, vibrant cultures from which these works of art originate.
- Acquire contemporary artworks by artists who identify as Latine / Hispanic and support narratives of art and culture, past and present, as a continuum.
What did the work group do?
The Transformación Cultural work group committee met every other month from 2022 through August 2025. This time was spent engaging in creative and reflective exercises, sharing knowledge through presentations, and leading discussions on topics like symbols, ancestral connection, empathy, traditions, immigration, oral history, and more. This work both informed the curatorial process and created a sense of connection between the Museum and the community. The community members' work is intertwined within all the stages of this gallery re-install project. Some invisible and some right on the gallery walls.
Early in the project, UMFA employees and former Artés de Mexico en Utah executive director Fanny Guadalupe Blauer, found inspiration by visiting the Denver Art Museum’s recently reinstalled Latin American galleries. Later conversations with over twenty representatives from various galleries helped inform the process. The entire committee collaborated with UMFA curators to create the list of objects from the permanent collection that would be on view in the gallery and wrote community labels to accompany them. Work group members aided in translating materials and helped plan a community celebration taking place October 18, 2025.
The group members’ voices and work will be present in the gallery itself. A special mural painted by Roots Art Kollective will grace the hero wall in the new gallery space. A statement developed by the members of the work group will greet visitors at the gallery entrance, and interactive videos of community members demonstrating traditional chocolate making and reflecting on their experience, the importance of cultural representation, and the impact of art will ensure that all visitors will come away with a full understanding of the rich history and the living traditions represented in the space.
Transformación cultural: Nuestro pasado es presente
En estas galerías, nuestras identidades han convivido para encontrarnos entre memorias y olvidos, guiadas por las vidas que dieron forma a estas obras—guardianes del tiempo, la resiliencia y la sabiduría. Cada obra de arte alberga múltiples historias esperando ser escuchadas. Ellas rinden homenaje, representan nuestras luchas y hablan por nuestra comunidad. Detrás de cada una están las manos que las moldearon, el eco de sus voces y los corazones que soñaron.
Creemos que las historias de estas obras de arte también son nuestras y que, a través de ellas, encontramos refugio y reflexión. Amplificamos sus voces para que puedan expresar la esencia de nuestra comunidad viva.
Juntos, a través del arte y el propósito compartido, nos imaginamos en este espacio. Aquí dejamos huella de gratitud y remembranza como muestra de respeto al pasado, compromiso con el presente y visión para el futuro de las culturas de las Américas que nos fortalecen.
Cultural Transformation: Our Past is Present
In these galleries, our identities come together, meeting between memories and losses, guided by the lives that shaped these works—keepers of time, resilience, and wisdom. Each work of art holds many stories waiting to be heard. They speak for our community, carry our struggles, and offer recognition. Behind each one are hands that shaped them, hearts that dreamed, and voices echoing through them.
We believe the stories of these artworks are also our own and, through them, we find shelter and reflection. We amplify their voices so they may speak the heart of our living community.
Together, through art and shared purpose, we imagine ourselves in this space. Here, we leave a trace of gratitude and remembrance—a gesture of honoring the past, living the present, and imagining the future of the cultures of the Americas that carry us forward.
What were the challenges and rewards of this project?
This re-install project was unique and as far as the UMFA is aware it is the first of its kind at a Museum like the UMFA. There aren’t step-by-step manuals for decolonization and community work like this, so Museum staff and community members in the work group had to learn along the way. In the end invaluable knowledge was shared that informed interpretation in the galleries, much of which is highlighted in accompanying community labels. The gallery, and experience it provides, will be richer and more rewarding, connecting the past and present through art. Workgroup members formed invaluable friendships and the Museum has gained irreplaceable community connections.
Moving the Mesoamerican collection into a space formerly occupied by the Museum’s European art collection created both a better home for multiple galleries and a huge undertaking for the Museum’s collections staff. The new Portrait Hall, the re-installed European art gallery, the Mexican art gallery, and the Central and South American gallery were all made possible by this project.
This three-year process of working with community and the UMFA has truly been life changing. This project has connected me deeper with my story, my family's migration, and has encouraged me to keep learning about the roots that impact me in my daily life. This project has been important to me because I believe that Museums hold a responsibility and a role in making our histories accessible and experienced through authenticity and respect. This is a huge step in how Museums curate their spaces as well as how they invite the community to reconnect and find a way back to self. That is what this project has allowed me to come back to self.
The UMFA is creating a prime example to Museums around the country and the world –of the role that museums play in today's world experience.
~ Luis Novoa, Executive Director of Artes de México en Utah
There wasn’t a guide when this project began but now that the Museum has learned some valuable lessons. Co-directors of learning and engagement, Annie Burbidge Ream and Ashley Farmer, will be presenting and sharing this process with other Museum leaders in hopes that community curating and decolonization can become a standard practice everywhere.
Why is this important?
There are several main reasons for the Museum’s decolonization commitment, namely: justice, stewardship of knowledge, and access and belonging.
Justice:
Museums are products of modern history, which includes numerous examples of colonization throughout the world. The complex histories of objects become parts of the histories of the museums that hold them today. The UMFA feels that decolonization work is the natural and responsible remediation to that context.
The term “decolonization” is a bit of a misnomer because it is not the opposite of colonization and undoing colonization is impossible. What the UMFA and other museums can do is commit to the long, complicated process of assessing, analyzing, understanding, and reconciling the effects of colonization. This includes steps taken by the Museum in this project like centering the perspectives of individuals and communities who have endured colonization, exhibiting and acquiring works of art that inform us about colonization, thereby supporting artists and artistic communities whose work increases our understanding of our shared histories, and creating labels and interactives to accompany objects to provide more information.
Stewardship:
As stewards of art and cultural objects, the UMFA is also a steward of the histories and knowledge they represent. This is why you’ll notice that many of the objects on view in the Museum are accompanied by not only information like the object's titles, the artists names, and where/when they are from, but also interpretation that adds context. These extended labels add questions that invite viewers to consider the work deeply, information about the artist, or the information about the environment/events that may have shaped the object’s meaning.
As a part of that continuing mission of responsible stewardship, the UMFA has worked with expert curators and community members to write object labels that provide information about the origins and histories of the objects. There will also be interactive and multimedia additions to the galleries that will bridge the gap between past and present and celebrate living traditions. Projects like this include consulting with individuals and communities who have endured colonization and including their stories and oral histories as invaluable sources of knowledge.
Access and Belonging:
Ultimately, this work would be meaningless if no one could access it. Which is why the UMFA is committed to having all labels in the Museum available in both of the two most commonly spoken languages in Utah: English and Spanish. Access is also important behind-the-scenes, and beyond the galleries. Community members, educators and researchers can access information on the collection online and even request to visit the off-view collection! Art is for everyone, and so is the UMFA. This project is one step further towards helping guests of all backgrounds find themselves welcomed and reflected in the art on view and in the Museum’s work.
What is the UMFA’s future commitment to projects like this?
The UMFA’s mission to decolonize the museum is a continuing one, and the work will be on-going for years come. This mission is not only key to unique instances like this reinstall project, but also to continuous work like gallery rotations, label revisions, art acquisitions, selections for on-going projects like the salt series, special exhibitions, Great Hall installations, and exhibitions in the education gallery.
The UMFA is so grateful for the support of the greater community and the tireless work of the community group members that made the Mexican and Central & South American galleries possible.
Do you have questions about the UMFA’s mission or have suggestions to help us improve? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us by emailing reply@umfa.utah.edu.