UMFA Community Activities – "Recording Data as Art" and "Make Your Own Community"
In partnership with Crossroads: Change in Rural America
At the John Wesley Powell River History Museum in Green River, Utah
Saturday, July 13 | 10 am-1 pm | Free

Meet the UMFA at the John Wesley Powell River History Museum to enjoy the Crossroads: Change in Rural America exhibition and to make art of your own. Two art-making activities will be available.

For older children, teens, and adults, we will show you how data tracking can not only be done as a form of art but can also have an impact on your community! Rural America is facing 21st-century changes and opportunities. How can we understand where we came from and also see the new prospects on the horizon? By recording and understanding data and making it into art! We will look at some examples of data recorded in aesthetic ways and then create our own beautiful methods of tracking data. 

For young children, we'll get inspired by the many buildings in your community to create a sculpture of your street or the houses and businesses in your town. What types of buildings are in your neighborhood? What do you want your town to look like in the future? We will provide wood blocks for you to draw on and make a small community of your own.

Crossroads: Change in Rural America is a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution's Museum on Main Street program that provokes fresh thinking and sparks conversations about the future and sustainability of rural communities. At a time when much of rural Utah is reinventing itself, Crossroads offers a chance to look at our own paths over the past century – to highlight changes that affected our fortunes, explore how we've adapted, and think about what's next. This project is presented by Utah Humanities and its statewide partners.

This program is made possible through collaboration with Utah Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition Crossroads: Change in Rural America, and the John Wesley Powell River History Museum. Crossroads: Change in Rural America is made possible in Utah by Utah Humanities. Crossroads is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and State Humanities Councils nationwide. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.