UMFA Community Activity – Recording Data as Art
In partnership with Crossroads: Change in Rural America
at the USU Blanding Library
Saturday, October 12 | 1-4 pm | Free

Meet the UMFA at the Blanding Library to create art inspired by the Crossroads: Change in Rural America exhibition.

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! Recording data can be art. What is data, you ask? At its basic level, it is information is gathered over time. This information can help people understand something about your community, something they might want to encourage, or something they may want to change. Turning data into art can allow more people to see and understand it!

At this art activity, families will be inspired to understand their community through data tracking. We will look at some examples of data recorded in aesthetic ways and then create our own beautiful methods of tracking data. We'll ask questions like 'How many cars drive by my house during the day?' 'Are there more dry days than wet days?' 'Do people ever walk down the sidewalk anymore?' 'How much litter can I pick up on my daily walk?' Your observations and the art you create with those observations can have an impact on your community! 

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 Blanding Library in conjunction with USU Blanding. 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.