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The Church History Museum, formerly the Museum of Church History and Art, is the premier
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
operated by the
Church History Department of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It is located in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, and is opposite the west gates of the church's
Temple Square
Temple Square is a complex, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah. The usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities that are immediately ...
.
The museum has collections of art, artifacts, documents, photographs, tools, clothing and furniture from the almost two-century
history of the LDS Church #REDIRECT History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints #REDIRECT History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints {{R from other capitalisation ... {{R from other capitalisation ...
. Outside of the curators, administrative, and other staff, a large volunteer workforce of Latter-day Saints from the surrounding communities conduct tours of the museum's exhibits and put on many of the museum programs. The Church History Museum is open six days a week and admission is free.
Museum history
A major proponent of the creation of the museum was
Florence S. Jacobsen, a church
curator and a former general president of the
Young Women organization of the church. It was dedicated and opened on April 4, 1984.
[Cazier, Bob]
"New Church Museum Dedicated"
''Church News
The ''Church News'' (or ''LDS Church News'') is a weekly tabloid-sized supplement to the ''Deseret News'' and the ''MormonTimes'', a Salt Lake City, Utah newspaper owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It is t ...
'', May 1984. Retrieved on 16 March 2020. When the museum opened it had 63,500-square-feet of space and early exhibits included the “Mormon Panorama”, the 22 historic paintings by
C. C. A. Christensen about the early Church and the exhibit “Paintings and Prints by Contemporary Latter-day Saint Artists”.
In 2012, the museum was reviewed in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', "The museum shows how earthly a religion Mormonism is, how practical its actions have been and how intimately connected its history is to the American past. The printing press, the farm, depictions of the ordinary citizens who were the first church members — we see a vision of early American democracy."
In 2013, the museum hosted two exhibits to mark the 100th anniversary of the
Boy Scouts of America, featuring 23 paintings by
Norman Rockwell. The museum closed in October 2014 for a year-long refurbishment and remodeling of the first-floor exhibits with a renewed emphasis on Jesus Christ and the faith's founder, Joseph Smith. When the museum reopened in September 2015 the improvements and new exhibits included a replica of the
Newel K. Whitney Store, the
seer stone Joseph Smith purportedly used to produce the
Book of Mormon, and a specially constructed 220-degree-view theater that takes viewers into a thicket of trees in upstate New York where Smith claimed a vision of God and Christ. The museum also contains the printing press that produced the first edition of the Book of Mormon in 1830 and a chair that carpenter
Brigham Young built before joining the Church through baptism in 1832. In 2020, the Church History Museum and many of the other buildings on Temple Square were closed in response to the
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
.
[Harkins, Paighten]
"LDS Church closes Temple Square, other downtown attractions, because of coronavirus"
'' The Salt Lake Tribune'', 14 March 2020. Retrieved on 16 March 2020.
International Art Competition
In 1987, Richard Oman started the "International Art Competition" at the Church History Museum. The competition is held every 3–4 years for artists worldwide to submit works of art in assorted mediums around specific church and gospel themes. The "11th International Art Competition" held in 2019 included 151 artists from 26 countries chosen from 947 submitted works.
[Stephenson, Kathy]
"151 artists, 26 nations, one faith — Latter-day Saint art show features diverse works about belief"
'' The Salt Lake Tribune'', 12 March 2019. Retrieved on 16 March 2020. A ceremony honoring artists whose works were purchased for the permanent collection or earned awards of merit is held as part of each competition.
Museum Store
The Museum Store was founded along with the museum to support the many exhibits and programs. Over 200 works of reproduced art have been made available to the general public from the Museum's and Church's extensive collections by prominent historical Latter-day Saint artists such as C. C. A. Christensen,
John Hafen, and
Minerva Teichert, in addition to contemporary Latter-day Saint artists such as
Walter Rane,
Robert Barrett, and
Arnold Friberg. The store also sells historical toys, literature, statuary, and pioneer-era clothing, such as bonnets.
See also
*
Mormon art
Notes
References
*
External links
Church History Museum Official siteInternational Art Competitions Official siteUtah.gov Tourism site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church History Museum
1984 establishments in Utah
History museums in Utah
Museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
Latter Day Saint culture
Latter Day Saint church buildings
Mormon migration to Utah
Museums established in 1984
Museums in Salt Lake City
Properties of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Religious museums in Utah
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah
Mormon museums in the United States