‘The little museum that could’: Springville Museum of Art celebrates 100th salon

SPRINGVILLE — The Springville Museum of Art is celebrating its 100th annual Spring Salon with a new exhibit highlighting the city’s history of art.

And, it’s a museum that was started by high school students.

“It’s so exciting to share this story because you don’t have a lot museums that start this way,” said Emily Larsen, museum director. “A lot of museums, there is someone really wealthy that dies or has a collection and they don’t know what to do with it, but our museum from the beginning was so community-driven, so student-driven.”

“It really is just this magical story, kind of like the little museum that could,” she said.

Springville, in the 1920s, was a rural, middle-of-nowhere town that inexplicably became a center for art through the vision of high school students. At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of community members called the Springville Art Movement wanted students to have experiences with original works of art. So, they started getting artists to donate artwork to the high school and, in 1922, teachers and students decided to host a national art exhibition — the first Spring Salon — in the halls of the high school.

Read more

• Have You Seen This? World’s largest rugby scrum honors Springville girl with cancer
• Kevin Bacon visits Payson High School after student-led campaign
• Coca-Cola ad made by BYU students wins film competition, will screen at theaters
• ‘Everest, Inc.’ highlights the business of adventure toward the top of Everest
• SLC 2024 Twilight Concert Series announces lineup