Utah Women’s History to Be Celebrated in 2020

February 7, 2020

Better Days 2020, a nonprofit organization dedicated to popularizing Utah women’s history through art, education, and legislation, has reason to celebrate this year—as do all of us. This year, Better Days 2020 will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Utah women casting their first ballots, the first American women to vote under an equal suffrage law. It is also the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave equal voting rights to women; and the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, which protected voting rights of racial minorities.

Arts-Based Initiatives 

There will be numerous arts event to celebrate these landmarks happening throughout the state during 2020. These events, both educational and uplifting, integrate the arts with history and will be engaging to educators and students alike.

The Utah Division of Arts and Museum’s Traveling Exhibit Program will feature Utah artist Brooke Smart’s 50 original illustrations of Utah women’s rights advocates. Check out the full schedule. The exhibit’s last destination will be the Springville Museum of Art and will be on display there from May to August.

The “Utah Women Working for the Vote and Beyond” exhibit features reproductions of Smart’s 50 illustrations paired with historic artifacts. This will be on display on the fourth floor of the Utah State Capitol Building from January¬ to December 2020.

Better Days 2020 has also released “Utah Women Making History Trading Cards” and a book titled Champions of Change: 25 Women Who Made History, both of which feature Smart’s illustrations.

Women’s Rights Memorials

A statue of Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon—Utah’s first female state senator—is to be installed in National Statuary Hall in August 2020. Check out this website to learn more about the statue and Hughes Cannon herself.

There will be a new Women’s History Memorial installed at Council Hall in Salt Lake City. The sculpture was designed by Utah artists Kelsey Harrison and Jason Manley and will memorialize the first woman to vote and honor the millions of women who have voted in Utah and across the nation since that important day.

Resources for Educators 

There are other ways to get involved during 2020. Schools can become Utah HERitage Schools and receive free swag and a toolkit of materials to learn and celebrate.

Better Days 2020 would love to hear from schools where teachers and students develop their own arts projects to commemorate and celebrate this special year. Students can attend the 150th Anniversary “First to Vote” Celebration at the Utah State Capitol on February 12, which coincides with another Utah State Capital event, Arts Day on the Hill.

Educators can find free downloadable resources at www.utahwomenshistory.org to help educate students and participate in the celebration. These resources include

• - Utah women’s advocates’ biographies written by scholars and family descendants, paired with Smart’s illustrations
• - Interactive timeline
• - Learning activities
• - Children’s books with Utah History connections and discussion questions
• - Short videos including a video about illustrator Brooke Smart showcasing her studio and process
• - Informational articles
• - Lesson plans that include arts connections
• - Local histories
• - Primary sources sets, which include suffrage memorabilia and political cartoons 

For updated information and more ideas, follow the organization on social media @betterdays2020.

Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first grade teacher in Alpine School District, a writer for The Daily Herald newspaper, and an Arts Leadership Academy graduate. She has earned the Arts Integration Endorsement from Brigham Young University. She can be reached at LauraCGiles@gmail.com.

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School Library is a Hub for the Arts

October 11, 2019

Wasatch Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah, has an important and unique focus: intertwining the arts with other curricular areas. Through donations from the community, specialists in the different arts, and collaboration between the faculty and staff, the students at Wasatch are experiencing a much broader education than simply the three Rs (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic).

Wasatch Elementary’s library plays a central role in the art education of the students. Dawn Ann Bullough, library media teacher, has a passion for what they do. “This community values having all of the arts taught in its school,” she said.

Some people wonder how a library specialist fits into the arts focus. “We can use literature in all of the arts,” Bullough said. In fact, the school has had dance performances that are based on books and stories from the library. “Music, drama, dance—they’re really just storytelling in other kinds of forms and it’s the very same with visual arts.”

In addition to music teachers, every student in the school has the opportunity to learn from a dance and drama specialist thanks to fundraising by the parents. “This community has worked hard to combine all of the arts,” Bullough said.

According to Bullough, the Salt Lake City School District has teacher-certified librarians. “It allows the librarian to work with our teachers and collaborate with them and our student needs. We don’t just check out, check in books. We work with the arts specialists that are in our school and provide resources.”

Bullough was a classroom teacher for many years and has continued teaching literature to students as a librarian. For example, she taught “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll to sixth graders many times. Students at the school have created corresponding book art projects, shadow puppet plays, and this year they learned a Jabberwocky song. “The thing that makes this so fun for me is there is a collaboration between the classroom teachers, between the arts specialists, and the librarian,” Bullough said.

Penny Caywood is the theater specialist at Wasatch and her collaboration with Bullough benefits all of the students. Caywood said that she regularly asks Bullough about music, books and stories that could be dramatized easily. Students and teachers are always using the library. “It is such an inspirational space,” she said.

At Wasatch Elementary, the library is the heart of the school. “We have a lot of things that happen right here in our library. School community council meetings, PTA meetings and visitors who do presentations in the library. Students do research and mini-productions in the library,” Bullough said. “It’s an important space to encourage learning and creativity. It’s just a wonderful place to be.”

*Dawn Ann Bullough is presenting a session at the 2019 Learning Edge Administrator's Conference on November 12th. Principals, administrators, and teacher leaders who are interested can register at https://education.byu.edu/cites/learning-edge-2019

Laura Giles is a lover of all things art, a first grade teacher in Alpine School District, a writer for The Daily Herald newspaper, an Arts Leadership Academy graduate and has earned the Arts

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Timpanogos Storytelling Conference and Festival: A Featured Article by Teresa Love

Don't you LOVE it when you find a hidden gem? And don't you wonder, "why didn't I KNOW about this?" I'm here to tell you that the annual Timpanogos Storytelling Conference and Festival in Orem, Utah are brilliant hidden gems for elementary school classroom teachers and arts specialists.
In case you don't know, oral storytelling is enjoying a worldwide renaissance. Tellers from all ages tell old tales, new tales, hilarious narratives, personal stories, tall tales, healing stories, and more to enthusiastic listeners. Perhaps the oldest art form, and the basis of drama, theater, literature and film, storytelling connects deeply with children and adults. The Timpanogos Storytelling Institute, based in Orem, Utah will present world-class professional performers and instructors of storytelling the first week of September 2015.

You can find all the details at http://timpfest.org/. The website is extensive and sometimes you can get diverted by all the great information.

Here's a quick rundown:

Wednesday Sept. 2 - Thursday Sept. 3: The Conference
Held at the Orem Public Library, Orem, Utah. Keynotes, performances, and classes run all day. Classes are presented by many of the same world-class tellers who'll be at the Festival later in the week, as well as other experts. There are classes for beginning tellers to advanced tellers, and, from my experience, all the presenters love classroom teachers! You can learn to tell and learn how to teach storytelling.
Classroom teachers should note the irrepressible Bill Harley ("Charting the Emotional Lives of Children") and game master Anthony Burcher ("Recreation Re-Creation: Using Games to Discover Forgotten Personal Stories"). Storytellers and authors Donald Davis and Carmen Deedy are enlightening and entertaining keynotes, and I wouldn't miss either one of them. Teachers, you need to go look at the schedule of events to see all the richness regarding writing skills, voice, character, culture, etc. you can bring back to your classroom. All the presenters have been carefully vetted. I've seen most of them and they are well worth your time.
BONUS: If you buy a full Conference ticket you can attend "Look Who's Talking" on Thursday evening, Sept. 3, which is a wonderful performance cavalcade of all the tellers presenting at the Festival.

Thursday Sept. 3 (evening), Friday Sept. 5 (day to evening): The Festival
World class professional storytellers converge in our own Provo Canyon delighting audiences old and young. It is truly a festival atmosphere with large jovial crowds under huge sparkling white tents listening to tellers and musicians. Food vendors, puppeteers, jugglers, potters, a large gift shop with lots of material for teachers and a wide assortment of puppets complete the atmosphere in the gorgeous canyon.
If you have never seen a professional storyteller, your best bang for your buck at the festival is one of the evening performances, Thursday to Saturday, either at the canyon stages, or at the SCERA Shell in Orem.

DON'T be afraid to take your children or significant others. There will be plenty of laughs and activities for audiences of all tastes.
DO take the advice on the timpfest website regarding tickets, parking, weather, etc. This is a very well run event but you need to heed the information on the website for a fully enjoyable experience.

AND: BYU offers credit for attending these events. See the website for more information.

FREE! FREE! FREE!: Still not convinced? Go see something for free!

August 31, West Jordan, Utah: Storytelling Concert with professional tellers Antonio Sacre and Tim Lowry!  

For details visit http://timpfest.org/events/antonio-sacre-tim-lowry-present-at-night-of-stories-at-the-viridian-event-center/.

September 2, Riverwoods in Provo, Utah: Storytelling Concert with professional storytellers/musicians, GRAMMY Award Winner Bill Harley and Sam Payne
Sam is also host of BYU Radio's storytelling program, The Apple Seed.  

There's more!
Convinced and want to storyteller to come to your school, or take your class to the festival, possibly FOR FREE??????
Want to get your students/school involved in the National Youth Storytelling organization?
Go to http://timpfest.org/storytelling/ and find out how you can participate. Look all over this page. You even find storytelling lesson plans (by yours truly).

Hey! If you see me, be sure to say hello! I'll be there for everything!

Teresa Love is a professional development partner for the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program and an adjunct professor for BYU's Department of Theatre and Media Arts.

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