Currently on display in the Celebration Gallery is Eye Hand Mind: Selections from the Africa Meets Africa Project.  The Utah Cultural Celebration Center is presenting the exhibition in partnership with the University of Utah’s International & Area Studies Program, Center for Science and Math Education, and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.   As a result of the project, the museum added thirteen new objects to their permanent collection.  These beer pot covers, arm/leg bands, bandoliers, aprons, belts, and acrylic works are the primary focus of the exhibition, which is part of a larger effort to teach math and science through art from South Africa.

For twelve years the centerpiece of the Dia de los Muertos was a traditional altar constructed by partner organization Una Mano Amiga. The altar, built entirely by UMA Director Rocio Mejia, her family, and close friends, was a dramatic spectacle honoring and paying tribute to the dead. The post-colonial style altar may be familiar to many, as it has been part of Mexican and other Central and South American countries Dia de los Muertos holiday for over 500 years. The three-tiered altar was a complete offering, with photos of deceased loved ones; arches & crosses; glasses of water and other beverages; food; salt; candles; mirrors; marigold flowers; colorful cut paper and other adornments. Like altars of its type, the heartfelt and beautiful display combined indigenous and Catholic iconography, all displayed to honor and pay respect to the dead.

​From September 29 – October 1, the Utah Cultural Celebration Center hosts the Utah Division of State History’s annual conference.  This year’s theme is “Rural Utah, Western Issues”, which conference organizers expect will highlight new, revised, or heretofore unknown histories of rural and western life for a twenty-first century public.  Conference registration information can be found here.
 
Accompanying the 2016 Annual State History Conference is an exhibition of historic maps, owned by Salt Lake City businessman Stephen Boulay.  Stephen’s fascination with maps and the stories they tell began three decades ago, and he has been collecting maps ever since.  Stephen has accumulated one of the finest collections of maps dealing with the history of Utah.  Some of Stephen’s most prized cartographical renditions show the territory from its sixteenth century imaginings, all the way to statehood in 1986.