- Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts
-
Front view
The Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts is operated by the Utah Division of Arts & Museums[1]. It is the permanent home of the State Folk Arts Collection since 1987 and over 200,000 visitors have experience its free programs. It has become the place where traditional artists from Utah's ethnic, native, occupational and rural communities share their crafts, music, and dance with their own communities, their fellow Utahns, and with visitors from around the world. In addition to exhibits and concerts, the Chase Home contains a large repository of recordings and photographs that document Utah's traditional culture.
It is located in Salt Lake City, and the only state museum of its kind in the United States.[citation needed]
Contents
History of the Chase Home
In the early 1850s Mormon leader Brigham Young and his partner Isaac Chase built a flourmill and a two-story adobe house in the center of a 110-acre (0.45 km2) pioneer farm. In 1888 that farm became Liberty Park and today both structures still remain.
Galleries
The Native Gallery
The mountains, valleys and deserts of Utah have been the home of native Indian peoples since long before recorded history. Like all indigenous people, those who lived in what we now call Utah provided for their families by passing along knowledge of how to best use the region's natural resources. Of course, today's American Indians no longer need to build shelters from brush, sew clothing from animal skins or weave household containers from local vegetation. Yet many Native Americans perpetuate these traditional skills by creating handmade objects, used at community celebrations or sold to art collectors, that express their cultural identity.
The most common art forms produced by Utah's contemporary Indian folk artists are objects crafted from locally gathered materials. Some weave willow into utilitarian basket forms handed down from antiquity or into brightly-colored trays used both in modern-day ceremonies and sold through the tourist art market. Others transform wood, willow, buckskin and beads into cradleboards that are still used to carry infants. Many artists make clothing, jewelry and accessories using brain-tanned buckskin decorated with glass beads, porcupine quills, shells or sequins for community members to wear at pow wows and other native events. And Utah's native artists also transform wood and hides into drums, courting flutes and rasps that are integral to community life and celebration.
Utah's American Indian population includes those affiliated with land-based resident tribes—the linguistically related Goshutes, Northern Utes, Paiutes, Shoshones and Ute Mountain Utes and the Athabaskan-speaking Navajos--and those from various other tribal groups who have chosen Utah as their home.
The Ethnic Gallery
Like most Americans, Utahns, have origins in national, racial or ethnic groups from all over the world. We have come to live in Utah's mountains, valleys and deserts for many reasons: to make a living from its resources, to escape religious persecution or join a religious community, to pursue educational opportunities or to reunite with family and friends. And the customs, traditions and artistry we bring with us contribute to the fabric of Utah's ever-changing society.
A century and a half ago, immigration to Utah began as Mormon pioneers from America, the British Isles and Scandinavia, joined Native American groups in what became Utah Territory. By the time of statehood, immigrants from Southern Europe and Asia were among those contributing to this growth. And throughout the 20th century waves of immigration continued with Hispanics, Polynesians, Southeast Asians and most recently Eastern Europeans coming to make Utah their home.
Although many traditional arts are sometimes modified or even lost when people migrate from one society to another, the most symbolic folk arts often persist. Folk crafts central to religious belief, community celebration or ethnic identity are among the most common. These artistic expressions survive even though the original materials might not be available, because they symbolize and celebrate group membership and ethnic heritage. Among the most vibrant expressions are those that tell the story of immigration through traditional art.
The Occupational Gallery
Since the beginning of time, people have learned from their elders. We learn from our family, our neighbors, our religious community and sometimes from our national or ethnic community. Each of the different "folk groups" to which we belong, provides us with knowledge and wisdom distilled over time, and it is through that unique blend of cultures and traditions, resulting in what is sometimes called "heritage," that we individually define and identify ourselves. Since a large portion of our lives is spent working, it is not surprising that another way many Utahns identify themselves is through their occupation. Like other "folk groups," occupational groups create traditional arts that embody the group's values, concerns and way of life.
Over the ages people have made whatever they needed using available materials, traditional knowledge and their own two hands. Though today most of our needs are met by factory produced goods, there are some occupations that still produce useful, often beautiful objects, that require those inherited, traditional hand skills. Among the occupational folk arts being crafted in Utah today are stonecarving, blacksmithing and the production of ranch gear. While many Utah folk artists produce objects intended for use, still others handcraft decorative pieces, often miniature objects or scenes, that memorialize activities from their occupational past.
The Rural Gallery
Even though the majority of Utah's population resides along the urbanized Wasatch Front, most Utahns who live here have roots in Utah's rural communities. Many of their basic values are grounded in a rural heritage that prizes both resourcefulness and creativity.
Early life in the frontier West required self-sufficiency, forcing people to develop knowledge and skills to survive. With materials, merchandise and entertainment often difficult to find, people looked to themselves to satisfy their needs. Today this tradition of self-sufficiency is as strong among some Utahns as it was when Utah became a state, one-hundred years ago. We can easily buy rugs to cover our floors, halters and bridles to control our horses, or art objects to decorate our homes, but many of us prefer self-sufficiency—to conserve, recycle and spend our resources and energies in the creation of home-produced items. Although such activities often reflect our desire to be frugal with our resources and industrious with our time, they also reflect our desire and our need to create something with beauty and meaning.
Rural Utahns, and those who are part of this heritage, continue to braid rags into rugs, sculpt miniature scenes commemorating life in earlier times, and whittle puzzles and chains that capture the imagination with their intricacy and beauty. In doing so, they both celebrate and perpetuate the values of their rural heritage.
Location
The Chase Home is centrally located in Liberty Park, the largest park of Salt Lake City, Utah.
See also
Sources
External links
- Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts - Official website
Categories:- Art in Utah
- Art museums in Utah
- Folk art museums in the United States
- Museums in Salt Lake City, Utah
- Native American museums in Utah
- Utah culture
- Museums established in 1987
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
