In March 2019, in Salt Lake City, the winners of the Eleventh International Art Competition (IAC) were announced. Sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the IAC exists in part to enable the Church History Museum to identify and acquire the best Latter-day Saint art being produced around the world. For the eleventh time since 1987, art produced by Latter-day Saints from around the world was displayed at church headquarters, where the best pieces remain in the permanent collection. Does that signify centralization or decentralization of the faith?
We propose a complex answer informed by Terryl Givens. “Some of the most productive stimulants” of artistic expression, Givens claimed, “are the unresolved tensions inherent in a culture. . .internal tensions that never manage to find full and satisfactory resolution.”1 The IAC has been an extremely productive stimulant of art that now belongs to the Church. The IAC...
