News

Exploring Georgia’s mountain culture with art

03.10.2016

Utah Valley University (UVU), together with the Utah Art Museum in Springville, Utah, United States hosted an event Building Bridges: Exploring Georgian Art and Politics on 15 September 2016 as their contribution to the 2016 theme of the International Mountain Day celebration, “Mountain culture: celebrating diversity and strengthening identity”. The museum houses the largest public collection of twentieth-century Russian and Soviet art in the western United States.

The official delegation from Georgia, led by the Permanent Representative of Georgia to the United Nations, Ambassador Kaha Imnadze, joined faculty, students from several universities and representatives of local communities from across Utah for the unveiling of an exhibition of Georgian Soviet-era impressionist art at the Utah Art Museum. The art was rescued by Utah citizens from destruction in the early 1990s.

Local audiences, both at UVU and at the Utah Art Museum, listened to presentations given by Ambassador Kaha Imnadze and Diana Zhgenti, Consul General of Georgia in New York, about the current situation in Georgia. A performance followed by David Aladashvili, a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York and cultural attaché of the Permanent mission of Georgia to the United Nations. He performed the music of Chopin, Schuman and Georgian composers.

As part of the activities, an essay contest was held at UVU to encourage students from Utah to connect with the art and explore the similarities and differences between the culture and art of mountainous Georgia and Utah. The second place award went to Hannah Leavitt, an Art History major from Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah. Leavitt’s love of art began as a young girl when her parents worked and traveled through Eastern Europe. The first place winner was another BYU Art History student, Annilyn Spjut, whom expressed her similar origin of love for soviet-era culture and art.

This event was hosted by the Office of International Affairs and Diplomacy at UVU. It was made possible in thanks to personal contributions from Rusty Butler, former Vice President of International Affairs and Diplomacy at UVU.

News and photo by UVU

Read more