Center for Latter-day Saint Arts

10/07/2026

Dancers, you might want to look up Kevin Jones Giddins. 💃🏽

The same goes for choreographers, movement artists, and anyone who's spent years training their body as an instrument. You have wondered at some point what to do with all that training once you step outside the studio or off the stage. This October, Kevin Jones Giddins would love to help you think that question through.

Kevin is a performer and educator, and he's been part of the Center family for years as the longtime co-chair of our Race, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. He knows firsthand that what a dancer learns applies far beyond the studio. Presence, discipline, reading a room, and nonverbal communication are skills the wider world badly needs, and Kevin has spent his career showing that.

You could bring him questions like these:
✨ how to teach movement, or how to grow as a teacher
✨ where African and African-American traditions fit into your work as a performer
✨ how nonverbal communication works, and why it matters so much (both in and outside of dance spaces)
✨ how to bring the arts into corporate events, team gatherings, or workplace wellness programs, whether as a side path or a full career

If any of those has crossed your mind lately, a conversation with Kevin could be the push you've been waiting for.

His sessions run October 12–21. Each one is 45 minutes, one-on-one, and focused entirely on you. Spots are limited, so please don't wait too long.

See appointments: centerforlatterdaysaintarts.org/office-hours

(Writers, composers, and artists et al, don't worry, we haven't forgotten you. Glen Nelson is also taking appointments this month on the 15th. Take a look.)

09/28/2026

Artists Residency photo dump (the first of many, we promise!)

There is a saying that’s practically synonymous with New York: “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Well, the 2026 cohort took that as a job description and claimed every table, wall, and spare hour of the night to get it done.

These artists certainly “made it.” There’s something absolutely magical about bringing artists to New York and watching them create things here.

Highlights from the week: A day trip with to visit one of the only parchment producers in the country. A Broadway musical and a play at Lincoln Center. Lots of studio time with spools of wire and a drill with Camille Charbonneau. Emily Susan Pack leading us in Mormon folk song karaoke. Watching Laura Hatch and Meg Sarah Dodini collaborate in real time. Stumbling upon a chelsea gallery that we are pretty sure holds the tree of life. Tyler Gathro hunting down archival images in the New York Public Library that can only be seen in person.

Not pictured: A group kintsugi class, staying up until 12am talking, plenty of bagels and pizza, ballet classes, and hours spent in the Moma gift shop.

08/31/2026

Students: TODAY is the last day to apply to the Center's Marketing & Communications Internship for fall!

We're always eager to hear from Latter-day Saint Artists. Submit your work to be featured, contact us with questions, or reach out about what you're working on.

08/27/2026

We recently reached out to our Residency alumni from past years. Just to catch up, to hear any updates on their life and their artistic pursuits. What we heard about what truly impressive-- new exhibitions, international awards, publishing credits, and forays into new ideas. Whatever life had brought them, almost all artists specifically cited the Residency as a major turning point for them and their work. Why? Because they felt like somebody believed in them and what they were doing.

A donation to the Residency is an investment in an LDS artist's creative work for years to come. The amazing part is, it doesn't take much to make a big difference. Lots of items on the Artists Residency Registry are under $100. Take a look and help make their week a real creative catalyst for them. 🫶

View items under $100: https://www.centerforlatterdaysaintarts.org/residency-registry-2026/under-100

08/21/2026

Send this on to a student you know and love:

The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts is looking for a creative, self-motivated intern to join our team for the fall semester period. This is a hands-on opportunity to work at the intersection of faith, art, and storytelling — supporting a variety of tasks for many of the Center's communication channels.

As the intern, you'll work directly with our Director of Marketing & Communications (plus get exposure to our Director of Special Projects and Executive Director), take on a special project of your choosing, and walk away with real portfolio work and a network spanning curatorial studies, brand strategy, journalism, fine arts, and more.

Details:
📍 Remote (NYC/SLC preferred)
💰 $400/month stipend
🕒 10 hrs/week
📅 September 8 – December 22, 2026
📩 Apply by August 31

This semester's program is an especially great fit for students interested in digital marketing, PR, graphic design, or arts nonprofit work.

Individuals from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Full job description and application details:

We're always eager to hear from Latter-day Saint Artists. Submit your work to be featured, contact us with questions, or reach out about what you're working on.

08/10/2026

Some of you have been with us since the very first Residency cohort in 2023. You've watched these artists come and go, and you know how much this week in New York actually does for them.

Daniel Martinez came to us from Uruguay and spent his week painting plein air watercolors of the city. Near the end of the week, he told us: "This experience changes peoples lives."

We didn't know yet just how true that would be. Six months later, Daniel has helped launch Uruguay's first International Watercolor Festival. He also joined with nine other artists to start a new foundation back home — Fundación 1 de junio — with a gathering space for artists called Casa de las Artes. He said he never imagined doing these things, and his time at the Residency is what motivated him to start.

One week with us. A festival and a foundation halfway across the world. This is exactly why the Center invests in LDS artists.

This September, six more LDS artists will have their own week in New York — and like every year, it only happens because of you. We just opened this year's Residency Registry, and it's built so that anyone can be part of it, in whatever way fits: a $34 Metrocard, a $50 bagel breakfast, an hour of studio time for $62.

If you've sponsored before, thank you — you're part of Daniel's story too, even if you didn't know it yet. And if you've been meaning to give more involved, this is a good place to start.

Explore the Residency Registry: https://www.centerforlatterdaysaintarts.org/residency-registry-2026

08/03/2026

When Glen Nelson asked Lance Larsen whether he enjoys hosting public readings of his writing, Lance admitted that his ideal isn't simply standing behind a podium. "I'd like more conversation," he said.

That's exactly what Office Hours are for.

Spend 45 minutes with former Utah Poet Laureate Lance Larsen discussing poetry, memoir, creative nonfiction, short fiction, or the writing process itself. A Pushcart Prize winner, National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and BYU professor, Lance combines remarkable literary accomplishment with warmth, humor, and genuine curiosity about other writers' work.

Check out available appointments: https://www.centerforlatterdaysaintarts.org/office-hours

07/21/2026

Just a reminder that you can catch up on eight years of the Center's Studio Podcast with this special 4-part series that Glen Nelson curated for the Podcast's 100th episode:

1. Why We Make Art 💡 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-centers-studio-podcasts-100th-episode-an/id1362096956?i=1000773412647

2. Moments of Faith 🌱
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-centers-studio-podcasts-100th-episode-an/id1362096956?i=1000773406961

3. Unexpected Insights 👀
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-centers-studio-podcasts-100th-episode-an/id1362096956?i=1000773400545

4. Emotional Moments 🫶🏻
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-centers-studio-podcasts-100th-episode-an/id1362096956?i=1000773394478

Podcast Episode · The Center's Studio Podcast · June 19 · 1h

07/09/2026

Hamilton capitalizes on every quirky aspect of Latter-day Saint perception and behavior, leveraging his broad smile and uncannily optimistic features — traits explicitly pressed into many missionaries — into a funhouse mirror caricature.

He captures the self-ignorance and carefree cringe of an Idahoan dad and the sort of accidental teetotaler-ism that can only be obtained by someone raised in the bubble of a culture whose maxims are given by osmosis more than consciously adopted.

While this portrait seems to an LDS audience indelibly connected to Latter-day Saints, Hamilton expertly scrubs all signs of the church and religion from it, in a manner so sweeping and thorough it seems hardly noticeable. Hamilton understands, in ways that most Wasatch Front artists fail to grasp, the caustic, polarizing effect of active church membership in the coastal world. Without Mormonism, Ryan is a delightful, bumbling weirdo, a hilarious self-caricature of a man with a tight sense for observation and a delightful drama in his storytelling. With Mormonism, the narrative would transform.

From "That Smiley Fella, Hit By A Bus" by Ted Bushman. Read the full article online.