When Catherine Arveseth accepted the call to be an activities co-chair for her stake in Holladay, Utah, one of the directives she received was to “give the people what they need.”
Unsure what that was, she emailed a survey to the stake members with a list of potential activities to vote for. An idea that generated significant interest was a gallery night showcasing local artists from the surrounding neighborhoods. So, after getting approval on the idea, she and her co-chair, Jeremy Peterson, called together a fantastic committee of artistically minded people and set to work.
What transpired was an event unprecedented in the stake.
A Community Experience
Catherine feels strongly about making activities larger than the insular Church community.
“We have a duty to do that, I think,” she says. Catherine’s stake president had even told her that he wanted to start using the stake facilities and resources to bless the community at large, not just Church members.
“As adults, we’re not very different from teens in our need for connection,” she says. “We need to do more things without a singular [missionary] agenda. We need to love and include all our neighbors, with no ulterior motive. All kinds of good things come from simply building connections.”
Catherine wanted to infuse the community with something tangible that would pull people away from their screens and gather them in conversation about something uplifting.
So, months in advance, Catherine and the committee named the show Art Elevates and began advertising. They left flyers on the doorsteps of every home in the stake, put a banner outside the stake center, hung posters in ward buildings, and ran a promotional article in the local newspaper.
And it paid off.
Over 1,000 people came over the two days the show ran in late January, including approximately 30 residents from a nearby retirement center, some of whom had their own pieces on display.
The committee soon realized that people were coming from surrounding cities far outside the stake boundaries to see the art.
“I just love that we were able to open our doors wide to anyone and everyone who wanted to come. I think there’s so much power in that,” Catherine says.
During one of the nights, she stood back and watched the hum of the show. Musicians played background music, friends chatted at the beautiful refreshment table, and individuals gathered or stood alone admiring the art. Children and adults of all ages filled the room.
“I felt so much joy,” Catherine says, “We were approaching God in several different ways—through creativity and art and music and loving each other.”
She also wants to acknowledge the hours of creative energy her committee poured into the project. Their devotion to the show significantly contributed to its success.
As they left the gallery, each visitor was asked to fill out a feedback form about their experience. Some of the responses read as follows:
“My inactive daughter and husband came and loved it!”
“I loved seeing art by people I didn’t know were artists.”
“I was brought to tears … inspirational!”
“My favorite part of the event was that it was welcoming and inclusive.”
A Gallery of Miracles
The event was a success, but that wasn’t always a guarantee. The committee had a goal of featuring 150 pieces in the show, but a few weeks after the first flyers were delivered, only 30 pieces had been submitted.
“The whole thing, in retrospect, was a miracle,” Catherine says. “I started to worry that we weren’t going to make it. But by the end, we ended up with 188 submissions.”
A few hours before the show started, the committee ran into another problem—they couldn’t figure out how to arrange the gallery.
“It wasn’t looking right,” Catherine says. “I was trying to group some of the art by color or theme. And the more we put up, the more they just weren’t flowing. … It felt like trying to put a puzzle together where there was no pattern to follow.”
She said a quick prayer, asking God to help them fix the layout and make the gallery aesthetically pleasing.
“And then suddenly, things just started clicking,” Catherine says. “We would find some pieces that would pair together and be more synergistic in color or theme. … It was better than I could have imagined. It felt like a miracle.”
In the end, Catherine recognized that God’s hand had been over the whole show:
“It was a blessed event that would not have gone well had we not had His help.”
See photos from the show below:
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