Utah Museum of Contemporary Art launches ‘Cantastoria’ exhibit of story and history in art

Art in the public square is not a modern concept. It’s been around for centuries, of course, long before it was called "public art." But art as an instrument of communicating story and heritage is something of a bygone era. If it weren’t, the word "cantastoria," to sing history or story, might be more common a word.

"Cantastoria," the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art’s new exhibit of works transmitting unique aspects and themes of nations and cultures, attempts to recapture the old ways art kept societies vital in visual language.

"This theme envelops the basic desire for kinship between peoples and the methods by which we hold on to our histories," said Aaron Moulton, senior curator of exhibitions at UMOCA. "The exhibition analyzes the  museum’s primary function as a storyteller of culture while the artworks poetically decode our diaristic instincts and weaknesses." Salt Lake Tribune