MUSE Fall 2020

MUSE magazine is our storytelling look at Utah’s creative communities, a chance to remind ourselves why culture matters. MUSE is published in the spring and autumn, and distributed through the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News.

MUSE Magazine: The Creative Pivot Issue

Artists create, pandemic or racial protests, or not.

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And in the summer of 2020, months before Utah’s theaters and galleries and concert halls were allowed to reopen, the arts sector found itself reinventing itself — a reinvention that also sparked hard conversations about racial equity and accountability in the arts.

In August 2020, artists and activists joined a public panel for an honest and direct conversation sponsored by the Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement. Even the questions spotlighted the problems, said the panel of actors and writers and teachers. “Stop asking what you can do to be antiracist,” said singer and actor Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin. “Go do the work.” “We are not a trend,” said actor Latoya Cameron.

A transcript of that conversation became the centerpiece of MUSE, the department’s look inside the state’s creative communities, with original illustrations by art director Sarina V. Ehrgott. The design and creative storytelling of The Creative Pivot Issue, released in October 2020, is a testament to new connections — particularly in the middle of a sweeping reinvention.

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THE GOAL:

Elevate and illuminate stories of Utah’s arts and cultural communities during a shutdown.

DISTRIBUTION:

Distributed through the Deseret News and The Salt Lake Tribune newspapers. Additionally, mailed to department boards and grantees and distributed through destination marketing centers.

How MUSE created an amazing experience for our constituents:

These stories weren’t being told as completely in mainstream media. But even more significantly, this issue of MUSE helped amplify discussions of racial equity in our state’s arts community, bridging the gap between private and public conversations.

How muse met our organization's objectives:

Two years ago, the state’s arts administrators asked the Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement to help tell their stories at a time when arts coverage was diminished from the state’s daily newspapers. MUSE magazine is one of the ways we are filling that request.