A unique traveling
exhibit about Utah women has made its first stop at the George S. and Dolores
Doré Eccles Art Gallery on Salt Lake Community College’s South City Campus
inside of the Center for Arts & Media.
The Utah Women
Making History exhibit includes Utah artist Brooke Smart’s illustrations of
Utah women (and a few men) who worked throughout the 20th century to advocate
for women and advance their communities. These 50 illustrations were
commissioned by Better Days 2020, a nonprofit dedicated to popularizing
Utah women’s history and spearheading Utah’s statewide celebrations of these
significant anniversaries.
The free exhibit
started Aug. 19 and runs through Sept. 27, M-F, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., located at
1575 South State Street in Salt Lake City.
The year 2020 will
mark three significant women’s rights anniversaries. Utahns will commemorate
the 150th anniversary of Utah women’s first votes, when 25 women cast ballots
in the Salt Lake City election on February 14, 1870 and became the first
American women to vote under an equal suffrage law. The 100th anniversary of
the 19th Amendment, that extended voting rights to women in the United States
when it was ratified on August 26, 1920, and the 55th anniversary of the Voting
Rights Act, that provided needed protections for minority voting rights on
August 6, 1965 will also happen in 2020.