Springville is appropriately known as the "Art City" and has a rich tradition of fostering the development of culture for its citizens in many forms. The Springville Arts Commission is a key player in accomplishing this purpose, by providing grants to various art organizations in their efforts to educate and involve the community in the arts.

When most people hear the word 'conservation' they think of cleaning up the environment. Within the art world, the concept of 'conservation' is applied specifically to works of art.

A grant from the Springville Arts Commission this year helped to fund the cleaning and framing of several very important works of art at the museum. They included Utah art and Russian art, which will be highlighted in an exhibit and symposium later this year. Some of the Russian works included Leonid G. Filatov's "Musical Interlude," Gavril N. Gorelov's "St. Basil's, Red Square;" Nikolai F. Novikov's "In the New House," and Arkadi A. Plastov's "Portrait of Villager, Mikhailo Gulyaev."

In the fall the museum will host a special symposium entitled "Soviet Art in Conflict' which will feature speakers and artists exploring the artistic climate of the Soviet Era.

Most people who visit the Springville Museum of Art are not aware of what is involved in maintaining an art collection of its magnitude. The Springville museum is known as the 'foremost collector of Utah Art,' with an impressive collection of Utah Art spanning the last 150 years, and including over 1,400 pieces.

The museum also has the largest collection of Soviet Realism art on public display in the Intermountain West.

Of the 2,000 artworks in the museum's permanent collection, many are not currently suitable for exhibition, and are in need of conservation work before they can be displayed. At the Springville museum, conservation is essentially divided into two main categories: cleaning and framing.

Many of the paintings that are kept in the museum's archives are older works that need to be specially cared for in order to be put on display. Typically, restoring a painting involves a cleaning process to remove built-up dirt and environmental agents that dull the paintings original coloring. This delicate process requires a highly trained professional and special chemicals in order to clean away grime without damaging the painting itself.

Heather Densley, an American Fork resident, is a conservator hired by the Springville museum regularly to clean and restore paintings.

A frame can also add immensely to a work of art, serving an important aesthetic purpose as well as offering security and protection. Framing is a vital but costly expense that helps extend the life of a painting.

As you can imagine, custom frames of a large size and high quality require the expertise of knowledgeable professionals, as well as adequate funds. The Springville museum supports Kreiger-Ricks, a local framing company, which does outstanding work.

Because the Springville Museum of Art is a non-profit organization, it must rely heavily on donations and grants from outside sources before these conservation efforts can be realized. A hearty thanks to the Springville Arts Commission for helping the museum accomplish its mission as expressed by founders John Hafen and Cyrus Dalli -- of refining minds and building character through fine art.

Nearly 90,000 visitors from the local community and afar enjoy the museum every year for exhibitions, Community & Family Night, receptions, concerts and much more. Museum Director Vern G. Swanson has literally put Springville on the map within the art world with the quality of these collections.