Sears Museum Honors Founder’s Vision
June 16 to August 25 – A New Exhibition Opens to The Public, The Sears Legacy
The Sears Art Museum at Utah Tech University will feature a new special exhibition, The Sears Legacy. The exhibition will feature 70+ works of art drawn from the museum’s two foundational collections, The Bob and Peggy Sears Collection of Native American Art and the collection of past Invitational Purchase Prize winners.
“Bob and Peggy Sears’ passion for art helped build the museum that now bears their name,” said James Peck, Sears Art Museum Director and Curator. “In 1988, at Bob’s urging, Dixie State College (now Utah Tech University) hosted the first annual Invitational Art Show and Sale. Each year since, the Sears Museum has selected one work of art from the Invitational for its highest honor, the Purchase Prize.” Peck added, “By purchasing a work of art each year, the museum collected a rich cross-section of some of the finest art created in the region over the past four decades.”
The purchase prize winners have tended to be compelling, realistic portrayals of the land and people of Utah and the West. Some Purchase Prize winners of note include Al Rounds, Brigham Young Home (1990), Del Parson, Mary Magdalene at the Tomb (2000), Roland Lee, In from the Fields (2003), Julie Rogers, In the Potter’s Hands (2004), David Koch, Moon Over Mt. Carmel (2006), 2012 – Jeremy Winborg, Shoshone Dolls (2012), and Rick Kinateder, Winter on the Provo River Near Woodlands (2023).
Equally important was the Sears’ passion for Native American art. Over the decades, Bob and Peggy collected hundreds of works of Native art in Oklahoma and Santa Fe. When they retired to St. George, they decided to share their passion for Native art with Southern Utah. On Bob’s passing in 1997, the Sears family donated over 150 works by dozens of influential Native American artists to the college.
“Due to the Sears’ generosity, the museum has iconic examples by famous artists Fred Beaver, Harrison Begay, Lucy Lewis, Maria Martinez, Chief Terry Saul, Fritz Scholder, Margaret Tafoya, Pablita Velarde, and many more. This is a unique collection, the likes of which can’t be found anywhere else in Southern Utah,” said Peck.
The two collections complement and strengthen each other. The Purchase Prize-winning paintings are Western art, which offers an interesting counterweight to the Native American art. In this way, the Invitational prize winners and the Sears Native artworks create a balanced core that forms the identity of the Sears Art Museum.
The museum is open Monday through Friday, from 9 AM to 5 PM. Admission is always free. Visit www.searsart.com for more information about the Sears Art Museum at Utah Tech University.
