BYU MOA displays ‘Work in Progress,’ helmed by ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ artist – Daily Herald

Jann Haworth first expected Work in Progress, a traveling exhibit currently at Brigham Young Universitys Museum of Art, to be a celebration of a woman in the White House and in turn, a changed paradigm for many women in the workplace.

The exhibit, a stencil collage of influential women throughout history, grows with each place it visits. Haworth and her daughter, fellow artist Liberty Blake, host stencil workshops at each location, where participants stencil their female heroes. Those stencils are added to successive panels, and the collage grows, theoretically in perpetuity.

Yes, the exhibit is still a celebration. But the presidential election didnt quite go as Haworth planned.

And it suddenly became a kind of, I dont know, a barricade, Haworth said of the growing collage.

Haworth, who splits her time between Sundance and Salt Lake City, is most known for the iconic cover art of The Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, on which she was a principal collaborator. She also helmed the SLC Pepper mural in Salt Lake City. The Work in Progress mural was first shown in Salt Lake City, and its had quite the life so far. Smaller copies are currently displayed in Vienna and Paris. Its been to Washington, D.C. twice once for the Womens March, another for a recent congressional commission about a possible womens history museum at the Smithsonian. Its also been to the TEDWomen 2016 conference in San Francisco, and will possibly be heading to London this summer.

Im completely shocked, Haworth said. Its been so active so quickly.

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Blake, who specializes in collage work and arranges most of the submitted stencils, said its been hard to keep up with the pieces unexpected success. Between balancing her full-time job at Salt Lake Citys Leonardo Museum, her own personal art, her motherhood and her hobbies and the increasing attention the Work in Progress exhibit requires Blake said she cant really revel in its increasing notoriety.

What sustains her interest, she said, are the accompanying workshops. Participants come to the workshops with varying levels of expertise. Some consider themselves artists, others are noticeably uncomfortable with that label. Excusing a few ground rules, participants are free to stencil whichever notable woman they want to honor. Blake and Haworth find workable high-resolution images to stencil, and the groups get to work under their direction.

The ones that I am amazed by, and just awed by, are usually ones that are done by people who would not consider themselves artists, Blake said.

Her absolute favorite stencil was contributed by such a woman. Blake speaks in almost reverent tones when discussing it. She could hardly believe someone so untrained could have made something so striking.

And I dont know whether she realizes how amazing it is, either, Blake said. Was she really impressed and pleased, or did she think, Oh, thats doesnt look as realistic as I would have liked it to?

These workshops also create some social and artistic phenomena. Haworth mentioned the TEDWomen conference in particular.

And these crazy TED women, everything turned out red. I mean, they did all these stencils of wild colors, Haworth recalled. And its totally a different mood, that panel, than the first seven. So its really quite interesting how people watch what other people do and modify it, change it, build on it. And a group working on something together, its like a sewing circle they transfer information visually, not verbally, and they also build on what theyve seen before. So as it proceeded, people got more and more sophisticated, the way they cut the stencil, even though their skillset was no different than the people that had gone before.

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Janalee Emmer, head of education at BYUs Museum of Art, helped coordinate the exhibits visit to BYU.

Im really fascinated to see the life that it continues to have after its here, as more venues make more panels, Emmer said. I mean, it really is such a dynamic idea. And I think the contagion for working on it is just kind of infectious. You kind of become an artist for a moment, and also a spokesperson for this woman that youre cutting out.

So, what is the exhibits future? According to Haworth, Work in Progress is only limited by its possible funding.

We dont see an end point, really, because its called Work in Progress deliberately, she said.

If the exhibit continues growing, Haworth said the panels could become a vast cyclorama. She envisions the panels becoming walls in the cyclorama, with layers of different-sized circles, and hallways displaying different womens films/animations/paintings/etc.

If Work in Progress ever reaches that pinnacle, it would probably be outside of Utah. Haworth said shed like to the piece stay in Utah, even though the exhibits initial criteria/rules embargoed portrayals of Utah women.

And the generalized womens story is very different from the Utah womens story, Haworth explained, adding that shed love for future murals to be state-specific. And wouldnt it be wonderful to have this kind of oracle in every state? I mean, I cant imagine itll happen. But I didnt think the mural would happen either.

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BYU MOA displays 'Work in Progress,' helmed by 'Sgt. Pepper's' artist - Daily Herald