SALT LAKE CITY, UT.- Ready, set, REACT! The Utah Museum of Fine Arts presents Re-Act, an exciting and unpredictable exhibition involving five creative community groups from Salt Lake City. On view from February 3 to May 17, 2009, the collaborative exhibition combines environmentally themed pieces from the UMFA’s permanent collection with student artists’ reactions to that work.

Students of all ages from Salt Lake Arts Academy, Salt Lake Art Center, Bad Dog Rediscovers America, East High School and Youth City ventured to the UMFA last fall to study and respond to five objects from the Museum’s collection. UMFA curators of education initiated the reaction process by supplying each student group with one concept each: inspiration, imitation, elaboration, translation, or opposition. Each organization was given an art material assignment of canvas, photomontage, shadowboxes, found object sculptures, or printmaking.

“The work submitted by the students is a wonderful combination of material and ideas that are related to the UMFA pieces but ultimately original,” explains Megan Hallet, curator of education at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. “Re-Act is rich in content, presenting to the audience multiple versions of artistic themes and material use, along with student comments, visual and verbal, about what the process meant to them.”

A reception and Third Saturday art activity will be held in conjunction with the exhibition on March 21, 2009 from 1:30 – 4 pm in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts Classroom. Free and open to the public, visitors will get the chance to react to Ken Little’s found object sculpture, Wrinkle, by transforming a papier mache deer sculpture into their own personal masterpiece.