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The staff of The Season invites you, as you plan for Christmas giving, to feature LDS artists prominently on your shopping lists. This guide is a great starting point of exploration.
We think you’ll be surprised and happy with what you are about to discover. While we are familiar with the works, we haven’t read every page of the books, listened to every piece of music, nor taken every virtual class. That is, we will stop short of an endorsement, but we invite you, as you plan for Christmas giving, to feature LDS artists prominently on your shopping lists.
Regarding proceeds, we have no skin in the game. Our goal is to advocate for LDS creative artists and showcase their work. We receive no remuneration for your purchases, but there is one, beautiful exception: the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts and Brian Kershisnik Limited Edition Holiday Print. All proceeds will benefit the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts and our many projects, including The Season.
Enough reading. Get shopping.
Children’s Books
Music
Virtual Classes
Food
Fiction & Non-Fiction
Holiday Benefit Print
Food Culture
Welcoming Wayfare
Annie Poon
Holiday Premieres
Christmas Music
Kiersten White’s Latest
The Gift of Self: 10 Artists who take Portrait Commissions
Jenny Oaks Baker
It’s Never too Late
Dylan Findley
It's hard to describe how in awe I am with The Season and all the work that the Center for Latter-day Saints Arts is doing. For much of my post-BYU artistic career, I felt distant from the community of shared faith that inspired so much of my earlier music composition work. Yearning for a sense of connection, I traveled to New York for the 2019 Festival where I met several people who have become enduring friends.Into the pandemic, The Center has continued to welcome, encourage, and inspire me and other artists seeking to belong.
The Season is something new and ambitious, and it carries that same spirit of connection and community, might I say gathering, at the heart of the organization. My friend and fellow composer Joseph Sowa recently surprised me with some questions that led him to write his article in The Season about my new piece Ánimo (that premiered tonight in Minnesota!). It is humbling to have my music promoted so publicly in The Season's November edition alongside luminaries like Chris Bacon, Michael Hicks, and Rat Fink. Thanks to The Season and the Center for Latter-day Saints Arts for creating a hub for artists and audiences, for unveiling the multiplicity and diversity of creative activities among us.
Dylan Findley, composer
Wooster, Ohio
Daniel Bradshaw
As a concert organizer and composer, I have often realized only during the performance that I'm experiencing a truly remarkable event. And shortly following that realization is the regret that I haven't invited more people, that some of my friends had no idea this was even happening. And by then it's just too late! The moment is gone.
I appreciate The Season's attempt at avoiding this regret, getting the word out about new extraordinary live events. I also appreciate seeing my event in the context of all the other amazing things going on...it reminds me I'm part of a rich and diverse world of artistic/theatre/musical productions.
Daniel Bradshaw, composer
Laie, Hawaii
Insta-Artist
I’m grateful to The Season because I’m very happy to have people who share the same faith. And I’m deeply grateful to The Season for the chance to meet people who love the gospel and who love art.
Shohei Takahashi, artist
Kumamoto, Japan
Ed “Big Daddy” Roth
Thank you for the terrific write-up on our exhibition Rat Fink Revolution: Started With A T-Shirt, Now We're Here. Ed "Big Daddy" Roth is the "King of the T-shirt," and widely acknowledged as the pioneer who began designing and selling graphic T-shirts in the late 1950s. Featuring his rebellious Rat Fink, Roth birthed a character outside the mainstream who represented the rest of us, a champion for the outcasts. Roth's influence employing graphics as an integral part of our identity can be seen everywhere today, from T-shirts to hats, skateboards to posters, or any time we slap a sticker on a water bottle or laptop.
As part of our research we took a group of 12 staff and students from CU Denver to Manti's annual Rat Fink Reunion hosted by Ilene "Trixie" Roth, Ed's widow. In interviewing friends, family, and fans, constant threads emerged of Ed's love for people and life. "Big Daddy" was a caricature, symbolized by Roth's whimsical winged top hat and vibrant purple topcoat. And even though Ed Roth was larger than life, he did not put on pretentions; he was genuine and gregarious, and never shied from sharing his faith with people he met. It's his faith that inspired everything he did and how he made his way through the world.
In our exhibition we've tackled notions of "high” and “low” art, displaying Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Takashi Murakami with Ed Roth and Mad Magazine, punctuated by skateboards, sculptures, album covers, T-shirts, and Hot Wheels. Roth's influence in popular culture can't be overstated, even though many of us don't realize the revolution he helped kick off. The Emmanuel is the oldest religious structure in Denver, and the first building in Colorado on the National Historic Register. Seeing Rat Fink adorn the walls of this former Episcopalian Chapel converted to a Jewish Synagogue and now a contemporary art gallery, reverberates Roth's sincerity, creativity, and place in elevating our aspirations through artistic creation.
Jeff Lambson, Director and Curator
University of Colorado Denver.
Jenny Oaks Baker
Jenny Oaks Baker is a violinist who has released 18 studio albums, received a Grammy nomination, and has topped the Billboard charts. Her latest venture is the creation of a production company to manage concerts of her own design, and the first of these is Joy to the World! A Sacred Christmas Celebration, which is touring throughout the month of December in Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama.
Glen Nelson
Glen Nelson’s work as an art collector formed the basis of the book, The Glen & Marcia Nelson Collection of Mormon Art. The collection of over 150 works by LDS artists–including paintings, drawings, photography, ceramics, sculpture, textiles, etchings, and artist’s books created from the 1860s to the present–was gathered over a period of 25 years. It was acquired by the Church History Museum for its permanent collection in 2016.
James Ransom
James Ransom is an award-winning commercial photographer with over ten years of experience shooting stills and motion for brands spanning the food, still life, and interiors industries. He lives in New York City with his wife and four children.
Megan Eckersley
Megan Eckersley is a graphic designer based out of New York City and has worked with clients like Squarespace. She is currently at Square as a Brand Designer.
The Season Gift Guide Artists:
The Aquabats!, Jenny Oaks Baker, Phyllis Barber, Tara Bench, Kurt Bestor, Don Bluth, Bookroo, Merrilee Boyack, David Butler, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Steven R. Covey, Si Foster, Emily Belle Freeman, James Goldberg, Cynthia Covey Haller, Dustin Hansen, Emily Inouye Huey, Imagine Dragons, Tarsha Joyner, Brian Kershisnik, The Killers, Kleio, Lindsey Leavitt, Low, Shea McGee, Syd McGee, Ty Mecham, Emily Harris Mecham, Millennial Choirs and Orchestras, The National Parks, Jason Olson, Panic! At The Disco, Steven L. Peck, Anne Perry, Douglas Pew, The Piano Guy, Micah Player, Art Pollard, Annie Poon, Salt Lake Choral Artists, Sentient Academy, Joseph Sowa, Lindsey Stirling, Mark Weinberg, Kiersten White, and Michael D. Young.
