Office Hours
Where LDS artists can find personalized, one-on-one time with an expert to talk about their artistic work.
Book a 45-minute session to discuss anything about your work and career development with a mentor or expert. The Centers offers a limited number of appointments on the first of every month with the Center’s co-founder and special projects director, Glen Nelson.
Each new month will also introduce appointments with an additional expert from the Center’s board—bringing fresh perspectives, disciplines, and valuable experience into the conversation.
New appointments become available on the first of the month. We ask that artists only book a single appointment with one mentor per year so that we can allow many artists the same opportunity.
MENTORS
Glen Nelson
Appointments: Friday, May 15th
Discuss anything about your work and career development with the author, scholar, curator, librettist, art collector, and recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Mormon Letters.
Five sessions are available. English and limited Spanish.
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Glen Nelson is the author of: 34 books; 137 essays, articles, and interviews; 22 works of fiction, theater, and poetry; the librettist of 8 operas and 22 choral works, art songs, and hymns. He received the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Mormon Letters “as a facilitator of others’ work and as an author and artist himself.” As a ghostwriter, three of his books have become nonfiction New York Times bestsellers. He curated the museum exhibition, John Held, Jr. (Brigham Young University Museum of Art, 2024-25) and three gallery exhibitions, each with an accompanying exhibition catalog. His most recent book is John Held, Jr.’s Fiction (Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, 2022). His latest recording, with composer Ethan Wickman, is the oratorio, To a Village Called Emmaus (American Festival Orchestra and Chorus, 2023), and his most recent opera, with Grammy Award-winning composer Lansing McLoskey, is The Captivity of Hannah Duston (Guerilla Opera, 2025), recipient of a 2024 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition. He is a contributing author to Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader (Oxford University Press, 2024) and The Difficult Part, Brian Kershisnik: A Mid-career Retrospective (BYU MOA, 2024). He is the co-founder of the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts and is its Director of Special Projects. www.glen-nelson.com
Ben Taylor
Appointments: June 9, 1pm, 4pm, 4:45pm ET
Discuss composing, commissioning, and building a sustainable career as a working musician with Benjamin Dean Taylor, award-winning composer and founder of Music Creators Academy. Talk with him about making a living from your creative work, reaching new audiences, and finding motivation and inspiration in music and in life.
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Benjamin Dean Taylor is an award-winning composer of contemporary concert music. His energetic, adventurous music provides a uniquely refreshing sonic experience for performers and audiences alike. Trained as a trumpet player and pianist, he performs with and writes music for a variety of chamber ensembles, orchestras, jazz combos and big bands, wind bands, and choirs. Taylor is one of the few living composers today making his primary income from commissions and self-publishing his music.
In addition to these core activities, he enjoys a diversified career leading seminars for music educators, providing clinics for ensembles, performing with his Dixieland Jazz Band, and teaching private composition lessons. Passionate about inspiring the rising generation of composers, he is the Founder of Music Creators Academy and served as the Program Director for the Indiana University Jacobs Composition Academy from 2021-2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using the calendar on this page, find the available date or dates, scroll through available times, and simply select one. You’ll fill out a short form about yourself and your goals for the session. That’s it.
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Appointments for future Office Hours will be available on the first day of each month at noon, ET.
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Please only book a single appointment with one mentor per year so that we can allow many artists the same opportunity.
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In advance of your session, the expert will review your stated goals and take a look at your body of work (via your website or social media feed). During your time together, you’ll discuss whatever you want to explore. It can be anything you need it to be.
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The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts serves artists in our community. For now, let’s give artists who self-identify as LDS in some way the opportunity first.
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Making art can be isolating. All artists want to get better at what they do. We all need a little help. The Center has always worked with creative LDS artists of every kind, from all over the world, in order to provide support and guidance. Office Hours is simply a way for us to connect individually and specifically with you.
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Look for the “cancel appointment” button in your confirmation email.
WHAT ARTISTS ARE SAYING:
“Glen offered a wealth of practical insights, from grant opportunities to artistic resources... I left our conversation with renewed enthusiasm and the feeling that I have an experienced mentor and friend in my corner—someone genuinely rooting for my success and excited to see me create.”
“Office Hours with Glen parted the cloudy loneliness for me. I did not anticipate the uplift, encouragement and calibre of support that fortified me in a mere 45 minutes. He made me laugh, feel, take courage that my ideas were good and there were tangible action steps I could take to push forward my artistic dreams, ones I had not considered or thought of. ”