SALT LAKE CITY — A collaborative project led by American Literature Teachers Linda Simpson at Judge Memorial Catholic High School and Father John Norman of Juan Diego Catholic High School has led to an art exhibit and landscape survey, "Sensing Our History: Landscape and Literature in the Salt Lake City Cemetery," which opened Jan. 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the City and County Building in Salt Lake City. Working with funding from the Salt Lake City Corporation, the Utah Humanities Council, and Deseret Management Corp., the high school classes of writers, illustrators, photographers and young people from Salt Lake’s Youth City Program, studied the Salt Lake City Cemetery. They coupled photographs and pencil illustrations with poetry and narratives to describe the history revealed on the tombstones, even dramatizing the lives lived in the dashes between the births and deaths of some of the people buried there. "This unique community learning and planning process was created to marry historic planning documentation within classic American literature," said Robin Carbaugh, assistant project director of the Historical American Landscape Survey (HALS) of the Salt Lake City Cemetery. "The community artistic outreach effort is one element needed for the HALS to be completed. The HALS makes it possible for the Salt Lake City Cemetery to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places and gain National historic status." "The exhibit will be on display here from Jan 29 through Feb. 10," said Fr. Norman at the Jan. 30 exhibit opening and open house. "Then, the exhibit will be put on display at Juan Diego Catholic High School and Judge Memorial Catholic High School. Then, it will be placed in the Library of Congress." Rick Graham, director of the Department of Public Services for Salt Lake City, said the work of the students will help the Salt Lake City Cemetery update its master plan and study its infrastructure and its land care. "Bringing in the high school students with their comprehensive study of the history and environment, and their artistic expressions and feelings provide us with valuable perspectives, he said. "The National Library of Congress will help us and others understand what cemeteries are and their significance to the community." The first burial in the Salt Lake City Cemetery took place in 1847, Graham said. "There is a personal history in every grave; a personal story in every person buried there." Simpson pointed out photographs taken by students with home-made pinhole cameras. Michael Berry, a junior at Judge Memorial showed black and white photographs he contributed to the exhibit, dramatic photos of rows of tombstones on which decades of Utah history are captured. "I was very excited to be invited to participate in the project," Berry said. "I’m an editor of the Bulldog, and a photographer for our yearbook. I came to the cemetery three times with our class, then three times by myself, twice in the fall and once in the winter, and it was interesting to see the changes that took place as the seasons changed. I was amazed by the size of the cemetery and the number of people who have been buried here. It is truly a beautiful place." Katie Horrocks, a junior at Juan Diego Catholic High School, shot photos using color and a digital camera. One of her photos, a touching landscape of graves seen between closely planted trees, was used as the invitation photo for the exhibit. "My first impression of the cemetery was amazement at the natural beauty of the place," she said. "I came here three times with the class, then twice by myself. The photo they used for the invitation, I took from a hilltop, looking through the opening between the trees. It wasn’t until after I’d shot the photo that I realized it offers a beautiful view of the town from the hilltop." Horrocks has a total of 17 photos in the exhibit. "I was thrilled this evening to see the photos coupled with the poetry. I think it goes very well. The poetry really captures the smells and the sights," she said, referring to a poem by Judge Memorial student Maria Jose Rivera that was teamed with her invitation photo.
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