For immediate release                   

July 1, 2016                                          

Utah Division of Arts & Museums Demonstrates Commitment to 

Museum Services through New Staff Appointments

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Division of Arts & Museums is pleased to announce that Jennifer Ortiz has been promoted to Manager of Museum Services and Sabrina Sanders has been hired as the Chase Home Museum Administrator. These new appointments will deepen the division’s commitment to museums and enhance the progress that has been made in our services to Utah’s museum community.

Since joining the staff at Utah Arts & Museums in 2014, Jennifer has been proactive in serving Utah’s 250+ museums. She has initiated professional development workshops, developed an environmental monitoring kit for museums, and offered onsite preservation assessment assistance. This fall, the division will launch the Collections Technical Assistance Program that will provide one-on-one training in collections care, from object handling to inventory and preservation planning. Participating museums will work directly with Jennifer to conduct a preservation assessment and work on-site to determine priority projects that they can address together over the course of a year. Jennifer holds an MA in History and Museum Studies from Tufts University. Prior to working with us, she was Collections Manager for the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in addition to roles at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Boston Museum of Science, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Museum of the African Diaspora.

The past two years, Sabrina Sanders has been working part-time for the division in our visual arts program assisting with the state art collections and other visual arts projects. She also worked for the Utah Division of State History, assisting with their collection. Sabrina is currently working toward an MA in Museum Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

“Jennifer has proven herself to be an asset to the museums community in Utah. We’re also thrilled to bring on Sabrina in this new role to further support museums,” Utah Arts & Museums Director Gay Cookson said. “These new positions elevate our agency's ongoing commitment to serve museums through funding, professional development, and technical assistance.”

For more information about services for museums through the Utah Division of Arts & Museums, visit museums.utah.gov