Glen Nelson on documenting the world of LDS art in The Season

Glen Nelson, co-founder of the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, was kind enough to answer some questions from me, about The Season, an effort by the Center to discover everything that’s going on in the world of Mormon arts, including literature.

For those who have not yet encountered it: what is The Season and why did the Center decide to take on this project?

The Season is a monthly online publication that simply documents what’s going on right now, in all of the creative arts disciplines, by LDS artists anywhere in the world. It sounds too crazy to actually be accomplished, but that’s what makes it intriguing. Its impossibility underscores the Center’s premise that the world of LDS arts is bigger (and more wonderful) than anybody can imagine. The Season is a one year project. It was the brainchild of our new executive director, Mykal Urbina. We were also curious about documenting this unique moment. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but these are tumultuous times.

What have you learned so far from the process of putting together the monthly issues of The Season? 

The project is in two parts. One is a monthly magazine of articles, interviews, spotlights, lists, features, reviews, and essays. The other is called, The Listings, and it is a calendar of events: museum and gallery openings, book releases, film and TV premieres, concerts and performances, and so on. I’m the editor of the magazine, and we have a great editorial board that pitches and creates content, too. It’s fallen to me to try to wrangle the calendar, and it’s been quite exhilarating. Being a good New Yorker, I’ll default to our street lingo, and all I can say is, “Who knew?” Every time I come across a name that’s new to me I berate myself, “How is it possible I didn’t know them before?” The only thing that keeps my self-esteem from absolutely plummeting is the suspicion I hold that nobody else knows all this, either.

What have been some of the surprising and interesting artists, works, events, etc. that you found out about because of The Season? 

I love this question, and I could go on and on and on with answers to it. We’ve listed thousands of events, and I’d say that about half are surprises. Generally speaking, the biggest surprises to me have been those outside the United States. A few examples: sculptor Ricardo Rendón in Mexico is absolutely on a tear—I can hardly keep up with his concerts, exhibitions, and publications; encountering the films of Aaron Toronto and Nha Uyen in Vietnam was like being hit by a thunderbolt, and their latest film just won the equivalent of the Oscar for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actress; another huge one was the impact of LDS composers on the gaming industry—their works are the biggest titles in the world; there is quite a lot happening in Africa now, which has so much potential for LDS art culture. Those are just a tiny sample of surprises. A last thought, even though it’s too general to really get anybody’s heart rate up when I say it, is the acknowledgment that there are hundreds and hundreds of new books and new podcasts by LDS people out there. It is an avalanche of content—think of how many hours and how many products those two categories represent, alone—that can connect to everyone on any spectrum of identity within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As you think about all of the events you’ve gathered for the calendar listings The Season publishes, what would you like to see more of? What more could we be doing to gather as supporters of LDS art and artists?

I guess you could say I’m a maximalist. I want more of everything, but the main thing for me is that I’d love to know about things before they happen so I can more successfully share and promote things. I can’t tell you how many times I see some social media post for a concert/opening/premiere/publication release that is happening “tonight.” That’s nice, but wouldn’t it be a bit better to share information with enough time to get people to actually see it? It’s not solely a problem of artists. Presenters of art are often just as short-sighted. Fiction and non-fiction is a bit better in this regard because their publication dates are announced in advance, but not always. It’s tough to find out when our poets have works published in journals, for example. That’s not what you mean by your question. I’m just sharing some frustration. How to gather more support? The first step is knowing who the players are. Databases are boring, but they can’t be beat for research if they’re kept up to date and are as thorough as they can be. For example, there are a lot of books self-published by LDS authors. It’s good that they’re getting out there, but how can the authors better inform the public that they exist? A lot more can be done by non-profit organizations and academic institutions to gather and share information. I believe that LDS readers want to discover new voices. I wish there were ten times, a hundred times more reviews and published discussions of new book titles.

How can us literary types from the AML help with The Season? 

You have already helped so much already. For example, we were able to take two AML articles—a roundup of LDS podcasts (by Liz Busby 3/24/22) and a list of forthcoming scholarly publications (by Andrew Hamilton 2/3/23)—and research each title listed, enlarge understanding about it including links, dates, descriptions, images and then create listings for each of them individually. Of course, what happens when you start doing that kind of research is you find even more related titles and creators. I invite everyone to simply send me an email when you become aware of something going on. I get these all the time. One of the best scouts I have is Gabriel González. He’ll say, “I found this new author. It looks cool.” And then I get busy learning as much as I can about (glen@centerforlatterdaysaintarts.org). I love AML. Back in my student days when I only had enough budget for two subscriptions, I chose The New Yorker and Irreantum. I can imagine that AML readers, subscribers, and supporters know so much between them. I wonder how all of that knowledge can be harnessed in a way to make all books by LDS authors known. Is there some way to make an open-sourced “books in print” document, for example? Something grand but easy to set up? My experience with The Season has reiterated to me that there are almost innumerable artists who are LDS out there doing good work. I like the usual suspects as much as the next person, but there is so much more out there to be discovered and championed.

What other exciting projects does the Center currently have going on (or in the works) that you’d like to tell us about?

We are very excited about the benefit concert in New York March 18 by Brandon Flowers and some guests. It is so generous of him to do this for the Center. That’s going to be an incredible evening at Symphony Space. At the end of March, we are going to announce something very large, very exciting, (very expensive,) and very transformational for LDS artists. It’s a project that the Center has been dreaming about since it was founded eight years ago. I would get shivved if I revealed it to you now, but trust me, you’ll want to be on our free subscription list to hear about it the second it’s announced, and to read our monthly publication, The Season.

(Note: you can find the form to subscribe at the bottom of every page on the Center’s website).