LeConte Stewart Gallery

LeCONTE STEWART ART GALLERY

“A painting is just a painting unless you capture the spirit of what’s being painted – and then its real art,” said Kaysville artist LeConte Stewart when he was asked about his lifetime dedication to art. Stewart was one of Utah’s premier artists. He was primarily known for his landscapes of rural Utah – especially scenes in Davis and Morgan counties.
From an early age, he wanted to be an artist so he studied art at the University of Utah. At the age of twenty-two, LeConte moved to New York where he studied under three of America’s greatest landscape artists. He returned to Utah in 1914 where he was hired as a teacher at the Kaysville Elementary School. His 1914 move to Kaysville started a seventy-six year residency in that city. He was an art teacher in Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties. [After retiring in 1956 from the art department at the University of Utah, he was a common figure on the rural back roads of Kaysville, painting the scenes he loved.
As his national popularity grew, it became more and more difficult for local citizens to appreciate his artistic talents.  Consequently, in 1969, five ladies – Clover Sanders, Kay Blood, Emily Barnes, Dorothy Swan and Dottie Barnes – spearheaded a drive to establish a Kaysville art gallery. The Kaysville Community Art League, a non-profit 501c3 corporation, was formed to work on establishing an art gallery. Gerald Purdy was selected president, Thora Hough was chosen as secretary and the nonprofit’s board of directors included Henry Heath, Clover Sanders, Kathryn Welling, Dr. Robert Bitner and Stephen Whitesides. Between October 1969 and December of 1970, the non-profit sold gallery memberships, held fund raising events and applied for county, state and federal financial grants.
Kaysville city officials granted the Art League a long-term lease on Kaysville’s old firehouse at 14 East Center Street. Charlie Dredge and Glen Cundall were mayors during the fund raising campaign; and Kaysville contractor, Robert Iverson, was hired to remodel the firehouse building. Over 250 individuals donated their time and labor to complete the remodeling project. The LeConte Stewart Art Gallery was officially dedicated and opened to the general public on April 10, 1971. The gallery was open from 3-5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and 7-9 p.m. on Saturday and was staffed by community volunteers. Also, with time, the gallery became a community center. It was a source of community pride over fifteen years. However, in 1986, Kaysville City officials decided to build a new City Hall and the art gallery was torn down to make room for that building.
During construction of the new Kaysville City Hall, the LeConte paintings were transferred to the old City Hall/Kaysville City Library Building. The Kaysville Community Art League helped to make the artwork transfer and , with their help, a new gallery space was added to the library building south wing – occupying the space that was formerly used as Kaysville City offices. Several fine art specialists from Salt Lake City were drawn into the new gallery project. The new space was officially dedicated as the Kaysville Gallery of Art on April 13, 1988 by Kaysville mayor Gerald Purdy. LeConte was ninety-one years old at the time of this gallery opening.
The gallery was open to the public during regular library hours. Over the years, the Kaysville Art Club and other civic organizations sponsored local art exhibits, public art lectures, high school and grade school art competitions and community art appreciation events. The gallery was closed when the Kaysville City Library became part of the Davis County library system and a new, expanded library was built in 2015. The future of the LeConte Stewart art works owned by Kaysville City is now unknown. (Excerpt from a document created by Bill Sanders of the Layton Heritage Museum. Sources included in original document by Bill Sanders.)