“Where Art and Community Meet”: The Curatorial Ethos of Michelle Pace

“Art is a very vulnerable gift,” says Michelle Pace, artist and curator of the Urban Arts Gallery’s 2025 exhibition Shades of Expression. “Art comes with judgement and opinion: positive, negative, whatever.”

For Pace, an artist, curator and mother of three, the emphasis is on the “gift” element. “Artists get fed on knowing why someone liked their piece. [Art] is my mission. [Art] is how I do humanitarianism.”

Working in mediums as diverse as dance and murals, Pace sees art as a means of expression and uplifting. Her artistic history begins when an elementary school teacher entered Pace’s work in a local competition. The piece won third place, and soon she was taking Mrs. Wanzer’s art class alongside fifth graders instead of her second-grade peers.

Pace kept creating but soon became busy. “I was a teen mom, and no regrets there, but I wanted to focus on my kids and their passions.” Still, art didn’t leave Pace’s household. “I was the hangout house, so I’d have all the neighborhood kids. Where most parents were arguing with their kids, we’d be having a jam session.”

“Art is a very vulnerable gift.”

After her youngest graduated, she turned to art full time, first focusing on flea markets and galleries in her then-home of Maryland and then expanding to a national focus, including galleries in Park City.

“You ever go to a show where it’s all specifically one thing and it’s kind of boring?” asks Pace, her eyebrow raised. “I would get bored in art shows and some of the museums on the East Coast. I was like, ‘If I ever do this, I want it to be a variety.’”

Pace first worked with other local artists at flea markets, organizing their art and holding shows in her house. In 2022, she moved to Utah and opened her own art space, AUM Gallery (an acronym for “All Uniquely Made”).

At AUM, Pace continued to uplift other artists alongside herself. The gallery’s mission statement was “Where arts and community meet.” “Walking down Main Street in Park City and looking through gallery windows, you see a lot of beautiful, talented artists. But some places I don’t want to go in because they’re so sterile — you can’t enjoy the artwork. I want people coming in and asking questions. I want all walks of life.”

To foster this, Pace made her gallery a community space, hosting dance troupes and church groups and business owners. She never charged artists to display work and created a program for young artists to invest artwork commission back into their careers. Pace closed the gallery in October of 2024 so she could use the storefront money to continue investing in art, but she maintained her ethos of variety and community.

“I want people coming in and asking questions. I want all walks of life.”

“When Urban Arts approached me last year, I was like, ‘Are we just limited to painting and drawing?’” Pace recounts, “They said, ‘usually,’ and I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna stir it up a bit.’” 

In the showing last year, Pace included over 20 woodcarvers, photographers, jewelers and sculptors and pencillers.
“We had an African singer come in and a dance group. I ended up performing the tango with them,” she laughs. “That was not part of the plan, but I did it.”

The success of last year’s exhibition meant Urban Arts invited Pace back to curate, and many of the artists she has cultivated relationships with will be returning alongside new artists. Pace is hopeful some work from the West Side Pacific Islander Student Association she works with will be present. Exhibitions like these are important, says Pace. “Diverse space is hard here in Utah. There’s lots of red tape and hoops to jump through. My reach goes far because I’m the person that sits back in the corner [and] is like, ‘I don’t need you to know who I am. I just need you to know that I know you.’”

Check out Shades of Expression at the Urban Arts Gallery February 4-March 2 and follow Pace on Instagram at @aumgallery2023.

Read more interviews with local artists:
Bridget Hanson is Achieving the Things She Wants to Achieve
The White Buffalo Called Her to Clay: Pahponee’s Ceramics and Bronze Art