Tending and Mending Our Creative Community: SISTER Collective

As we all take part in navigating uncertain and disorienting realities within the developing political landscape in Salt Lake City and beyond, many art and community groups are treading shaky ground as they press forward. It is during times like these that inclusive organizations, such as the SISTER Collective, become even more crucial in offering a reprieve to our vulnerable communities.

“SISTER exists to increase the visibility of women, femmes, queer, nonbinary and GNC [gender non-conforming] artists in Utah. We curate brave spaces that celebrate, uplift and care for the communities we highlight,” says Maru Quevedo. “It serves as a platform for distributing resources and raising awareness about issues relevant to these communities.”

SISTER has been working hard for our underrepresented communities in Utah since 2022, when they launched their first event to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, filling Medium Studio in Sugar House from wall to wall. “Salt Lake City has historically been dominated by cis white male representation — both in terms of featured artists and those organizing in these spaces. As the city grows, we believe it’s essential to create spaces for diverse identities [and] gender orientations, and to bring intersectionality to the forefront,” Quevedo says.

“SISTER exists to increase the visibility of women, femmes, queer, nonbinary and GNC [gender non-conforming] artists in Utah.”

Since then, SISTER has held eight more group exhibits for a multitude of wide-ranging artists and produced two zines along with screen-printed posters. “A key part of SISTER’s mission is to be a platform for distributing resources and raising awareness about issues impacting the identities and communities we highlight. With this goal in mind, we create posters and flyers that are distributed for free at marches, events and local businesses,” Quevedo says.

In conjunction with creating space and providing blank canvases — both figuratively and literally — to creatives, SISTER believes accessible education is equally as important. Working together with local artists to build a team of teachers and volunteers, SISTER most recently created mural projects that allows interested artists to learn the craft and work in a collective format. “Muralism and street art are often intimidating and challenging to enter without mentors or a supportive group of people doing it with you,” Quevedo says. “Each mural is made possible by the collaborative work of numerous artists who show up and contribute at the wall.”

“We curate brave spaces that celebrate, uplift and care for the communities we highlight.”

In 2024, SISTER produced two murals with the mission to offer interested community members the opportunity to learn how to become muralists themselves. “I’m a community-taught artist here in Salt Lake City so I was able to pass knowledge on how to hold a brush and apply paint, transfer your image using a paper pattern and [use] color theory,” says artist Gothsloth. “It has been important to me to be able to extend this knowledge and contribute to community teaching.”

The “TEND/MEND” murals on 900 South in the Maven District, led by Gothsloth and Nicky Dolan, are striking and delicate depictions of two bodies platonically and intimately coexisting, demonstrating a genuine and empowered connection between the two subjects. The second mural, designed by Shaan Powell, touts colorful, geometric and abstract bodies. “The inspiration came from this feeling of togetherness, vulnerability and growth,” Powell says. “Also, my background of being Native American and Black influenced the visuals.”

“Each mural is made possible by the collaborative work of numerous artists who show up and contribute at the wall.”

Looking forward to this year’s Pride events, SISTER plans on continuing on with their prints collection and education initiatives. “For Pride, we’ll be opening our studio to women, femmes, queer, nonbinary and GNC artists who want to help us screen print and/or learn the craft,” Quevedo says. “We’re also accepting submissions of new work with themes that we’ve explored in previous galleries or projects, such as bodily autonomy, trans rights and gender expression, intersectionality, accessibility and inclusion.”

To learn more and support SISTER, you can keep in touch with them through Instagram at @sister.slc.

Read more about the local art scene here:
NCECA 2025: Salt Lake City Welcomes Nation’s Largest Ceramics Conference
The Enigmatic Artist is Resurrected in The Form of Elmer Presslee