Public art is more than simply art in a public setting. It says something about a place and its people, bringing meaning to shared spaces.

At a time of intense discussion of the community values reflected in public art, we take up the question of who and what are represented in public art through the lives of three muralists whose work has transformed the visual arts landscape in Utah:

Minerva Teichert, a 20th-century painter with Mormon pioneer roots who was the first woman to paint a mural in a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints;

Ruby Chacon, a Chicana artist and teacher whose murals dot her native Salt Lake City and across the West; and

Jann Haworth, a pop artist and co-creator of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, who is working on a mural featuring Utah women that will be unveiled later this year.