Gretchen Dietrich

Marcia and John Price establish endowed directorship for the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

Gretchen Dietrich wears many hats in her role as the Marcia and John Price Executive Director at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts: educator, art historian, curator, fundraiser, administrator, and more. But if you ask her what her primary–and most cherished–role is, she’s likely to say that of a builder.

For nearly 15 years, Gretchen has been at the helm of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA), growing a team that collects, exhibits, interprets, and cares for more than 21,000 objects representing global cultures from the ancient to the contemporary.

“Our mission at UMFA is to not only show a great art exhibition–it’s to build a collection for our community now and for the future,” she said. “Philosophically, building collections and thinking about how the UMFA acquires art is very important and has everything to do with not just what our community looks and feels like now but what it will look and feel like in the future.”

Under Gretchen’s leadership, the museum has flourished, with increased attendance, audience engagement and community outreach, higher revenues and new institutional support, and an elevated national profile. Her partner on this journey since day one has been Marcia Price, UMFA’s most ardent supporter and board chair since 2003.

Marcia, a University of Utah alum, discovered her passion for the arts after taking an introductory course from Utah artist Doug Snow as an undergraduate student. That formative experience ignited within Marcia a lifetime of service and advocacy for the arts across Utah and throughout the nation, which culminated in her receiving the Governor’s Mansion Artist Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. She and her husband, Ambassador John Price, are longstanding donors to the UMFA and were instrumental in the construction of the award-winning Marcia and John Price Museum Building in 2001.

“Marcia is totally committed to art, and she has worked incredibly hard over the years to build the UMFA into the university’s art museum–truly the state’s art museum,” Gretchen said.

Marcia believes museums are the repository of our dreams, beliefs, and aspirations made visible as paintings, drawings, and sculptures. They tell our human story. 

Gretchen describes her partnership with Marcia as an “unusual” one. On average, art museum directors stay with an institution for less than seven years, and board chairs typically serve a term of two to five years. But Gretchen is not about to fix what’s not broken and believes that Marcia is a key factor in the UMFA’s continued growth and visibility. She credits Marcia with setting a strong example for other board members, encouraging them to serve as “cheerleaders” in the community and use their influence to garner financial and volunteer support for the museum and its programs.

“Marcia possesses this quiet sort of power and has an amazing way of keeping everyone happy and focused in the same direction,” Gretchen laughed. “She has helped us to build a board of wonderful people who just ‘get it’ and who want us to become the museum that we want and need to become.”

Photo Courtesy of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

Last year, Marcia and John cemented their legacy at UMFA by contributing a monumental $5 million gift to endow the Marcia and John Price Executive Director at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. This endowment will–in perpetuity–support the salary, benefits, professional development, travel, and other needs of the museum’s executive director. This gift is in addition to the significant annual contribution that the Prices designate to the UMFA’s operational budget.

“The Price’s endowment is a foundational gift for the UMFA,” Gretchen said. “We know that the museum is going to have this expense forever, and when I move on, the endowed directorship will signal to future candidates that the university and broader community care deeply about this museum and this position.”

According to Ambassador John Price, the endowed directorship elevates the commitment to and care for the museum—both locally and beyond.

“Marcia and I believe the importance of the endowment is to continue to attract the finest director to lead the UMFA and continue its value and importance in the state of Utah and nationally,” he said.  

For Gretchen, the Price’s investment is also an acknowledgment of her strong stewardship of their support and their belief in where she’s leading the UMFA in the future.

“This gift is deeply personal and meaningful to me because Marcia and John know their money has been used wisely, and they feel good about the direction we’re moving this institution,” Gretchen said. “It makes me feel like they’re proud of what the museum has achieved under my leadership these last 15 years.”

A consummate patron of the arts, Marcia values the tremendous work Gretchen has done over the years.

“The ongoing success of the UMFA is important to John and me,” Marcia said. “We are proud of the UMFA under Gretchen’s leadership, and we appreciate her dedication and unwavering support of the museum. I have loved partnering with her.”

Today, Gretchen and her team are busy planning the next chapter in the UMFA’s history–one that will be defined by the quality of its collection, the value of its programming, the capacity of its facility, and its status within the arts and culture sector of Utah and beyond. She credits the Prices for their wisdom and foresight in helping make this vision a possibility.

“The Prices are a great example of philanthropists who trust and support the expertise of people who are in leadership positions,” Gretchen said. “Their gift, like all endowment gifts, creates the bedrock for what we’re able to build today, as well as what we’re able to dream for the future.”