The Center for Documentary Expression and Art (CDEA) is dedicated to using the tools of documentary work—oral history, photography, film making, narrative writing, visual art, and music– to help Utahns look inward to better understand our state’s past and present and to gaze outward to discover our multi-faceted connection to the nation and the world. CDEA creates and supports projects that examine and honor the cultural, spiritual, and ethnic identities of our nation’s diverse population in forums wherein we can acknowledge differences, establish common ground, and hence, build community.
Programming Vision
Deeply shaped by the explosion of interest in America’s multicultural history and life that followed the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the Center for Documentary Expression and Art (CDEA) is an independent, non-profit organization that creates, supports, and promotes documentary expression, documentary art, and documentary studies through a Major Exhibits Program (MEP) that builds exhibits with significant national and international human rights themes and a K-12 traveling exhibits program called Exhibits That Teach (ETT). CDEA major exhibits are designed to travel nationally and internationally. ETT exhibits generally travel through the state of Utah and the intermountain region.