(bright music) - Discover the connection between objects and memory at January's Shared Stories event, the Soul of Things, in partnership with the Utah Cultural Celebration Center.

Here to share more with me is Michael Christensen.

Hi Michael.

- Hi, Laura.

Thanks for being here and welcome to the studio.

This is a fun interview for me because you and I are actually co-event planners for this.

- Yep.

And so we get to talk about that together.

And this event, the Soul of Things, is inspired by a particular PBS program.

- Yeah, Antiques Roadshow, a show that everybody loves.

We're excited to screen it and talk about it and talk about the objects that we're going to be discussing.

It's gonna be great.

- Yeah, this is really fun because Antiques Roadshow came to Salt Lake City earlier this year in May.

So we get to show an episode or some clips from the Salt Lake visit.

And what is so fun about this is that everyone collects something, whether they realize it or not, or they're holding onto something.

And you decided as part of this, you wanted to put together a community exhibit.

- Yeah, so we've got an exhibit that we're putting together that'll go along with the screening.

And what we're hoping people realize is that, you know, whether or not they think about it, all of us are collectors of things.

We're displayers of things.

And they may not be these great objects of, of great value or historical significance, but they may have objects that they've held onto throughout their lives.

And the important thing is they've got meaning or value or some kind of story usually that's associated with them, that gives them great, that they've assigned great value or meaning to, and that's what we're really interested in with this exhibit and also with the discussion with our panelists that will be associated with the screening.

- Yeah, the panel's gonna be so fun because we have Ken Sanders, who is from Utah with Ken Sander's Rare Books.

He's also an appraiser for Antiques Roadshow.

He was there this year, so he'll be on stage with a collector, Mary Catherine Perry, she was there.

And then we have Tim Glenn from the Museum of Utah.

So it should be a really, really fun exhibit.

Thank you so much for being here to talk about it.

- Absolutely.

If you would like to hear more about this event from the Shared Story series, the Soul of Things and the accompanying exhibit, it'll be January 21st from 6 to 8:00 PM at the Utah Cultural Celebration Series Center.

You can learn more at PBS utah.org/events, PBS utah.org/events.

I'm Laura Durham and thank you for watching Contact.

(bright music) - Local events, arts, culture.

It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

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If you work for a nonprofit and would like to appear on our show, please visit pbsutah.org/contact.