It's an art show... but tiny! How a college assignment turned into a real, whimsical art gallery

PROVO — It's a tiny world tucked into downtown Provo. People are mesmerized by what's known as "The Tiny Art Show." McKay Lenker Bayer studied art in college. In her Art and Business class, the professor gave students an assignment to go display their art somewhere. "I had been making these tiny paintings on canvases and so I was like, 'what if I just hung them low down and got a magnifying glass?'" Lenker Bayer said. "It was so much fun. I did get an A on the assignment." A couple years later, Lenker Bayer decided to start her tiny art display as a project. "It's just a miniature gallery," she said. "We operate exactly like a normal gallery. We have new shows every month or every two months that's always original artwork by different artists." Lenker Bayer said she creates the gallery interiors based off of the vibes of the artist and their work. Right now, the gallery is displaying work from an artist who lives and works in Spain. "This show is special because it's our second international artist ... She shipped her art here in like, a big wooden crate." Lenker Bayer said. "That's one of my favorite parts is getting to work with all these really cool artists that I love." She said that it feels really validating that other people love this project that she created. "For me, it's joy. So it was a fun, joyful little thing to see," a Tiny Art Show attendee said. Lenker Bayer goes hard into the tiny details, baking tiny cookies, creating miniature booklets and even a little newspaper. "My theory is that it connects to childhood and wonder and like, letting yourself play and believe in these little worlds," she said. "It's almost as if this is made for somebody else that's tiny, and we just happen to have been walking by and get to like, partake." Lenker Bayer said it's about creativity for the sake of it. Not to make money or to be rich and famous, but just to do something whimsical and artsy. "It is, like, a confusing thing to just be doing something that's so detailed and time intensive and, like, kind of weird and, like, doesn't have any purpose besides that," she said. "It's cute and whimsical and, like, artsy, I guess."

Find the Tiny Art Show on Instagram, @tinyartshow.