Mobile Art

The Nevada Arts Council’s Traveling Exhibition Program brings visual arts to every corner of the Silver State.

By CHARLIE JOHNSTON | January/February 2013

Alana Berglund brings to mind the precision of a heart surgeon as she meticulously levels a framed print on the lobby wall of The Art Institute of Las Vegas in October 2012. Her attention to detail doesn’t waiver once during the six-hour install, and her passion for sharing the work of Nevada’s artists is palpable. Berglund is the Nevada Touring Initiative’s (NTI) exhibit installer. Her job is to travel between the Silver State’s cities and towns to install and share visual arts exhibits as part of the initiative’s Traveling Exhibition Program (TEP).

The Nevada Arts Council (NAC) unveiled the TEP in 2004, largely in response to requests from rural communities for quality visual arts exhibits. Since, the program has brought 17 different visual arts exhibits—including paintings, ceramics, photography, and folk and traditional art forms—to 24 Nevada towns and cities, reaching more than 350,000 viewers according to the Arts Council.

The exhibits have animated communities as small as Austin and the agricultural burg of Smith Valley, traveled the Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 50 corridors, and engaged new audiences in Pahrump and suburban Las Vegas. Fernley is a good example of the kind of excitement that led to the creation of the program. In 2002, the Fernley Arts Commission offered to cover costs if the city council would provide space for an NTI exhibit. The council went a step farther, building a new gallery space in a new addition to the City of Fernley office.

The TEP is operated by the agency’s Artist Services Program, a function of the NAC that focuses on the needs of individual artists through grant funding, professional development opportunities, technical assistance, and other means of general support. The exhibits, expertly organized by professional curators, are huge hits. The eight-week, $150 rentals of TEP exhibits include delivery, installation (by Berglund, most likely), de-installation, and professionally designed gallery notes and publicity materials. Arts Council-sponsored artist talks and workshops to correspond with the exhibits are also available.

Berglund joined Ashlea Clark—one of the artists whose work is featured in the traveling exhibit Geographical Divides: Finding Common Ground—in the fall for a TEP workshop at Lovelock’s Pershing County Museum. The pair demonstrated basic printmaking techniques, screen printing, and relief printing similar to those used by the artists featured in the exhibit and allowed attendees to try the techniques for themselves.

Following are three NTI traveling exhibits currently available for rent or already making their rounds at libraries, museums, and other institutions around the state. To inquire about hosting a TEP exhibit, visit nac.nevadaculture.org.

STOP THE CAR, DAD!
Curated by Miriam Stanton and organized by Nevada Museum of Art, Reno. On loan from Special Collections & Archives, University of California, Santa Cruz. Photos by Erik Lauritzen.

While traveling the often-deserted roads of Nevada, photographer Erik Lauritzen (1953–2007) was captivated by the evidence of human presence affecting the Western landscape. From abandoned military installations to roadside vernacular architecture, the sites Lauritzen photographed reveal a certain irony often underlying everyday encounters in the Nevada desert.

The series Stop the Car, Dad! takes its name from the moment of curiosity that often accompanies the discovery of a roadside attraction. Whether bizarre, beautiful, or disturbing, these unexpected sites are strangely alluring. Lauritzen’s images, in particular, record places where development has given way to dilapidation. Now abandoned, these way stations are evidence of the “boom and bust” lifestyle accompanying the mining industry of Nevada. Solitary signs and deserted buildings emerge as intriguing records of history.

Lauritzen’s own history was artistic from the beginning. Raised by a painter and a ceramicist, he lived among artists his entire childhood. Lauritzen went on to receive his B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, and later earned his M.F.A. from California State University, Northridge. A respected member of the regional arts community, Lauritzen founded the photography department at Truckee Meadows Community College, where he also served as founding director and curator of the Red Mountain Gallery.

While maintaining a full teaching load, curating a gallery, and conducting workshops throughout Nevada and the region, Lauritzen continued to challenge himself as an artist. Highly regarded as a representational and landscape photographer, he was also considered an abstract artist working with photography. His work has been in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions in 17 states and is represented in a number of public, corporate, and private collections across the nation. A workshop assistant for Ansel Adams, Al Weber, Morley Baer, Oliver Gagliani, and Pirkle Jones, Lauritzen also printed “Portfolio One” for Ruth Bernhard.

Lauritzen passed away on August 9, 2007. His works and ephemera are housed at the Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Santa Cruz. Besides his works at UCSC there are works in many private, corporate, and public collections throughout the United States and abroad, including at the Kresge Art Museum in Lansing, Michigan, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

STOP THE CAR (at the offices of Nevada Magazine), DAD!

Paul Laxalt Building will be a temporary stop on TEP tour.

While researching and writing this story, the idea for Nevada Magazine to host one of the Nevada Arts Council’s Traveling Exhibits featured herein hit me like a lightning bolt. Our offices occupy the first floor of one of Carson City’s most recognizable and visually appealing structures, the 1891 brick Paul Laxalt Building. We share it with the Nevada Commission on Tourism, and our doors are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Stop The Car, Dad! will be here January 7 through March 1. Consider this your invitation to stop in, ask for Associate Editor Charlie Johnston, and see for yourself what makes the Traveling Exhibit Program so unique and valuable.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Paul Laxalt Building
(the offices of Nevada Magazine)
401 North Carson St., Carson City, NV 89701
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Exhibit on first floor.
775-687-0601

GEOGRAPHICAL DIVIDES: FINDING COMMON GROUND!
Curated by Anne M. Hoff, College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas and Candace Nicol, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno Gallery. Notes written by Fred Sigman, Art Historian, Las Vegas.

Geographical Divides: Finding Common Ground examines Nevada’s unique visual culture. It is a state labeled with cultural myths like “Area 51,” “The Biggest Little City in the World,” and “Sin City” and one that commands the imagination of Postmodernism from the architecture of Las Vegas to the proliferation of Burning Man, an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert. It is comprised of two major metropolitan communities—in the north and south—divided by more than 400 miles of vast desert.

Nevada’s art communities are not separated by distance of travel alone. There are notable differences among artists throughout the state in what is important in their work, most of which connects with where they live. This traversal of Nevada has also led to the realization of how little dialogue there is between artists of the two dominant communities—Las Vegas and Reno—not to mention the artists living in remote territories of the Nevada outback who are sometimes overlooked.

Nevada artists live on different sides of a geographical divide, however those lines are drawn. Calling upon the printmaker’s sense of community, the 16 artists featured in Geographical Divides were invited to join in a series of collaborations that would explore these geographical and cultural differences in Nevada, if such differences truly exist.

The assembly of printmakers—eight from the north, eight from the south—produced two prints from each collaboration. Each artist produced an initial plate that was sent to their collaborating partner for further surface and conceptual additions, and then returned for completion. Visually exploring connections and disconnections between Northern Nevada and Southern Nevada cultural attitudes, aesthetics, and geographical distinctions—these 16 artists communicated and visually responded to each other’s unique economic, environmental, political, and social settings—further dissecting this notion of a splitting geography and/or communion of Nevada’s polarities.

Collaborating artists include: Maria Arango, Las Vegas/Lynn Schmidt, Reno; Erik Beehn, Las Vegas/Nolan Preece, Reno; Bobbie Ann Howell, Las Vegas/Galen Brown, Carson City; Daryl DePry, Las Vegas/Sharon Tetly, Carson City; Keith Conley, Las Vegas/Sidne Teske, Tuscarora; Anne M. Hoff, Las Vegas/Vicki LoSasso, Reno; Jeanne Voltura, Las Vegas/Candace Nicol, Reno; and Juan D. Varela, Las Vegas/Ashlea Clark, Reno.

WILD HORSES: A PORTRAIT OF THE MUSTANG IN THE GREAT BASIN!
Curated by Paula Morin for the Nevada Arts Council.

Wild horses conjure up images of mythical proportions. Not only are they a reminder of our country’s emergence as a nation, their role in the evolution and history of the American West and their impact on Native American culture is profound. As a cultural icon enshrined in our collective imagination, the mustang remains as mysterious and enduring as the bald eagle, the grizzly bear, and the wolf.

More than 50 percent of America’s wild horses live in Nevada’s Great Basin—a vast, high desert etched by hundreds of mountain ranges stretching from Utah’s Wasatch Range to California’s Sierra Nevada. Sometimes called the “Big Empty,” the Great Basin is a stark and fragile region rich in minerals, plants, and animals.

However, unlike livestock, which are harvested, or wildlife, which are hunted, there are no natural predators to control wild horse populations. Overgrazing and lack of water can make large herds of horses a threat to this fragile environment—a danger to themselves, as well as to the wildlife and livestock that share the open range with them. Although wild horses are protected by federal law, the problem of how to humanely care for and manage excess numbers of these animals remains unresolved and often misunderstood by the public.

Honest Horses presents a view that demonstrates the significance of the wild horse in the American West. The photographs and narratives were made from 1999 to 2001, during which time Paula Morin photographed herds in their natural surroundings and recorded discussions with people whose lives are intimately connected with them. Each black and white photograph was developed, printed, and colored by hand with oil-based paints. After the initial two-year tour of Honest Horses, Morin created 21 giclèe prints of the original photographs and donated them to NAC’s permanent collection.

These impressions are complemented by excerpts of Morin’s conversations from the field and are accompanied by traditional poems about the wild horse compiled by Idaho folklorist Andrea Graham. A synergy of image and word portrays the intricate relationship of wild horses to the culture and landscape of the Great Basin.

TRAVELING EXHIBIT PROGRAM SCHEDULE

THROUGH JANUARY 23
Honest Horses: A Portrait of the Mustang in the Great Basin
Beatty Museum and Historical Society
beattymuseum.org
775-553-2303

JANUARY 7-MARCH 1
Stop The Car, Dad!
Paul Laxalt Building
(the offices of Nevada Magazine)
401 North Carson St., Carson City, NV 89701
775-687-0601

JANUARY 14-MARCH 8
Geographical Divides: Finding Common Ground
Humboldt County Library
85 E. 5th St., Winnemucca, NV 89445
775-623-6388

MARCH 18-MAY 10
Geographical Divides
Northeastern Nevada Museum
1515 Idaho St., Elko, NV 89801
museumelko.org
775-738-3418

MAY 30-SEPTEMBER 8
Geographical Divides
New City Hall Gallery
495 S. Main St., Las Vegas, NV 89101
lasvegasnevada.org
702-229-6011

New Nevada Traveling Exhibits

Three new TEP exhibits, available this spring, promise Nevada-centric art.

Words + Images: Broadsides from the Black Rock Press


With about 30 illustrated and non-illustrated letterpress broadsides, Words + Images features poetry and prose by noted writers including Allen Ginsberg, Hayden Carruth, Gretel Ehrlich, Robert Pinsky, and Billy Collins. Curated by Bob Blesse, director of Black Rock Press, the exhibit’s Gallery Notes include an essay about the history of letterpress printing and the Black Rock Press, several simple educational projects to create letterpress and illustrations, and images from the exhibit.

Wally’s World: The Loneliest Art Collection in Nevada

Consisting of about 40 works from the art collection of Wally Cuchine, Wally’s World contains numerous paintings, etchings, and drawings of Nevada’s historic places and spaces. As the former director of the Eureka Opera House for nearly two decades, Cuchine was recognized for consistently presenting first-class entertainment to residents and visitors. He is also well known for his remarkable art collection of Nevada’s finest artists.

The exhibit is curated by former chairman and emeritus professor of art at the University of Nevada, Reno and distinguished visual artist Jim McComick. McComick has illustrated a number of books and co-authored Brushwork Diary, published by the University of Nevada Press, and An Elegant Line: The Art of the Sheppard Family, published by the Nevada Museum of Art. McCormick’sessays for the Gallery Notes are about Cuchine’s ongoing love affair with collecting that has informed—and, at times, defined—his life.

One Is Silver, the Other Is Gold: Celebrating 25 Years of the Nevada Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program


One Is Silver, the Other Is Gold: Celebrating 25 Years of the Nevada Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program is an intimate sample of Nevada’s traditional artists. The exhibit highlights contemporary folk artists trained in traditional art-making practices. Represented are ethnic, tribal, cultural, and occupational groups spread throughout Nevada’s communities. They are Native Americans and ranchers whose families settled this state during its first hundred years, as well as new immigrants who are helping to redefine Nevada in the 21st century.

Curated by Nevada Arts Council Folklife Program Coordinator Patricia Atkinson, the exhibit artists have all been Master Artists in the Apprenticeship Program. The program provides grants to traditional artists who are recognized as experts in their artistic traditions to work with dedicated student apprentices, so that traditional art forms can continue to thrive. Some of these artists also demonstrate and teach their work in classrooms and through public programs.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Nevada Touring Initiative Traveling Exhibit Program
Nevada Arts Council
716 N. Carson St., Carson City, NV 89701
nac.nevadaculture.org
775-687-6680

Office eXhibition Series

NAC opens its Carson City doors.

While the Nevada Arts Council’s Traveling Exhibition Program brings visual arts to its audience, the Office eXhibition Series brings an audience to the offices of the agency itself. Managed by the Artist Services Program—the same division of the NAC that oversees the Nevada Touring Initiative and Traveling Exhibition Program—OXS features artists who have been recipients of the agency’s Artist Fellowship Grants and is funded by the Nevada State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

OXS SERIES SCHEDULE

Through January 18
Radiant Trajectory
By Orlando Montenegro,
Las Vegas Mixed Media & Painting

January 28-March 22
Arboles de Cholula (Trees of Cholula)
By Peter Goin,
Reno Photography

April 1-May 24
Soft Switches
By Chris Bauder (example at right),
Las Vegas Sculpture

June 3-July 26
Valley of the Dry Bones
Matthew Couper,
Las Vegas Painting

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Office eXhibition Series
Nevada Arts Council
716 N. Carson St., Carson City, NV 89701
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
nac.nevadaculture.org
775-687-6680