2022 Annual Report
Free Student Admission Program Funded by Wayne L. Prim
For nearly a century, the Nevada Museum of Art has advanced arts education across the state. In 2022, this remarkable legacy will extend into the future thanks to the generosity and vision of Honorary Life Trustee Wayne L. Prim whose $2 million dollar gift endowed the newly established Wayne L. Prim Free Student Admission Program. In September, David Walker, CEO, was joined by Brian Sandoval, President, University of Nevada, Reno, and Karin Hilgersom, President, Truckee Meadows Community College in a dedication ceremony formally recognizing the new program. Through this endowment, students attending the University of Nevada, Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College will receive free admission in perpetuity. To commemorate this program, two sculptures, Guardian of Eden by Kate Raudenbush and Shadow of the Sun by Ivan Averbuch—both donated by the Grellman family—were placed on long-term loan on each campus. More than three hundred students participated in the program during its inaugural month.
Expansion Project Launches with Monument to Sharing
As the Museum embarked upon its multi-year, $60 million expansion project, the Fallen Fruit Collective (artists David Allen Burns and Austin Young) was commissioned to create a public work of art entitled Monument to Sharing. The artwork and renovation of the Sculpture Plaza are the first of a multi-phased Museum expansion scheduled for completion in early 2025. Monument to Sharing involved planting approximately twenty-one fruit-bearing trees, a berry patch and a series of edible pollinators that the public is welcome to harvest, inviting guests to explore ideas of generosity, agricultural production and the meaning of community.
Photo by Chris Holloman
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Recognizes Museum with Second Art Museum Futures Fund Grant
In 2022, the Museum was once again recognized by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for ongoing work supporting the diverse artistic legacies of our region. The Museum joined a select group of institutions in the U.S. as 2022 grant recipients. The Museum was the only organization to receive a combined $1.5 million award over the past two years for its ongoing work in support of underrepresented populations through engaging and innovative programming. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities.
A Musical Collaboration with the Reno Philharmonic
The collaborative project featured an exhibition accompanied by a new musical composition commissioned by the Reno Philharmonic in partnership with the Museum. Jimmy López Bellido, a world-renowned, Finnish-trained, Peruvian-American composer, was invited by Laura Jackson, Music Director of the Reno Philharmonic, to work with curators to select photographs from the Museum’s photography collection to inspire his new Symphony. No. 3: Altered Landscape. The joint project resulted in two symphony performances as well as joint interpretive and member programs.
The Art of Jean LaMarr
Great Basin artist and activist Jean LaMarr was featured with an exhibition and book recognizing her artwork committed to social justice and Native American women’s issues. Confronting cultural stereotypes while deconstructing traditional representations of Native women, The Art of Jean LaMarr paid vibrant homage to the living culture of Indigenous people. The exhibition featured over 100 pieces by the internationally recognized artist, educator and Native American advocate and poignantly articulated LaMarr’s “…rejection of the idea of the vanished American Indian,” through razor-sharp political commentary alongside soft and beautiful renderings of Native American culture. Programming included the debut of “They Danced, They Sang, Until the Matron Came,” a performance artwork directed by LaMarr. For 90 years, the Stuart Indian School operated in Carson City, Nevada, where the forceful assimilation of Indigenous children took place. Stacey Montooth, the Executive Director of the Nevada Indian Commission together with Dr. Debra Harry, Associate Professor in the Department of Gender, Race, and Identity, University of Nevada, Reno joined panelists Jean LaMarr and Thalia Dick to discuss the boarding school experience. This major retrospective gained national coverage in HYPEBEAST, Indian Country Today, Forbes, and The Art Newspaper, and also inspired a documentary film by Tsanavi Spoonhunter. In 2023, the exhibition will tour to the Boise Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe.
Janna Ireland on the Architectural Legacy of Paul Revere Williams in Nevada presented in Reno and Las Vegas
Contemporary artist Janna Ireland offered an intimate glimpse of Paul Revere Williams’s architectural designs in Nevada through the lens of her black and white photography. The first licensed African American architect to practice West of the Mississippi, Williams transformed the built environment of Nevada through residential homes, commercial structures and public works. The exhibition opened with an afternoon symposium featuring Ireland in conversation with Daonne Huff, Director of Public Programs and Community Engagement at The Studio Museum in Harlem; Brooke Hodge, independent curator and former Director of Architecture and Design at the Palm Springs Art Museum and Nevada historians Dr. Alicia Barber and Claytee White. The exhibition gained statewide support through partner organizations such as PBS Reno, Vegas PBS, Our Story, Inc., KME Architects, LGA Architects, and the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Las Vegas, Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, The Neon Museum and the Nevada Preservation Foundation. The exhibition also inspired the official proclamation of February 18 as Paul Revere Williams’ Day in Nevada, as well as coverage in The New York Times, Financial Times and Metropolis. The exhibition tours to AIA New York Center for Architecture in 2023.