A specialist in firearms preservation, Richard Moll, Chief Conservator at the Autry Museum of the American West, will discuss preservation for both museums and the private collector. Presentation will include an overview of the methods, materials, and ethical considerations when preserving historic objects.

Ashley Hlebinsky, Robert W. Woodruff Curator of the Cody Firearms Museum, discusses the evolution of collecting since the 16th century, and examines how private passion impacts public display. Hlebinsky explores how collectors have been perceived throughout the years, and how collectors have had a historic role in the establishment of museums and methods of firearm display over the centuries. 

The mythos of the Wild West has long inspired the nation.  During the 30s and 40s, America’s appetite for films about the West seemed insatiable.   In answer, the big studios created a steady stream of big budget Western films with established stars.  Meanwhile, on the back lots of mini studios like Republic and on ranches in the Simi Valley, a sub genre was putting out hundreds of smaller films a year. These were the B Westerns and they would launch the careers of cowboy stars like Hopalong Cassidy, Tim McCoy, Hoot Gibson and The Durango Kid himself, Charles Starrett. This genre of Western film, vastly popular in its time, is nearly forgotten now. Screenwriter, producer and film buff, Tim Kirk, will discuss the careers of Hollywood’s gunslingers and the changing attitudes towards the West.

The Art Bite lecture series is supported by Nevada Humanities with additional sponsorship and free admission for students supported by the Core Humanities Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. 

Michael Heizer is among the greatest, and often least accessible, American artists. As one of the last living figures who launched the Land Art movement, his legacy of works that are literally and metaphorically monumental has an incalculable influence on the world of sculpture and environmental art. But his seclusion in the remote Nevada desert, as well as his notorious obduracy, have resulted in significant gaps in our critical understanding. Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments spans the breadth of Heizer’s career, uniquely combining fieldwork, personal narrative, and biographical research to create the first major assessment in years of this titan of American art.

Join us as Fox discusses Heizer’s work with Alan Rapp, the Editorial Director at Monacelli Press in New York, publisher of Michael Heizer: The Once and Future Monuments. Rapp is an editor, writer, and visual book developer. He earned an MFA in Design Criticism at School of Visual Arts and formerly served as a senior editor at Chronicle Books.

*Doors open at 5:30 pm. Book signing to follow.

As part of the 2019 D.I.C.E. Conference, Rick Joy, Principal of Rick Joy Architects, offers the Keynote lecture. This Keynote is included with the DICE Conference ticket price, however, if you are interested in only attending the Keynote, this ticket offers that as an opportunity. 

Rick Joy Architects is a 32 person architecture and planning firm established in 1993 in Tucson, Arizona. From the beginning, each of RJA’s works has been exhibited and published extensively and have won numerous awards. Joy received the 2002 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture and in 2004 won the prestigious National Design Award from the Smithsonian Institute/Cooper-Hewitt Museum. He periodically serves as a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. 

RJA has realized architectural works throughout North America with extensive experience with lifestyle based projects from numerous single family residences to an ultra-lux resort and large scale master-plans.  The office has several active residential commissions in New York City, Long Island, Park City, Turks and Caicos.  RJA is currently completing the prestigious commission of the new Train Station and Campus Gateway Buildings to Princeton University, a mixxed use development building in Austin and an apartment building in Mexico City. 

Jack Malotte makes artworks that celebrate the landscapes of the Great Basin, with a unique focus on contemporary political issues faced by Native people seeking to protect and preserve access to their lands. Join us for informal conversation in the gallery before the exhibition The Art of Jack Malotte closes later this month. Coffee, book signing and short film will be offered in the adjacent Founders’ Room. 

NOTE: This is an informal opportunity to connect with the artist Jack Malotte. The book “Jack Malotte” is available for purchase in the Founders’ Room or in the Museum store.

Edi Rama: WORK, an exhibition of the artist and Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, includes a series of new drawings created on documents and notes Rama creates during meetings and phone calls, as well as ceramic sculptures and a floor-to-ceiling wallpaper that emulates the wallpaper in his office at the Ministry in Tirana. Edi Rama’s drawing practice has developed in close parallel with his career as a politician. Rama views his art as an essential element in a functional society. A clear example is his initiative to paint the facades of decaying communist bloc buildings after being elected Mayor of Tirana in 2000, an undertaking Rama has described as “a political action, with colors.” Join us for a gallery walk through with Julia Ballantyne-Way, Senior Director of Rama’s Berlin gallery carlier | gebauer.  

Edi Rama lives and works in Tirana. A former professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and author of several books, his works have been exhibited in numerous solo, two-person, or group exhibitions including at the Venice Biennale (2017); São Paulo Biennial (1994); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2004); the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010); the Musée D’art contemporain de Montréal (2011); Biennale of Marrakesh, Morocco (2015); The New Museum, New York (2016); and Kunsthalle Rostock (2019). Edi Rama began his political career in Albania as the Minister of Culture in 1998. He was the Mayor of Tirana from 2000-2011. Rama was elected Prime Minister of Albania in September 2013, following a landslide victory in the general elections, and his government has since embarked the path of reforms that aim to bring Albania closer to the European Union. He is currently serving his second term as Prime Minister.

This event is a FREE program, pre-registration required.

From the beginning, handheld guns have invited the development and application of a wide range of ornamental design and techniques. Far from conforming slavishly to the prevailing conventions in the decorative arts, guns played an important part in establishing original trends and styles, encouraging great artists to demonstrate their full measure.

Dr. Pierre Terjanian is the Arthur Ochs Curator in Charge Department of Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A native of Strasbourg, France, Terjanian obtained a master’s degree in law from Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas, a master of science degree in management from HEC Paris, and a doctoral degree in history from Université de Metz’s Faculté de Lettres et Sciences Humaines. Pierre Terjanian joined The Met in 2012. Previously, he held the dual role of J. J. Medveckis Associate Curator of Arms and Armor and acting head of the Department of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture before 1700 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

What makes a gun great? Dr. John Byck joins us from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to explore key aspects of fine historical firearm design. From ingenious mechanisms to beautiful decorations to perfect balance, this lecture will explore key aspects of fine historical firearm design from the sixteenth century through the modern period.

Dr. John Byck is the Assistant Curator in the Department of Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Byck holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. A specialist in ornament, he joined the Department of Arms and Armor at the Met in 2015 after serving as research assistant in the Department of Drawings and Prints. 

Reko Rennie is a contemporary Aboriginal artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Through his art, Rennie provokes discussion surrounding Indigenous culture and identity in contemporary urban environments. Rennie’s work references the ways in which Aboriginal people have had to hide, blend in, and conceal their identity. Join us for a lecture on Rennie’s current work and his first large-scale mural for an American Museum, commissioned by the Nevada Museum of Art.

This talk is sponsored by Porsche of Reno | Sandy Raffealli.