In 1901, Maynard Dixon and his artist-friend Edward Borein rode horseback from Oakland, California, into Carson City, Nevada, on the first leg of an epic thousand-mile-ride through the northern Great Basin. Along the way, both men sketched and studied cowboy life and the ranches they visited. Join Griff Durham as he traces their journey through northwestern Nevada, northeastern California, and Southern Oregon, with a special focus on their illustrations. Griff Durham is an historian who has been interested in cowboy horse gear and Great Basin ranching traditions for over 50 years and has guest curated and consulted on exhibitions at the Western Folklife Center in Elko, NV.

Sophia Borgias, Ph.D. and Kate Berry, Ph.D. discuss the politics of water as they relate to Charlotte Skinner’s time in Lone Pine, California during the Los Angeles Water Wars.

Sophia Borgias, Ph.D.,  Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Programs at Boise State University, is a human-environment geographer whose research and teaching focuses on water and environmental governance in the arid Americas. Her most recent research has focused on conflicts over rural-urban water transfers in the Great Basin region, as well as the “unlikely alliances” of environmentalists, ranchers, and Tribes that have formed to protect rural landscapes and livelihoods from their impacts. She is also engaged in ongoing collaborative research about Indigenous land and water rights in Payahuunadü, the Nüümü/Newe territory encompassing the Owens and Mono basins in eastern California. Her prior research focused on social mobilization in response to large dam and hydropower development in central and southern Chile. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography at the University of Arizona and holds a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Oregon.

Kate A. Berry, Ph.D. is a Professor in Geography at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research interests focus on water governance, geographies of social identity, and resource extraction. She has experience in water and environmental conflict analysis and studies the cultural politics of water, working extensively on Indigenous water issues.

Collage, as a mode of visual culture, has long been associated with the prospect of rewriting history. Relatedly, it is a site for the material realization of visual trickery, fantasy, time travel, and much more. This talk, given by Brett M. Van Hoesen, Ph.D., examines the history and culture of collage in conjunction with the exhibition of Nick Larsen’s “Old Haunts, Lower Reaches.” 

Explore the arc of Latin American art and Guillermo Bert’s place in that history with Juan Carlos Guerrero Hernández, Assistant Professor of History of Art at the University of Nevada, Reno. 

About Juan Carlos Guerrero Hernández: 

Juan Carlos Guerrero Hernández’s interdisciplinary research in modern and contemporary art and visual culture focuses on the crossing between decoloniality, memory, violence, performance, gender, moving image, and photography in the Americas and the Global South. His research has been published in reputed journals such as TDR The Drama Review, Photographies, Cinergie—Il Cinema e le altre Arti, Revista Chilena de Literatura, and edited books (see Publications). He is currently working on two book projects. His research and teaching have been awarded merit-based grants such as the National Research Grant in Visual Arts, The National Research Grant in Dance, and the merit-based travel Grant from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center. He was also awarded the National Prize in Art Criticism. Guerrero Hernández has organized international symposia in contemporary art history and performance philosophy and has been a keynote speaker at art and academic events. He has directed interdisciplinary doctoral dissertations, master’s thesis, and undergraduate projects in Art History, Art, and Architecture, and is interested in advising graduate and undergraduate research, community-engaged, and curatorial projects at the University of Nevada at Reno. Before joining the University, Guerrero Hernández served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Art History at Kalamazoo College and Assistant Professor at Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia).

Musica Sierra and Carolyn Enger, critically acclaimed pianist, engage in an inspiring musical performance and conversation about climate change.  Resonating Earth is a multimedia solo piano performance that creates a meditative space for listeners to engage with music and environmental art in order to directly inspire environmental action afterwards.

About Musica Sierra: 

Musica Sierra was conceived in 2019 by musicians who desire to bring the benefits and enrichment of the fine and performing arts to the Sierra County community in Northern California. Seeing a need for both educational experiences in the public school system and arts engagement in the local community, the group has and continues to build programming and outreach that serves both these groups. Musica Sierra is now the sole provider of music education to hundreds of children and is growing the influence of the arts in the region.

Sydney Cain (aka sage stargate) (she/them), is a visual artist born and raised in San Francisco, CA. Their work reflects encounters with unseen realities. Cain’s work draws on their ancestry at the confluence of landscape, afterlives, and spiritual well-being of Black people. Join us as Cain discusses their practice and current artist residency in Nevada. Cain’s work, And They Are Not Afraid of the Night Because They Are the Color of It, 2021 is part of the Museum’s permanent collections and was on view in the 2022 exhibition In Frequencies. 

Dr. Brett M. Van Hoesen, Associate Professor and Area Head of Art History at the University of Nevada, Reno, explores three key lessons in conjunction with Picasso’s ceramics: the importance of playfulness, the necessity for experimentation, and the culture of collaboration.

Artist Michael Moore spends three to five months a year living and painting at his Smoke Creek studio. While in the desert, Moore rises each morning to paint the landscape of the Smoke Creek playa. Join us for a conversation with Michael Moore and William L. Fox, the Peter E. Pool Director of the Center for Art + Environment. 

This program will be hosted in person as well as streamed live on Zoom. 

Susan Lobo is a cultural anthropologist specializing in research and community-based advocacy work in urban and rural Native communities in the United States and Latin America. She has taught at the University of California, Berkeley where she was the coordinator of the Center for Latin American Studies, at U.C. Davis, and at the University of Arizona. Between 1978-1995 she was the coordinator of the Community History Project, located at Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland where she and artist Jean LaMarr first became friends. More recently she has worked for Tohono O’odham Community Action. Her publications include The Sweet Smell of Home: The Life and Art of Leonard F. Chana, the textbook Native American Voices, editor of American Indians and the Urban Experience and Organización Social, Patrones de Residencia e Idetidad en Comunidades Indígenas Urbanas en Estados Unidos. She currently lives in Tucson, Arizona and Tacuarembó, Uruguay. 

Join us for a conversation as Lobo explores art as cultural communication and the intersections of contemporary Native life, while also exploring the work of Jean LaMarr.

NOTE: This program is hosted virtually on Zoom.