Join Dr. Janet Baker, Curator of Asian Art at the Phoenix Art Museum, as she discusses her personal experiences, Ai Weiwei’s career, and the zodiac heads in historical and cross-cultural contexts. Dr. Baker draws upon the time she spent in New York City getting to know many contemporary Chinese artists, including Ai Weiwei.

Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold, currently on display in the Feature Gallery North, engages issues of looting, repatriation, and cultural heritage while expanding upon ongoing themes in Ai’s work of the fake and copy in relation to the original.  Dr. Baker’s lecture brings the zodiac head to life by providing her unique insights into the complex cultural relationships in the East and the role of Ai Weiwei’s social activism.

Born in Kuwait and educated in New York and New Mexico, Tarek Al-Ghoussein returned to his native land to document its history and discovered a landscape transformed by development. The prominent photographer is best known for his works that combine elements of landscape and portrait photography. 

This exhibition features twelve photographic prints from the artist’s K-Files series, as well as a sampling of new works from his Al Sawaber series, both focused on his experience in his native Kuwait. Join Al-Ghoussein, whose work has been featured in the Venice Biennale, as he discusses his work, in conversation with Curator of Contemporary Art JoAnne Northrup.

Support for the Art Bite series comes from Nevada Arts Council and Nevada Humanities.

Dennis Parks is a ceramist who moved to the rural ghost town of Tuscarora in 1966, where he established the internationally-known Tuscarora Pottery School. Parks pioneered a process using native clays that are single-fired in kilns fueled with recycled crankcase oil. Recognized for his innovative use of text, Parks often imprints written fragments from classical literature, political puns, and poetry onto his works.

His stoneware has been honored worldwide for its wide range of inventive forms and his work has been exhibited in museums in over twenty countries around the world.  In celebration of the opening of Land, Language and Clay, join Dennis Parks for an intimate and informal evening of dialogue and conversation about his life and work. 

From the creative mind of Jessi LeMay comes the storytelling and narrative filmmaking project The Folk & the Lore. This multimedia project aims to collect, archive, and tell stories from Reno and throughout the region through photography, short films, and live storytelling events that will be held regularly at the Nevada Museum of Art. Together, we believe that when you know your neighbor’s story, not only do you feel more connected to your community, but those stories become part of your own. Join this event for an evening of storytelling and films based on “The Playa – Stories from Burning Man.”

Doors open at 5pm for social hour and chez louie cash bar. Stories begin at 6pm.

From the creative mind of Jessi LeMay comes the storytelling and narrative filmmaking project The Folk & the Lore. This multimedia project aims to collect, archive, and tell stories from Reno and throughout the region through photography, short films, and live storytelling events that will be held regularly at the Nevada Museum of Art. Together, we believe that when you know your neighbor’s story, not only do you feel more connected to your community, but those stories become part of your own. Join this event for an evening of storytelling and films based on “A Nevada Story – Nevada Stories From Beyond Our City.”

Doors open at 5pm for social hour and chez louie cash bar. Stories begin at 6pm.

Meet fellow Tilting the Basin artists and invite friends and family as we celebrate this statewide survey of Nevada’s diverse and far-flung voices.  Join us in the Nightingale Sky Room immediately following the Members’ Premiere for a private reception featuring live music, light summer fare and cocktails.

Limit ten guests per artist. 
Please RSVP before Thursday, July 28

An avid futurist with an interest in technology and social communities, Michael Mikel joined Burning Man in 1988 and initialized much of Burning Man’s progress over the years. In 1991 he drove the first art car to Burning Man and in 1992 he founded the Black Rock Rangers. In 1995, he developed the logo design which has become the symbol of the Burning Man community. Join Michael Mikel as he discusses the history and origins of Burning Man and the archives at the Nevada Museum of Art.

A special preview of the Burning Man Archives will be on display in the Charles N. Mathewson/IGT Founders’ Room from 5:30 – 6:00 pm for guests attending this event. 

Join us for a live panel discussion and film presentation featuring those who worked behind the scenes to fabricate and install Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains. A discussion led by the Nevada Museum of Art’s Director of Communications, Amanda Horn, will include a behind the scenes peek at the installation of the monumental public artwork, Seven Magic Mountains in the Las Vegas desert. Hear from the Museum’s Curator of Contemporary Art, JoAnne Northrup; Director of the Center for Art + Environment, Bill Fox; and other important guests who made this work possible.

NOTE: This event is now sold out. Please click here to register for the live video simulcast in the Museum’s Founder’s Room. Tickets to the simulcast are limited. 

Michael Branch, writer, humorist and environmentalist unveils his newest book “Raising Wild: Dispatches from a Home in the Wilderness,” creative nonfiction reflecting on raising children in an extreme desert landscape.

Reception and book signing to follow presentation. Live music following talk by Shiloh.

The Nevada contemporary art scene does not evidence a singular aesthetic permeating artists’ work, but rather a wide array of practices and media. Join us for a panel discussion with Northern and Southern Nevada artists featured in the exhibition Tilting the Basin.  This panel will feature artists Galen Brown, Justin Favela, David Ryan, Brent Sommerhauser, Rachel Stiff and Curators JoAnne Northrup and Michelle Quinn.