Saturday, August 29, 2009

FWAC! | September 2!


Wednesday, September 2* | 4:30 to 6 p.m.
FWAC!, CCAI's monthly First Wednesday Arts Coffee

* and the first Wednesday of every month!

At the Bliss Mansion
located at the corner of Robinson and Elizabeth Streets in Carson City's Historic District, across the street from the Governor's Mansion.

We hope you can join fellow artists, and arts & culture enthusiasts for our informal monthly arts gathering.

Our thanks as always to Cyndy and Steve Brenneman for their hospitality!

map

[graphic from Google image search for 'coffee,' photograph from the U.K.'s Daily Mail. Caption: "Ritual: Most tea and coffee drinkers seek out their favourite mug for their first cuppa of the day."]

Friday, August 28, 2009

Last Chance


Fifth Street School Auditorium

401 South 4th Street
Las Vegas, NV 89101

Friday, September 4 , 2009 @ 7:00 PM
Artist's Lecture and Screening:

Christoph Draeger - Last Chance


Born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1965, Christoph Draeger is known for investigating the events and sites of disaster and, more recently, the utopian thought and culture of the late 1960s.

The evening's program includes opening remarks by curator, Alise Upitis, followed by a screening and remarks by the artist. The screening includes:

Bunkerball,the tale of a man who believes himself the last surviving human. He passes his time by playing a one-person game of soccer in a fallout shelter, although he is all the while haunted by memories of the past. Pastoral images of Bavarian home life are inter-cut with the flashes of horror that may explain his lone status, such as masses of chickens infected with bird flu, chainsaw-wielding monsters, and scenes of both government and terrorist sponsored executions. It serves as a reflection on the hyper-media status of professional sports and the extreme disjunction produced by contemporary media practices.

Three other films will be screened.

Co-Sponsored by The City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the Contemporary Arts Center of Las Vegas, and the Swiss Arts Council

[text from City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs press release. Graphic from artist's website. Caption: "Still from Hippie Movie, 2008. Hippie Movie, shot in HD video and Super-8, is a funny, post-romantic documentary about a Hippie movement named Tropolicalia, which was founded by Christoph Draeger in Warsaw as an ironic remake of San Francisco's Summer of Love 1967. In the light of rising social injustice, an unpopular war in Iraq, ecological concerns and a new cold war looming, the film is a meditation on political, social and cultural behavior first coined in the 1960's by the Hippies, who protested and contested many issues that seem to make a comeback today. It is also a celebration of the inventions of 1960's rock music, and last but not least, a hallucinatory, post-psychedelic visual trip."]

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Block Party, Art + Music Night


Holland Project

Friday, August 28, 2009 6–10 pm
West Street Market

[on West Street between First and Second streets in downtown Reno - directions]

Block Party, Art + Music Night # 9

"Old Skool style with Double Dutch, Breakdancing, Rap Battles, and live music from Serel (Seattle) and Apprentice and the Total Professionals."

[Information from Holland Project website. Graphic from Holland Project Facebook page.]

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Basque Herders-the End of an Era

Carson City Library
900 N Roop
Carson City, NV 89701
775.887-2244


Wednesday, August 26, 2009
6:30pm - 8:00pm

Carson City Historical Society Presents
Basque Herders-the End of an Era


"Kent McAdoo, Certified Wildlife Biologist and Certified Professional in Rangeland Management, lived and worked with Basque herders for 13 months in the early 1970s. His presentation will show their migrant lifestyle as they followed the sheep bands. McAdoo will discuss life in the sheep camps, the men and their language, reasons for the decline of Basque herders, and the cultural influences of the Basque people."


[text from Facebook event page. Graphic from Google image search for "Basque Sheepherders Nevada." Caption: "Basque sheepherders. Nevada, al about 1910. Photo: Nevada Historical Society." See linked Eusko News article, "Ethnic Industries for Migrants: Basque Sheepherding in the American West," by Gloria Totoricagüena Egurrola . Click on image to enlarge.]

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Planes of Consistency


Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery
Church Fine Arts Building
University of Nevada, Reno

August 24 - September 25
Planes of Consistency:
Dean Burton | Thom Heileson | Tamara Scronce


Opening/Lecture: Thursday August 27
Lecture 5:30 - 6:30 pm, Reception 6:30 - 8 pm

"Planes of Consistency" is a three-person exhibition between Nevada photographer Burton, Seattle video/photography artist Heileson, and UNR Sculpture Faculty Tamara Scronce. "The theme was inspired by a philosophical dialogue between Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, in which they explored the rhizomatic nature of human experience as represented by intersecting lines connecting time, history, intellect, and aliveness."

Catalog designed by Thom Heileson.

[text and graphic from gallery press release.]

Monday, August 24, 2009

Grad Night's Final Days


"Grad Night," our summer exhibition at the CCAI Couthouse Gallery of work by the graduating BFA and MFA classes at UNR and Sierra Nevada College, will close on September 2. If you haven't seen it yet, we hope you'll have a chance to visit this unique showcase of local emerging artists!

Where | When | What:

CCAI Courthouse Gallery

885 East Musser Street [map]
Carson City

Gallery Hours: M-F | 9 am – 5 pm

Grad Night Catalog Essay


[photo: "Grad Night" June 19, 2009 opening at CCAI Courthouse Gallery. Balcony view. Photo by SNC Faculty Chris Lanier.]

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Gone Camping

The Staff of The CCAI Blog staff will be on vacation over the next ten days, so the flow of posts will be interrupted during that time. Look for us back at full strength August 21.

For information on local events, we recommend visiting the links listed on our right hand column.

Thanks for your support and encouragement!

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Henry Comstock surfaces


Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs
State Historic Preservation Office

Probable image of Henry Comstock surfaces 150 years after one of greatest gold and silver strikes in history


Carson City, Nevada
William Bohn, a private photography collector on the East Coast, and Ron James, Nevada state historic preservation officer, announced today the discovery of an antique image tentatively identified as Henry Comstock, a prospector who briefly rose to national prominence 150 years ago.

Comstock gave his name to the Comstock Lode , one of the greatest gold and silver strikes in history, discovered in June 1859. The mining district included Virginia City, which became famous for its wealth and cutting-edge technology.

Bohn acquired the photograph at an antiques show in Palmer, Massachusetts on May 10, 2009 from a seller who claimed the image depicted Comstock and that it came from an estate sale in Maine . The dealer also alleged that a document associated with the photograph described the discovery of the Comstock Lode , but that it had already been sold separately. Analysis of the image identifies several similarities to the only positively identified photograph of Comstock.

“Henry Comstock in one of the more important characters in the history of Western mining,” said state historic preservation officer Ron James and author of "The Roar and the Silence: A History of Virginia City and the Comstock Lode" (1998). “The discovery of a photograph that might depict him is exciting news and is of considerable importance to the entire nation.”

The image of Comstock is a tintype, which was a form of photography popular from the mid 1850s until the end of the nineteenth century. The only positively identified image of Henry Comstock is grainy and difficult to evaluate, but certain similarities are obvious.

“Initial analysis of the image indicates there is a strong resemblance between the verified image of Comstock and this new discovery,” said Bohn. “Using rudimentary tools for facial comparison, it is possible to determine that the general shape of the two faces and the shape of the nose match. In addition, similarities in clothing and the appearance of the beard reinforce the idea that this new photograph depicts Comstock.” Bohn provides a detailed analysis of the photograph on his website.

Henry Tompkins Paige Comstock earned a reputation in the West for being fast-talking and uninterested in serious work. He was nicknamed “Pancake” because people said he was unwilling to take the effort to make bread and instead simply turned his flour into easily-prepared pancakes.

On June 8, 1859, Comstock happened upon Patrick McLaughlin and Peter O’Riley, two Irish immigrants, who had found a profitable outcropping of gold ore on the slope of a mountain in what would become western Nevada . Comstock insisted they were working on land he owned, and so the two prospectors included him and another man as co-claimants. Within a few weeks, an assay of the ore demonstrated that the discovery included a fabulous amount of gold and silver.

Hundreds of people quickly arrived to stake claims and mine in the district. After extracting gold and silver through the summer, Comstock, like most of the first claimants, sold his interest for several thousands of dollars, presuming that he had already extracted the richest part of the ore body. What no one understood at the time was that the Comstock Lode would produce today’s equivalent of several billion dollars in precious metals over the follow twenty years.

Comstock eventually left his mining district, always searching for the next big strike. Some claimed that he went insane, perhaps plagued by having lost the enormous fortune of his claim. Others insisted he always lacked a firm grasp on reality. For whatever reason, Comstock fatally shot himself in 1870 while living in Montana .

“We hope that by announcing this discovery, additional information may be forthcoming,” said James. “Details about the document associated with this image would be extremely helpful, and the assistance of photographic experts who could confirm that this is indeed Comstock would be welcomed. If this is, in fact, Henry Comstock, we are able, for the first time, to see a clear image of a man who shaped industrial history and was known throughout the nation.”

Virginia City and the Comstock Lode remained household names until the mines began to fail in the 1880s. The National Broadcasting Company renewed the fame of the mining district with the television show Bonanza, which premiered in 1959, fifty years ago as part of the centennial celebration of Comstock’s discovery. One of the first episodes featured Henry Comstock and the initial strike.

For further information about the photograph, William Bohn may be contacted via email at admin at oldphotographic.com.

[text and graphic from Department of Cultural Affairs press release.]

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Auditions: The King and I


Western Nevada College
Carson City Campus

Tuesday, August 11 | 6 pm

"The Western Nevada Musical Theatre Company holds auditions for The King and I in Sarah Winnemucca Hall of the Western Nevada College Carson City campus at 6 p.m.

The show will play in nine performances at the Carson City Community Center November 7-22.

Additional information: 775.445-4249."

[Text from WNC Information & Marketing Services Office. Graphic from Google image search for 'The King and I,' harvested from the Champaign Urbana Theatre Company website. Detail.]

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Avian Orphans at the Hen Den

[Upcoming show at the Hen Den - 538 Sinclair Street, Reno, – featuring the Avian Orphans, Carson City's own acoustic folk punk group.]


[Graphic from Holland Project website.]

Sunday, August 02, 2009

August FWAC!

FWAC!, CCAI's monthly First Wednesday Arts Coffee
Wednesday, August 5
4:30 to 6 p.m.

[and the first Wednesday of every month!]

At the Bliss Mansion located at the corner of Robinson and Elizabeth Streets in Carson City's Historic District across the street from the Governor's Mansion.

We hope you can join fellow artists, and arts & culture enthusiasts for our informal monthly arts gathering.


Our thanks as always to Cyndy and Steve Brenneman for their hospitality!

[graphic from Google image search for 'drinking coffee'.]