Capital City Arts Initiative at Douglas High School

CCAI at Douglas High School
1670 Hwy 88
Minden

This spring, Douglas High School photography students participated in a six-week CCAI artist residency with Howard Goldbaum, artist and Associate Professor at UNR’s Reynolds School of Journalism.

As an artist/historian/journalist, Mr. Goldbaum specializes in creating virtual reality websites focused on areas of historical interest in both Nevada and abroad. The websites integrate panoramic photography with historical documentation, and allow the viewer to interact with the location through 360° views, detailed close-ups, background information, and on-site interviews.

Students photographed and researched the antique store and bar on main street along with other historic Genoa sites including the Genoa cemetery. Ron Bommarito, owner of the antique store and long-time Genoa resident, welcomed the students to look at his impressive antique collection, and provided interesting insights during an the interview. The students’ photographs and interviews are online at:
http://allaroundreno.com/?cat=14

CCAI support for the residency project came, in part, from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Carson City Office of Business Development; Community Foundation of Western Nevada; Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; U.S. Bancorp Foundation; and Douglas High School.

[image and text from DHS faculty and CCAI staff]

Save the Date: Saturday, July 9 to meet Ginny Ruffner

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Save the Date to meet the artist and to see the documentary film, a not so still life, about artist Ginny Ruffner, Saturday July 9 / 2 – 4 pm

Presented by the artist herself, this film explores the mind of Ginny Ruffner who is hailed for her magnanimous spirit and determination to recover from a near-fatal accident. Ruffner will answer questions following the film’s screening.

Ginny Ruffner, can't be summed up in one word, but the most commonly used term is "inspiring." A world-renown artist at the age of 39, she was involved in a near-fatal car accident, which left her in a coma for five weeks and confined to a hospital for five months. Doctors were convinced that she would never walk or talk again, but true to her indomitable spirit, Ginny Ruffner transformed a potentially tragic accident into a career of even more imaginative creations. From pop-up books, to room-sized installation pieces, to public works, Ruffner's art has blossomed and continues to expand.

Tickets may be purchased at the Museum's website: $10/$8 members
For additional information, contact Colin Robertson at NMA: colin.robertson@nevadaart.org

[image and text from the Museum's website and from the film's producers]

Nevada Humanities Chautauqua

Nevada Humanities
Chautauqua Evening Programs
Sunday, June 26 – Thursday, June 30
at the
Robert Z. Hawkins Amphitheater
Bartley Ranch Regional Park
6000 Bartley Ranch Road, Reno

Nevada Humanities presents its 2011 Nevada Humanities Chautauqua festival with the lives and times of legendary characters including Henry VIII, CoCo Chanel, painter Thomas Hart Benton, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thomas Jefferson. Each evening's event begins with a musical performance featuring a local band. Music starts at 6:00 p.m., and Chautauqua performances begin at 7:00 p.m. There are plenty of comfortable chairs as well as a lawn area for those who prefer to sit on a blanket. Some people bring picnics while others take advantage of the excellent food offered for sale by Men Wielding Fire. Parking is plentiful and free.

Nevada Humanities Chautauqua blends the insightful depth of historical research with the fun of theatrical entertainment. The Chautauqua format is simple: a performer, in the guise of a historical figure, such as Mark Twain or Thomas Jefferson, tells “first-hand” stories about important episodes in the character’s life. After the monologue, the audience and performer engage in a lively discussion. Nevada Humanities Chautauqua was created by Nevada Humanities in Reno in 1992 and is one of the longest running Chautauqua festivals in the country. Tickets are available for sale at nevadahumanities.org/programs/chautauqua/and at the gate on the evening of the performance.

Sunday, June 26: An Evening of Young Chautauqua: Failure & Success. Featuring performances by local youth. Music by the Reno Youth Jazz Orchestra. FREE

Monday, June 27: Anne and the King. Alyssa Foster as Anne Boleyn and Frank X. Mullen Jr. as Henry VIII. Music: Sierra Nevada Balalaika Ensemble. $15 general/$30 reserved.

Tuesday, June 28: America’s Artist and the Little Black Dress. Doug Mishler as Thomas Hart Benton and Annette Baldwin as Coco Chanel. Music: Reno Taiko Tsurunokai. $15 general/$30 reserved.

Wednesday, June 29: A More Perfect Union. Fred Blanco as César Chávez and Marvin Jefferson as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Music: Mariachi Plata. $15 general/$30 reserved.

Thursday, June 30: The Indispensable Man. Clay Jenkinson as Thomas Jefferson. Music: Shiloh. $15 general/$30 reserved.

Cost of Tickets: General admission is $15 per night/$45 per weeklong pass of four shows. General admission allows first come/first served access to unreserved seats and lawn. Reserved seating is $30 per night/$90 per weeklong pass of four shows. Reserved seating is only available for purchase online. Reserved seating tickets allow access to a block of seats in a prime location held for reserved ticket holders. With reserved seats you can arrive any time you want and get a great seat. Admission for the Sunday, June 26, evening program is free.

Nevada Humanities Chautauqua "Events Around Town"
All "Events Around Town" are FREE and open to the public.

Coffee with the Chautauquans. Monday, June 27-Friday, July 1, from 7:30-9 a.m., Sundance Books and Music, 121 California Ave., Reno. Gather each morning during Chautauqua week at the new Sundance Book and Music to meet Chautauqua performers, ask questions, and enjoy coffee and treats. FREE

Young Chautauqua Under the Tent. Monday, June 27-Thursday, June 30, 9:30 a.m.-12 noon, Flying B Pavilion at Bartley Ranch Regional Park, Reno. Young scholars perform on stage; hands-on crafts activities for young people. Great for kids. FREE

Henry VIII Meets eHarmony.com with Frank X. Mullen Jr. Sunday, June 26, 1 p.m., Downtown Reno Library, 301 South Center St., Reno. FREE

The Poor People’s Campaign: Martin Luther King’s Last Great Dream with Marvin Jefferson. Sunday, June 26, 2 p.m., Bethel African American Cultural Center, 220 Bell St., Reno. FREE

Henry VIII and Hollywood: Tudors in Film and Pop Culture with Frank X. Mullen Jr. Tuesday, June 28, 1 p.m., South Valleys Library, 15650A Wedge Parkway, Reno. FREE

My Thirty Years with Thomas Jefferson with Clay Jenkinson. Wednesday, June 29, 1 p.m., Sparks Library, 1125 12th St., Sparks. FREE

Great Designers Never Die with Annette Baldwin. Wednesday, June 29, 2 p.m., Incline Village Library, 845 Alder Ave., Incline Village. FREE

American Art and Genius: Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock with Doug Mishler. Thursday, June 30, 1 p.m., Sparks Library, 1125 12th St., Sparks. FREE

[text from Nevada Humanities website. image of postage stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first Chautauqua from Wikipedia: Chautauqua]

The Art of the Brick at the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada

Children's Museum of Northern Nevada
813 N Carson Street
Carson City

The Children’s Museum of Northern Nevada presents an exhibition of Nathan Sawaya's LEGO® brick sculptures from June 24 - August 19. CMNN is open daily from 10am-4:30pm.

Sawaya's sculptures take the popular LEGO® toy to new heights. The New York-based artist used nearly one million colorful LEGO pieces to create the exhibition's forty whimsical and intriguing sculptures.

Sawaya uses this common toy that almost every child has played with to the status of fine art. "The museum exhibition . . . engages the child in all of us while simultaneously illuminating sophisticated and complex concepts. Everyone can relate to the medium since it is a toy that many children have at home. But I want to elevate this simple plaything to a place it has never been before," said Sawaya.

You can see samples of Sywaya’s work at: www.brickartist.com.
For exhibition or Museum information, call 775-884-2226 or visit CMNN on the web at: www.cmnn.org.

Admissions:
$5. for adults
$3. for children 2 - 13 years
Free for children one and younger

[image and text from CMNN press release]

CCAI Banner Headlines

Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI]
above Carson Street
Carson City

To help promote the arts in Carson City, CCAI dedicated its summer banner week to informing pedestrians and the driving public about this blog. CCAI invites you to visit frequently to learn about CCAI events and projects. This site also features information about many northern Nevada arts organizations' events and activities. Have great summer and stay tuned!

[image and text by CCAI]

Raymond "Craig" Whitehill Exhibition at WNC

Western Nevada College
Carson City Campus
2201 W College Parkway
Carson City

Mostly Perididdle, an exhibition of work by Carson City artist Raymond “Craig” Whitehill, is at Western Nevada College Carson City's Main Gallery in the Bristlecone Building through October 15. The gallery is open Monday-Friday 8 am-9 pm; Saturday 8 am- 5 pm. The College cordially invites the public to a reception for the artist on Thursday, September 15, 5-6:30 pm.

Remember when summertime meant lying on in the grass, staring at the sky and imagining a world of objects in the puffy clouds above? Colors and shapes became airplanes and animals, and artistic expression was born. Raymond “Craig” Whitehill offers just such a feast for the imagination in this summer’s exhibition. His colorful, clever ceramics, cartoon characters and accompanying stories are titled: Mostly Perididdle; a look around. ‘Perididdle’ is a registered trademark for Whitehill’s cartoon characters and related graphic works. It is, he says, “the place we all want to be.”

Whitehill grew up in California and later moved to the Carson City/Lake Tahoe area. He has worked as a commercial artist and architectural draftsman, but made his career as an air traffic controller. Whitehill’s art allows viewers to see bits and pieces of his diverse past experiences, in art that seeks to communicate to a broad audience. “Although there are vastly different points of view among us, it is my goal to find that thing in the library which we can share,” he said.

Whitehill’s Perididdle and Subdivision works have been shown in Denver, Seattle, and Reno.

[image and text from WNC press release]

Churchill Arts Council: Plena Libre

Celebrate summer at Saturday's concert in the park!

Churchill Arts Council
Oats Park Art Center
151 E. Park Street
Fallon, Nevada
775.423.1440

The City of Fallon, in cooperation with the Churchill Arts Council, will present a free in-the-park concert with Plena Libre at 7:30 p.m., June 18, on the outdoor stage in Oats Park, in front of the Oats Park Art Center, 151 E. Park Street, Fallon. The Art Center’s Bar and Galleries will be open following the performance.

Plena Libre is a twelve-member ensemble who have received four Grammy nominations and are Puerto Rico’s musical ambassadors to the world. The ensemble of virtuoso musicians are known for their high energy rhythms. They combine a swinging rhythm sections, horns, vocals and dance to create an electrifying stage presentation that is both universally appealing and deeply rooted in Puerto Rican culture. Over a fifteen-year, thirteen album career the group has delighted audiences around the world—performing in more than fifteen countries from Morocco to Malaysia, from the Playboy Jazz Festival to the Fez Festival.

This Father’s Day weekend concert is a great opportunity to get together with family and friends and enjoy an evening of outstanding music under the stars. Bring a picnic supper or purchase a variety of culinary treats prepared by the Slanted Porch. For more information, please call CAC at 775.423.1440.

[image and text from Churchill Arts press release]

Nevada Museum of Art: To Live Forever

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

June 11, 2011 - September 4, 2011

Feature Gallery South

Explore ancient Egyptian beliefs about life, death, and the afterlife in To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. Featuring more than 100 objects including mummies, statuary, sarcophagi, coffins, gold jewelry, and elegantly-crafted vessels, the exhibition includes some of the greatest masterworks of Egyptian artistic heritage. The exhibition also helps to explain the process of mummification, the conduct of a funeral, and different types of tombs—answering questions at the core of the public’s fascination with ancient Egypt.

Two of the main ancient Egyptian cultural beliefs that have endured for thousands of years are a belief in the afterlife, and the view that death was an enemy that could be vanquished. To Live Forever features objects that illustrate a range of strategies the ancient Egyptians developed to defeat death, including mummification and various rituals performed in the tomb. The exhibition contains funeral equipment used by the rich, the middle class, and the poor, and also reveals what the Egyptians believed they would find in the next world. The economics of the funeral are examined, including how the poor tried to imitate the costly appearance of the grave goods of the rich in order to ensure a better place in the afterlife.

Specially-designed interpretation for this exhibition acknowledges the recent political revolution in Egypt and includes speculative conjecture from best-selling science fiction author Bruce Sterling, accompanied by an 80-foot panoramic mural depicting a possible future Egypt. In much the same way that the antiquities on display offer only traces of historical evidence helping us to understand Egypt’s past, Sterling’s contribution and the accompanying mural illustrates one of many possible outcomes for the future of this dynamic and rapidly-changing country.

Continue your journey into Egypt with "Mystery of the Nile," the full-dome film at the Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center showing daily at 3pm, June 3 – September 5, 2011. Navigate the 3,260-mile Blue Nile journey from Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea in 16-foot rafts and some of the most extreme white-water rapids in the world. For tickets and details call (775) 784-4812, or visit www.planetarium.unr.edu.

For information on the Museum's related programs and events, please visit www.nevadaart.org To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum has been organized by the Brooklyn Museum.

[image and text from the Nevada Museum of Art's website]

Mark NeuCollins: "a thousand ways ...."

a thousand ways . . . .
at the
Saint Mary's Art Center
55 North R Street
Virginia City



CCAI invites you to visit the Mark NeuCollins' residency exhibition at St. Mary's Art Center [SMAC] in Virginia City. Each spring, CCAI collaborates with SMAC to produce a two-week artist residency and exhibition. This year CCAI and SMAC hosted Mark NeuCollins from the Iowa heartland to experience life and art-making on the Comstock. Katie Grace McGowan wrote the exhibition essay "An Exquisite Balance" available in the gallery and soon online. The exhibition is open to the public Friday - Sunday, 11am - 4pm, through June 26.

NeuCollins' installation uses local natural materials, with a large earth mandala on the floor forming the centerpiece created from Virginia City's vivid native soils. Hanging paper made from sage brush and a gate made from branches adds to the sense of transition and ephemerality. NeuCollins said about the exhibition, "This is a meditation on the environment and our existence within it. By gathering local materials and making these materials the focus of the installation, I hope to create a sense of reverence for the beauty that surrounds us every day."

[exhibition photography by CCAI]

Splendor in the Glass: Hutchison Studio Kaleidoscope

Splendor in the Glass
May 25 - September 9
at the
CCAI Courthouse Gallery [map]
885 East Musser Street
Carson City



The Capital City Arts Initiative presents an exhibition of Carole and William Hutchison’s XXL Variation III Kaleidoscope, at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery from May 25 – September 9, 2011.

The views through the kaleidoscope will change each week as the artists change the colorful 28" diameter glass wheels. The Hutchisons created the kaleidoscope wheels using a variety of glass techniques including stained, etching, foiled fused, blown tube glass, tack-fused glass, full flat fused glass, plus flower transparencies and glass jewels.

The Courthouse is open to the public from 8am - 5pm; the exhibition is free and the public is cordially invited.

[photography by CCAI staff]

Carson City Symphony's Railroad Tracks Concert

Carson City Symphony's
27th Annual Pops Party Concert: Railroad Tracks

Sunday June 12, 3 pm.
Free Admission

The beautiful back lawn of the Governor's Mansion is the site of the Carson City Symphony's twenty-seventh annual "Pops Party" concert on Sunday, June 12 at 3:00 p.m. The Railroad Tracks program features the Carson City Symphony, Carson Chamber Singers, Strings in the Schools youth orchestra, and guest singer Olivia Hakel. A versatile performer, Hakel sings many styles of music, from opera to pops. Grounds open and pre-concert entertainment begins at 2:00 p.m. Admission is free.

The Symphony, directed by David Bugli, will play railroad tunes, marches, and more. The Symphony will be joined by more than 30 Strings in the Schools students for Bugli's "I've Been Fiddlin' on the Railroad."

Admission is free. Seating is on the lawn; the audience is welcome to bring blankets (some chairs will be provided) and food. Snacks and beverages will be on sale before and during the concert. Proceeds from raffle and food sales benefit the Carson City Symphony Association's artistic and educational programs.

In case of rain, the concert will be held at 6:00 p.m. at the Carson City Community Center.
For information, call Symphony at 775.883.4154 or check the web site: CCSymphony.com.

[image and text Carson City Symphony website]

CCAI and SMAC present Mark NeuCollins' "a thousand ways ...."

You're invited to
Mark NeuCollins' residency exhibition reception

a thousand ways . . . .
Saturday, June 4, 4 to 6pm
at the
Saint Mary's Art Center
55 North R Street
Virginia City

The Capital City Arts Initiative [CCAI] and St. Mary's Art Center [SMAC] enthusiastically invite you to the reception for Mark NeuCollins' residency exhibition at the art center in Virginia City. This year CCAI and SMAC hosted Mark NeuCollins from the country's heartland for a two-week residency to experience art-making on the Comstock. His exhibition, "a thousand ways . . . ." opens this Saturday, June 4, 4 - 6pm and continues through June 26. St. Mary's is open to the public Friday - Sunday, 11am - 4pm.

NeuCollins created a large earth mandala as the exhibition's centerpiece using local natural materials. Hanging paper made from sage brush and a gate made from branches adds to the sense of transition and ephemerality. NeuCollins said about the exhibition, "This is a meditation on the environment and our existence within it. By gathering local materials and making these materials the focus of the installation, I hope to create a sense of reverence for the beauty that surrounds us every day."

Note from the artist: "My how quickly two weeks flies by! I have been loving the time I have spent here “in the hills” of Virginia City, working in this fabulous Saint Mary’s Art Center building. I arrived here from Iowa with just a few tools and a lot of ideas, and have spent a lot of my time collecting local natural materials to use in my installation here in the “Under the Eaves” gallery. I am busy right now putting the finishing touches on it, and am quite pleased with this reflection of my Nevada experience. I hope to see you Saturday for the unveiling of the finished work, and that you take as much pleasure in the work as I have taken in making it." – Mark NeuCollins

An exhibition by northern Nevada's group Printmakers' Conspiracy also opens at SMAC this Saturday, June 4, 4 - 6pm and continues through August 2011. The exhibition includes work by Carol Brown, Amy Currier, Cindy Gunn, Valia Hylin, Rachel Kaiser, Susan Kotler, David C. Laws, Liz Paganelli, Carole Ricketts, Sharon Tetly, Sue Roberts, and Lynn Schmidt. St. Mary's is open to the public Friday - Sunday, 11am - 4pm.

[image and text from the Mark NeuCollins and from St. Mary's Art Center]