NAC Jackpot and Professional Development Grants

Nevada Arts Council
716 N. Carson Street, Suite A
Carson City

The Nevada Arts Council invites individuals to apply online for Jackpot Grants and Professional Development Grants.

Jackpot Grants
Quarterly grants available through the Grants Program, Jackpot Grants support new or exemplary art projects by nonprofit arts and non-arts organizations, public institutions and artists. Artists must have attained a certain level of proficiency as represented in the quality of work samples submitted with the applications. Examples of eligible Jackpot projects for individuals include: costs associated with preparing of portfolios and work samples; and presentation of work (performances, exhibitions, publications, etc).

Online Submission Deadlines:
November 15, 2011 (for projects Jan 1-March 31, 2012)
February 15, 2012 (for projects April 1-June 30, 2012)

Postmark Deadlines for Supplemental Materials:
November 22, 2011 (for projects Jan 1-March 31, 2012)
February 22, 2012 (for projects April 1-June 30, 2012)

Professional Development Grant (PDG)
PDG are noncompetitive grants available throughout the year to eligible applicants on a first-come, first-served basis while funding is available. PDG grants support constituent attendance at professional development activities and are up to $650 for out-of-state activities, up to $500 for in-state activities not sponsored by NAC, and up to $350 for NAC sponsored activities. Postmark Deadline: Available on a first-come first-served and reimbursement basis throughout the year. Eligible Applicants: All applicants are required to be a Nevada resident for 12 months prior to application deadline, be at least 21 years old and not seeking an academic degree. Must demonstrate travel of at least 100 miles roundtrip to qualify.

Apply for these grants at Culture Grants Online.
Have questions? Call or email Ann Cosens, Interim Grants Program Coordinator, 775.687.7102, acosens@nevadaculture.org

[text from the Nevada Arts Council's press info; image by AndreasPraefcke from Wikimedia Commons]

Mark Chavez: Emerging Animation

Capital City Arts Initiative
Nevada Neighbors
at the
Carson City Library
900 N. Roop Street
Carson City

Wednesday, September 28, 7pm

Emerging Animation is another in CCAI's Nevada Neighbors series of stimulating public talks on contemporary art practice. Mark Chavez, an early adopter in computer animation and a leading animation industry expert, will present an overview of emerging animation technology and its artistic and cultural impact. The talk will take place at the Carson City Library Wednesday, September 28 at 7pm; a reception for the artist will precede the talk at 6:15pm. Nevada Neighbors events are free and the public is cordially invited.

Mark Chavez, a MFA graduate from UCLA in the 1980’s, has worked for more than 25 years creating cutting-edge animation techniques and live-action visual effects for many major feature films, console games, television commercials, experimental digital film making and interactive media. He is a leader in the digital animation industry, both as an artist animator and a modeler, creating photo-realistic props, sets, characters for live-action feature films and character animation fantasies for major film production studios such as DreamWorks Feature Animation and Rhythm, Hues Studios Los Angeles, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers Pictures. He has contributed to the development of large-scale projected laser animation for concert venues and pioneered emergent interactive media, motion picture graphics and motion capture for the Tokyo Broadcast System and Acclaim, Inc. In 2004, Mark was recruited to be a founding faculty member in the newly established Nanyang Technology University’s (NTU) School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) in Singapore.

For additional information, please call CCAI at 775.720.0331 or the Library at 775.887.2244.

Friends of the Library: Harvest Book Sale

Carson City Library
900 N Roop Street
Carson City

Support your Library and community: Visit the book sale!
Friday, September 23, 10am - 5pm
Saturday, September 24, 10am - 4pm

The Harvest Book Sale, one of six sales annually by Friends of the Library, provides funds for Library purchase of books, periodicals, art reproductions, technological equipment, furnishings and other equipment requested by the Library when the purchases would not be available through the budgeting process. The Friends also provide seed money for Library programs and services. The Friends services benefit all Library users and members of the community.

The Library is open to the public Monday - Thursday 10am - 8pm, Friday and Saturday 10am - 6pm. For additional information about the book sale or the Library, please call 775.887-2244.

[poster and information from the Carson City Library's website]

Kuen Young Park: Sheppard Gallery Lecture

Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery

Art Department
University of Nevada, Reno
1664 N. Virginia St

Reno

Reiterate the Repeat: Keun Young Park and Sky Kim
August 29 - September 23
Catalogue designed by Clint Sleeper

Thursday, September 22, 5:30pm: exhibition closing lecture by Keun Young Park in Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, Wells Fargo Auditorium, room 124. The closing reception will be in Sheppard Gallery, Church Fine Arts, 6:30 - 8pm.

Both living in Jersey City, New Jersey but previously unknown to each other, Sky Kim and Keun Young Park create their artwork through very time-consuming and repetitive manners. This exhibition considers images created from this approach to artmaking. Park constructs “micro-collages” made from tiny pieces of torn up photographs punctured by a pin, while Kim creates large-scale scrolls by making thousands of marks, rendering voluptuous drawings in a variety of media.

Gallery Hours: Monday - Thursday, 11am - 5pm, Friday, 11am - 2pm
For additional information, please call Sheppard Gallery at 775.785.6658 or email mvecchio@unr.edu

[image from Keun Young Park's website; text from Sheppard Gallery's press info]

Spire of Fire

Black Rock Arts Foundation
Tuesday, September 20 at dark
corner of Sierra Street and Island Ave
Reno

The Black Rock Arts Foundation is proud to announce that Spire of Fire, by Reno artists Steve Atkins and Eric Smith, is BRAF’s fourth installation in Reno, Nevada. The performance takes place Tuesday, September 20 at dark. See Spire of Fire June 15 – Nov. 15, 2011, on the corner of Sierra Street and Island Avenue, on the bank of the Truckee River in downtown Reno.

[image from Black Rock Arts Foundation]

Manuel Alfaro, Amerique Powell at U of Phoenix Gallery

University of Phoenix
10345 Professional Circle
Reno

An exhibition of current work by University of Nevada Reno MFA candidates Amerique Powell and Manuel Alfaro is at the University of Phoenix Gallery through November 16. Sierra Arts in Reno manages the gallery.

Manuel Alfaro said that "The inspiration for my work comes from Aztec culture and the current drug war in Mexico. Researching Aztec culture has led me into a complex world of religion and mythology, a world of deity lords and gods."

Amerique Powell said that "This body of work is the result of an exploration of the emotional connection I have with my pets, and my fascination with and attraction to decorative pattern. By merging the animals and patterns, my goal is to give them equal weight, both formally and conceptually, so that neither one is the obvious 'subject.'" Ms. Powell is on the CCAI Artists In Education Roster and teaching CCAI art workshops this fall for students at Carson Middle School, Carson City.

The gallery is open Monday-Thursday 9:00am-10:00pm, Friday 8:00am-9:30pm, Saturday 8:00am-6:00pm, Sunday 1:00pm-8:00pm.
For additional information, please call Sierra Arts at 775.329.2782.

[image and text from Sierra Arts' press release]

Kadam Studio Grand Opening

Kadam Studio of Glass
47 Glen Carran Circle*
Sparks

Grand Opening: September 17, 11am - 4pm

Interested in learning more about working with glass? Here's an opportunity. Kadam Studio is a fully equipped glass facility for teaching fused and stained glass.

* Directions: from S McCarren Blvd going north, turn left on E Glendate Ave, turn right on to Stanford Way, take the 2nd right on to Glen Carran Circle.

For additional information, call 775.358.6632

[studio image and text from Kadam Studio; glaziers' tool image from Wikipedia search for stained glass]

Mick Sheldon: Still Lifes for Cowpokes

CCAI Courthouse Gallery [map]
885 East Musser Street
Carson City

Opening Reception: Friday, September 16, 5 - 7pm

The Capital City Arts Initiative opens Mick Sheldon’s exhibition, Still Lifes for Cowpokes at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery on Friday, September 16 with a reception for the artist from 5 - 7pm. The exhibition and reception are free and the public is cordially invited.

The exhibition features still life paintings by artist Mick Sheldon, a Reno native and UNR alum. Still life paintings with commonplace objects as subjects are an art tradition that goes back millennia. This exhibition’s paintings grew out of an assignment the artist gave to his students and to himself as well: paint a still life. “The gourds, the skulls, the thick rope, the student-made lopsided pots and bottles, the cactus, the bullet-riddled cans, the broken glass, and especially the cloth kept tumbling around and over each other” revealed themselves to be players in the rodeos and cowboy western movies he remembered from his youth: skulls as the cowboys, cacti as the pine trees, desk lamps as the light source.

Sheldon earned a MFA degree in painting from the University of California at Davis in 1992. After working a series of “dead end jobs,” he started teaching at two schools and a prison back in the late eighties. In 2004, he began teaching as a full-time professor at American River College where he is now tenured and serves as Director of the James Kaneko Gallery. Sheldon lives with his wife in Yolo, California.

CCAI has commissioned Phoebe Finch to write the exhibition essay for Still Lifes for Cowpokes. Ms. Finch is a senior at UNR studying both art history and Spanish.

[Mick Sheldon painting: Last Out of the Rodeo, oil on linen, 2009]

The Culture of Burning Man Exhibition at WNC

Western Nevada College
2201 W College Parkway
Carson City

Reception for the artists: Thursday, September 15, 5-6:30pm.

Each Labor Day holiday, northern Nevada plays host to one of the largest and most innovative art and cultural events in the nation. Western Nevada College offers a fascinating glimpse into the Burning Man culture of self-expression and self-reliance through a photography exhibit that portrays the art, costumes and ambience of the event. The Culture of Burning Man, in the gallery through October 15, was curated by local artist Maria Partridge. The Black Rock Arts Foundation provided exhibition support.

The thirty-nine poster size photographs depict the innovative sculptures that soar above the playa and depict "burners" in costumes that range from the clever to the weird. The show also features a fascinating array of playa vehicles built or retrofitted to navigate the dusty streets of Black Rock City – from unicycles and roller skates to giant balloons and boats.

The College Gallery is in the Bristlecone Building, at WNC Carson City. The gallery is open Monday-Friday, 8am - 9pm, and Saturday, 8am - 5pm, excluding holidays. Admission is free.

[image and text from the gallery press release]

In Memory

In memory of those who lost their lives in the September 11 tragedies.

[image from Wikimedia Commons]

Christiansen and Nelson at Stremmel Gallery

Stremmel Gallery
1400 South Virginia Street
Reno

Reception for the Artists: Thursday, September 8, 5:30-7:30pm

Stremmel Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent painting and sculpture by John Randall Nelson and Bryan Christiansen. The exhibition opens with a reception for the artists on Thursday, September 8 from 5:30 - 7:30pm and will remain in the gallery through October 8, 2011.

John Randall Nelson emerged in the mid-’90s as a painter and sculptor known for taking simple, bold, instantly recognizable images of everyday symbols and imbuing them with a sense of theatre. Embracing the concept of artist as storyteller, Nelson is a chronicler of contemporary culture, his symbolic amalgamations forming an intuitive sense of the besieged, “over communicated, how-to” society in which we live. His paintings often consist of a central image superimposed over a collage of symbols and text (anything from art criticism to nursery rhymes). Daily life is represented through select bits and pieces carefully plucked, placed, layered, painted, sanded and repainted. Nelson’s persistent, almost obsessive editing and rearrangement of these pieces allow viewers to uncover the grammar of his private language. Through the constant reworking of the surface and the rearranging of form, the process of discovery and creation comes to the forefront of Nelson’s canvases. His paintings are narrative in two ways: They encourage viewers to invent their own stories based on the images and messages used, but they also present the “story” of their own creation, inviting the experience of a restless and somewhat anxious journey of the art-making process.

Bryan Christiansen creates life-sized contemporary sculpture that challenges conventional notions of rural life, home, the rituals of the hunting tradition, and the innocence of childhood. Discarded household furniture found in neglected urban areas becomes assemblage that stands in for the trophies, antler mounts, and pelts often prized by hunters. Christiansen's work recalls the gritty, discarded object sculpture of 1950s assemblage artists Bruce Conner and Ed Kienholz. However, unlike these artists interested in probing the passage of time, death, and decay,
Christiansen reconstructs exquisitely crafted works that feature exposed hand-stitchery and floral fabrics. This process of assembling has more to do with making sense of life than decoding death. Christiansen's sculptures take the form of trophies, physical triumphs of the present over the past and the strength to confront some of life's most challenging contradictions. Raised in a small log cabin in the Black Hills of South Dakota, his childhood was influenced by activities associated with rustic, agrarian living: absorbing nature, communing with wildlife, and learning to hunt. These activities, alongside the turbulent and complex development of his family's domestic life, are what led Christiansen to art as a way of wrestling with the conflicting realities of his past.

To set up a private tour of the gallery and works by the artists, please call Stremmel Gallery 775.786.0558 or visit www.stremmelgallery.com. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9am - 5:30pm, and Saturday, 10am - 3pm.

[text, images from the gallery's press release]

September FWAC at the BRIC

Wednesday, September 7, 4:30-6pm
First Wednesday Arts Chat
BRIC
Carson City's Business Resource and Innovation Center
108 E. Proctor Street * [map]
Carson City

CCAI invites you to attend its monthly gathering of artists and arts & culture enthusiasts. Join us for conversation, lemonade, and an ongoing exhibition of art by northern Nevada artists at the BRIC.
CCAI encourages you to bring some of your new artworks to share. Everyone is welcome.

* located at the corner of E. Proctor and Plaza Streets in historic Carson City just north of City Hall.

[image from Wikimedia Commons search for lemonade]

Nevada Expressions

Sierra Arts Gallery
17 S Virginia Street
Reno

The proceeds benefit preservation of the Virginia City National Historic Landmark.

Saturday, September 10, 4 - 8pm
Sunday, September 11, noon to 8pm
Reception for the Artists, both days 5 – 8pm

[image and text from Nevada Expressions press release]

Splendor in the Glass Closes September 9

Splendor in the Glass
through September 9

CCAI Courthouse Gallery [map]
885 E Musser Street
Carson City

There is one more week to visit Splendor in the Glass, the Capital City Arts Initiative's exhibition of Carole and William Hutchison’s XXL Variation III Kaleidoscope at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery. September 9 is the last day that the exhibition will be in the gallery. The exhibition is free and you are invited.

The Hutchison Studio’s XXL Variation III kaleidoscope has eight 28” diameter interchangeable wheels. The Hutchisons created the brilliantly colored 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.