Poetry Out Loud

A portion of the extraordinary art collection of Wally Cuchine, former director of the Eureka Opera House, is featured in "Wally's World" at the Nevada Arts Council’s OXS Gallery through Sept. 18. The public is invited to join the council from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14 for an exhibit reception and collector's talk. Cuchine's discussion of his art collection begins at 6:15 p.m. The exhibit and reception are free.

The Mile High Jazz Band with vocalists Cindee LeVal and June Joplin will be joined by seven poets and readers for "Now Cut That Out," a lively evening of big-band jazz music and poetry.

The event will be on Tuesday, June 9, 7:00-9:30 p.m., at Comma Coffee, 312 S. Carson Street, across the street from the state legislature building in Carson City. Admission is $5 general and free for age 18 and under.

Light sculptures and constructions by Las Vegas artist Pasha Rafat will illuminate the Office eXhibition Series Gallery May 11 to July 10. A recipient of a Nevada Arts Council 2015 Artist Fellowship Grant, Rafat holds a bachelor of science in design from Arizona State University and a Master of Fine arts from California State University, Fullerton. He is a professor at University pf Nevada, Las Vegas where he teaches photography and multimedia courses. The public is invited to an exhibit reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

Artist and painter Paula M. Saponaro presents the final SENarts “Work of Artists” program for 2015 with “RenoScapes,” from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday, May 7 at the Nevada Legislative Building in Carson City. Saponaro will share insights of her inspiration for her latest series “NV150 RenoScapes,” a portfolio that honors some of the Biggest Little City’s most iconic images.

The exhibition “White Pine County Artistry,” with landscape paintings of Dawn Dot Star debuts at the Nevada Arts Council’s LXS Gallery at the Nevada State Legislative Building in Carson City on April 27. The artist specializes in watercolor and pencil depictions of rural Nevada.

Artist and painter Paula M. Saponaro presents the final SENarts “Work of Artists” program for 2015 with “RenoScapes,” from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday, May 7 at the Nevada Legislative Building in Carson City. Saponaro will share insights of her inspiration for her latest series “NV150 RenoScapes,” a portfolio that honors some of the Biggest Little City’s most iconic images.

At 100 years old, Hilman Tobey fashions stone into American Indian art in a form he learned late in life. In a quietly reflective video, Tobey shows an apprentice how his pieces take shape and inspiration for use in traditional ceremonies. A Nevada Arts Council grant helped create “Pipe Makers of the Great Basin.” The film premiered in February and is now online at nac.nevadaculture.org under Nevada Stories.

A bright spot on the second floor brings life and color to the Nevada Legislative Building in celebration of Youth Art Month. Created by children of all ages during the Arts for All Nevada workshops earlier this year, the works show how, students, some with special needs, express creativity and talents with multi-media on paper.

If you have the kind of luck that brings rain as soon as you wash your car, please drive over to Squeaky’s Car Wash at the corner of Highway 50 E and Lompa Lane. It’s their opening weekend and they are offering free car washes and raising funds for the Carson City Community Counseling Center.

If you consider yourself adventurous, then the Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry in Virginia City is for you. It’s not nicknamed the Testicle Festival for nothing! If you need some liquid courage, take part in the Ball Breaker Saloon Crawl. The annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade heads down C Street at noon.

Gardnerville artist Sonia Carlson hosts a free Chinese Calligraphy workshop at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19 as part of the Nevada Arts Council’s “Work of Artists” series at the Nevada Legislative Building in Carson City.

The event runs until 5 p.m. in Room 3100. All “Work of Artists” presentations are free and open to the public.
Growing up in Zhangzhou, China, Carlson learned calligraphy in school and folk dances from her family.

Carson City native Michelle Lassaline is featured in a special SENarts event at the Nevada Legislature from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24. Lassaline invites the public to meet and interact with some of her fanciful characters, including the Highland Cow, Pashmina Goat, Mountain Bluebird, and Wild Burro. Her presentation is part of “The Work of Artists,” a series of programs scheduled throughout the legislative session. Admission is free.

The words of great poets come to life on stage across the state as more than 3,100 high school-aged students compete to represent their county at the 10th Annual Nevada Poetry Out Loud State Finals at the Siena Hotel in Reno on March 14, 2015 from noon to 3 p.m.

Sarah Lillegard works in what she calls second skin. The Reno artist featured in the latest show at the Office eXhibition Series Gallery works in fabrics that explore group identity, belonging and symbols, in garments sometimes called clan jackets.

The attire is said to communicate meaning, cultural legacies and myths. The OXS exhibit “Second Skin” is free at the Nevada Arts Council, 716 N. Carson St., in Carson City, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through April 17. Lillegard will discuss her work at a public reception from 5-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18, with an artist talk at 6:15.

“Pine Spirit” by Sande Rowan comes to the Legislative eXhibition Series Gallery Feb. 2 Working with Native American basket makers in the Southwest, Sande Rowan learned coiling techniques she incorporated into her own style as a professional basket maker. Her “Rainbow Spiral” pine needle basket is among her works featured in “Pine Spirit” at the Legislative eXhibition Series Gallery Feb. 2-20 in the Nevada Legislative Building.

The 2014-2015 school year marks the 10th anniversary of the Poetry Out Loud program. Since 2005, more than 16,000 students throughout Nevada have powered up poetry by memorizing and reciting the words of classic and contemporary poets. Students can be a part of this creative community and join the celebration of the spoken word.

Nearly 30 years ago, the Nevada Arts Council and its partners created a radio series that would chronicle the fabric of Nevada folk heritage from experts in local arts that include bit and spur making, the language of gaming, neon glass blowing, cradleboarding and more. In celebration of the state’s 150th birthday, the full 13-episode series “Home Means Nevada 1986: Folklife in the Silver State” has been digitized.

Words become pictures, framed art in their own right, as poetry and prose by beloved local writers are exhibited at the Nevada Arts Council’s OXS Gallery in Carson City. In “Words + Images: Broadsides from the Black Rock Press,” 34 one-sided printed pages show the work of noted authors, produced with handset type and relief plates. The exhibit runs Sept. 8 to Oct. 31.

Professional artists and ensembles of all disciplines are invited to apply to the Nevada Arts Council’s 2015–2018 Artists in Schools + Communities Roster. The roster is designed as an online resource for schools, organizations and communities to broaden and diversify participation in the arts by engaging artists in educational and community cultural residencies and programs. Roster artists visit host schools and organizations to share their expertise and encourage active learning in the arts.

Nevada poets and fiction writers have a unique new opportunity to express themselves and compete for an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to meet with top literary professionals, including editors, agents, publishers, and prominent writers. Poets & Writers, the nation's largest nonprofit organization serving creative writers, has selected Nevada as the only state to participate in its annual Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award program.

The Folklife Program of the Nevada Arts Council has named Las Vegas residents Gary and Sheldeen Haleamau as recipients of the 2015 Nevada Heritage Award. The Haleamaus are recognized for preserving, perpetuating and presenting their native Hawaiian culture throughout Nevada.

The National Endowment for the Arts will award $768,500 in grants to the Nevada Arts Council, the Western Folklife Center, the Churchill Arts Council and the Nevada Ballet Theater as part of the second half of NEA’s fiscal year 2014 funding, Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced Thursday.

The NAC was awarded $663,500 for the third year of its Partnership Agreement Grant, which supports the agency’s programs, outreach activities and various grant categories.

To honor all those who write, read and breathe poetry, the Nevada Arts Council will highlight a new poem on Facebook every day, Monday through Friday, in April for National Poetry Month, a celebration established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets.
 

The public is invited to the 2014 Nevada Poetry Out Loud Competition State Finals at the Siena Hotel Spa Casino Ballroom in Reno Saturday, March 15, from noon to 3 p.m.

Fifteen students who gained the status of district finalists after a series of local competitions will vie for awards totaling $4,000 for the first, second and third place winners and their respective schools.

Because art builds communities, the Nevada Arts Council is examining the efforts, wants and needs of towns across the state as it builds a three-year plan to support local efforts.

The Arts Council is launching a series of local arts town meetings to engage in conversations with Nevadans. Staff plans to explore the cultural needs of large and small communities, the role of the arts in the Silver State and to evaluate NAC’s role as a state agency.

Henderson artist Robin Stark’s ceramics are featured in the Nevada Arts Council’s OXS Gallery in Carson City from Dec. 9 through Jan. 31.

The work featured in Robin Stark: Ceramic Reflections represents a recent trend in which the artist’s ceramic forms become entirely sculptural. From the time spent in her first ceramic class in college, the material continues to engage Stark with its versatile and aesthetic qualities.

“The work fluctuates, presenting the viewer different considerations of what can be made in clay,” Stark said.

Finding ordinary magic just became a little easier for Amanda Aldridge, who teaches high school English in the agricultural community of Yerington, 80 miles outside of Reno. Thanks to money awarded through the Nevada Poetry Out Loud Program, a national poetry recitation competition for high school students, Aldridge added $500 in her budget for resources to help students overcome fears and experience the magic of poetry.

The work of Las Vegas artist Robin Stark, a recipient of a 2014 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Nevada Arts Council, is featured in the exhibit at the College of Southern Nevada Artspace Gallery on the Cheyenne Campus. “Ceramic Reflections” is displayed Oct. 4 through Nov. 29, with an artist reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 11.

The Nevada Arts Council has hired Mary Works Covington of Carson City as its community arts development program coordinator. A native Nevadan, Covington grew up in Silver City and has traveled to every corner of the state. Well-versed in the history of Nevada, she has connections with a number of the state's arts and cultural organizations as a consultant, program specialist and artist.

The Nevada Arts Council has awarded five Folklife Apprenticeship grants for 2014. The grants support projects developed by master artists and apprentices who share a common cultural background and an interest in preserving a specific traditional art.

A panel of specialists reviewed seven applications that requested $15,300 to support the work of master artists, along with supplies, tools, materials and related travel costs necessary to complete the apprenticeship. Five applicants were approved for full funding by the NAC board in June.

Grants went to:

By making the words of great poets literally come to life, more than 2,600 high school students across the state are competing to represent their county at the Eighth Annual Nevada Poetry Out Loud State Finals at Reno’s Whitney Peak Hotel, formerly CommRow, Saturday March 16, noon to 3 p.m.

A program of the Nevada Arts Council, Poetry Out Loud is a distinctive national arts education event that encourages students to learn about, memorize and finally present poetry --out loud. Nevada’s 2013 theme of “Powering Up Poetry,” is a nod to NV Energy, co-sponsor of the event.