History
The oldest cultural institution in the state of Nevada, the Nevada Museum of Art was founded in 1931 as the Nevada Art Gallery by Dr. James E. Church, a Professor of German and Classics at the University of Nevada, Reno. Church was the first on record to summit 10,776-foot Mount Rose and build a snow survey station on the mountain, he was intricately connected to the area’s natural resources and an early example of the Museum’s interest in art and environment. In 1949, the Gallery obtained a facility and the foundation of a permanent collection at the bequest of Church’s friend and co-founder, Charles F. Cutts. In 1978, under the guidance of its first professional staff, the Nevada Art Gallery purchased Hawkins House, a national historic landmark building overlooking Reno's Truckee River. Upon moving into the new facility, the organization's name was changed to the Sierra Nevada Museum of Art.
In 1988, the E.L. Wiegand Foundation provided the Museum with a new 15,000 sq. ft. facility and the institution was renamed the Nevada Museum of Art / E.L. Wiegand Gallery. Five years later, in 1993, the Museum received initial accreditation from the American Association of Museums, a credential held by less than 5 percent of the nation’s 16,000 museums. That same year marked the development of the E.L. Cord Museum School, a studio-classroom allowing its educational services to expand, and the start of an ambitious program to increase its permanent collection.
In 1999, the Museum was awarded the prestigious National Award for Museum Service by the Institute for Museum and Library Services in Washington D.C. honoring outstanding museums that demonstrate a commitment to public service with innovative programs that address social, economic, or environmental issues.
The New Nevada Museum of Art
The Museum’s expanding programs, growing permanent collection, increased attendance and quadrupled membership base made it necessary to launch a $22 million campaign in 2001 to build and endow the new Nevada Museum of Art, The Donald W. Reynolds Center for the Visual Arts, E.L. Wiegand Gallery. Designed by internationally renowned architect Will Bruder, the new Museum opened on May 24, 2003 with more than 120,000 visitors in the first year.
The four-level, 60,000 sq. ft. building is inspired by geological formations of Nevada’s landscape offering expanded feature exhibition gallery space and Museum Store, a 180-seat multimedia theater, café, library, permanent collection galleries and tow outdoor sculpture galleries. With its torqued exterior wall, suspended atrium staircase and views of Reno’s skyline as well as the Sierra Nevada, the building is recognized as one of the most distinguished architectural; achievements in Nevada.
Today
Since 2007, the Nevada Museum of Art has made significant strides towards evolving its visual arts and educational programming and elevating its status among its peer institutions. Today, the Nevada Museum of Art welcomes more than 81,000 visitors each year, receives support from more than 7,000 members and operates on an annual budget of $4 million.
The only nationally accredited art museum in the state, the Museum features exhibitions by national and international artists with a permanent collection of 19th through 21st century art. Divided into five focus collections, the permanent collection is unified by an overall emphasis on art and environment: The Altered Landscape: Carol Franc Buck Photography Collection; Contemporary Collection; Sierra Nevada/Great Basin Collection; Historical Collection; and the E.L. Wiegand Collection. This thematic specialization is a natural outgrowth of the institution’s collecting practices over the years and offers varied perspectives on the ways in which humans interact with their natural, built and virtual environments.
In January 2009, following the success of the first Art + Environment Conference in 2008, the Museum launched the Center for Art + Environment (CA+E) appointing William L. Fox as its first director. Today, the CA+E is an internationally recognized research center that supports the practice, study and awareness of creative interactions between people and their natural, built, and virtual environments. The CA+E operates a gallery space within the Museum, as well as a Research Library and Archive that now includes materials from more than 200 artists and organizations across six continents.
In 2009, the Museum undertook a major re-branding effort to refresh and update the institution’s visual identity. Working with award-winning L.A.-based designer Brad Bartlett of Brad Bartlett Design, the new graphic identity directly refers to Nevada’s physical environment by engaging images of geothermal patterning and topography and employing the color silver as a nod to the mining legacy of the region.
