Every plant in the surrounding landscape has fought, migrated, and evolved to survive. In the Great Basin, plant communities are diverse and resilient, and Elizabeth Leger’s research lab is focused on understanding what enables individual plants to thrive despite drought, invasion, fire, and grazing pressure. Join Dr. Leger as she shares some of the most surprising discoveries from her work, including moments when her assumptions were challenged.

Enjoy a free screening of this short documentary film exploring the life and work of Carmen Herrera, a pioneering abstract painter in the 40s and 50s. A discussion with Aspara DiQuinzio, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, to follow the screening. 

Caitlin Bell, Jeane Jones Director of Public Programs at the Nevada Museum of Art, discusses the ways in which dance and visual art have influenced and complemented each other, shaping cultural expression and artistic innovation from classical to contemporary periods. 

The Dancing Class by Edgar Degas, 1870, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The 1930s marked a pivotal period in the history of fashion. The Great Depression left a lasting impact on society and the fashion industry, alike. It was during this period that popular Hollywood stars became a major influence on fashion trends. Join us for a discussion with Megan Bellister, Nell J. Redfield Curator of Learning and Engagement at the Nevada Museum of Art, on why the Great Depression reshaped 1930s American fashion through practical necessity and Hollywood glamour.

Join Jean-Paul Perrotte, Associate Professor of Composition and Director of the Electro-Acoustic Lab at the University of Nevada, Reno, as he discusses the creation of an immersive soundscape for the exhibition Deep Time: Sea Dragons of Nevada. Drawing from the ancient, mysterious world of prehistoric sea reptiles, Perrotte will discuss how sound can help bring the deep history and vast scale of Nevada’s prehistoric past to life. 

Modern machine learning has origins in human learning, taking cues from human perception to build, train and evaluate machine learning models. As machine learning (ML) has begun to outperform humans in many challenging tasks, the focus has shifted from modeling humans to simply improving performance of these ML models. Join Dr. Emily Hand, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Director of the Machine Perception Lab, as she details approaches to explainable attribute recognition, prominent feature recognition and face recognition, and the influence of human perception.

Join Dr. Paula Noble, Professor and Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, as she discusses diatoms, a group of algae that produce intricate skeletons of glass. There are over 20,000 known species of diatoms inhabiting virtually every moist environment, and contributing 20-30% of the oxygen we breathe. Learn more about their life and habitat and discover how diatom arrangements became an art form and fascination of amateur naturalists in the Victorian era. You will hear about the masterful techniques used to create these tiny works of art and take a tour of many beautiful micro-mosaics captured by the bright field and dark field photography, featuring works by Johan Diedrich Möller (1844-1907), Henry Dalton (1836-1912), Eduard Thum (1847-1926) and Klauss Kemp (1937-1922). 

Image courtesy of The Magazine Antiques

Microscope slide of diatoms, sponge spicules, butterfly-wing scales, synapta plates, and wheels of chirodota (sea cucumber), probably made by Eduard Thum (1847–1926), sold by Watson and Sons, London, c. 1880. Collection of Howard Lynk.

One of the best climate and oceanic record keepers through deep time are marine fossils, including ichthyosaurs and reefal ecosystems, which fossilize extremely well and have millions of years of data to share. The marine fossil record of Nevada shows one particular mass extinction record with eerily similar conditions to today. Join Montana Hodges, paleontologist, professor and science writer, to learn about mass extinctions of the past and present. 

Join Artist Thomas J Price and Arts Leader and Cultural Strategist, Yesomi Umolu for an in-depth conversation exploring Price’s powerful investigations into identity, perception, and representation. Known for his monumental figurative sculptures, Price challenges dominant narratives by centering fictionalized yet deeply resonant characters—often underrepresented in public art—through a hybrid practice that blends traditional sculpture and digital innovation.

The talk will focus on Price’s recent work Grounded in the Stars (2024), featured in his upcoming exhibition. The piece—a serene, life-sized depiction of a fictional Black woman—invites viewers to reconsider how value, presence, and dignity are visually constructed. The discussion will also touch on Price’s evolving practice, including a new painting created during his residency at the Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, and the wider implications of his upcoming solo exhibition and public installations in New York City.

Together, Price and Umolu will unpack how form, scale, and representation intersect to create new possibilities for human connection and cultural recognition.

Registration is free and made possible by the Joyner/Giuffrida Visiting Artists Program.

Back in 1809, Mary Anning collected the first ichthyosaur skull known to humans in England, shocking the Victorian society. Since that time, we have found more than 100 species of ichthyosaurs from around the world, across various time segments of the Dinosaur Era. Join Ryosuke Motani, Professor of Geobiology and Paleobiology at UC Davis, for an overview of different types of ichthyosaurs through time, illuminating their evolution in the sea while dinosaurs roamed on land.