Join local Paleontologist Rebecca Hall as she explores Triassic trace fossils in Nevada.

Triassic trace fossils are well documented and researched from the Moenkopi Formation/Group, 240Ma, spanning across the Colorado Plateau of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico. These fossils, however, have never been formally documented or researched in Nevada until vertebrate trackways (footprints) from several different species were recently discovered. These specimens show exceptional preservation, including the presence of skin impressions. The discovery of tracks was first noted by Chester Longwell in 1928 when they were reported in a geological survey, but the tracks were never fully documented. After the discovery of vertebrate trace fossils in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area by Becky Hall, a proper scientific study is currently being conducted to contribute a better understanding of Triassic trace fossils in relation to regional and local reconstruction of paleoenvironments. These tracks represent the oldest Mesozoic vertebrate traces from Nevada, and some of the western-most terrestrial Triassic traces in North America expanding the record of Moenkopi ecosystems further afield. 

Join Garrett Barmore for a trip through time exploring Nevada’s geologic history as it relates to ichthyosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Learn about the W.M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum, its collections and its history. 

Garrett Barmore is the Curator at the W. M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum at the University of Nevada, Reno. Barmore is an alumnus of UNR and received his Master’s in Museology from the University of Washington. Garrett has worked as the curator of the Keck Museum for over 10 years and has given hundreds of presentations and tours about Nevada’s ancient past. The Museum’s paleontology collection represents millions of years of life in Nevada.

The apparent emptiness of the Nevada desert is very special to artist Elaine Parks and holds a psychic space, where the quiet and openness of the landscape allow her imagination to roam.

Parks’ inspiration comes from tufa and other kinds of rock formations and textures. Intended to elude identification yet remind the viewer of something they’ve seen in the outdoors, Parks’ work encourages the landscape to come alive in the viewers’ imagination.  Join Elaine Parks as she discusses the artwork she produced for Deep Time: Sea Dragons of Nevada.

Join us to explore Seven Magic Mountains in virtual reality with Luka Starmer. The University Nevada Reno Libraries and the Nevada Museum of Art have teamed up to create an immersive virtual reality experience of Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains. This project allows viewers to virtually explore the vibrant sculptures in their actual form and scale, while experiencing the landscape and the people who visit it, all without ever leaving Northern Nevada. Beyond bringing the piece into the virtual reality, this project serves as a valuable archival tool, digitally preserving this captivating work of art in perpetuity, ensuring wider access, and fostering a deeper understanding of the iconic piece. The VR experience will be available in the E.L. Cord Museum School during regular hours. 

In 1901, Maynard Dixon and his artist-friend Edward Borein rode horseback from Oakland, California, into Carson City, Nevada, on the first leg of an epic thousand-mile-ride through the northern Great Basin. Along the way, both men sketched and studied cowboy life and the ranches they visited. Join Griff Durham as he traces their journey through northwestern Nevada, northeastern California, and Southern Oregon, with a special focus on their illustrations. Griff Durham is an historian who has been interested in cowboy horse gear and Great Basin ranching traditions for over 50 years and has guest curated and consulted on exhibitions at the Western Folklife Center in Elko, NV.

Sophia Borgias, Ph.D. and Kate Berry, Ph.D. discuss the politics of water as they relate to Charlotte Skinner’s time in Lone Pine, California during the Los Angeles Water Wars.

Sophia Borgias, Ph.D.,  Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Programs at Boise State University, is a human-environment geographer whose research and teaching focuses on water and environmental governance in the arid Americas. Her most recent research has focused on conflicts over rural-urban water transfers in the Great Basin region, as well as the “unlikely alliances” of environmentalists, ranchers, and Tribes that have formed to protect rural landscapes and livelihoods from their impacts. She is also engaged in ongoing collaborative research about Indigenous land and water rights in Payahuunadü, the Nüümü/Newe territory encompassing the Owens and Mono basins in eastern California. Her prior research focused on social mobilization in response to large dam and hydropower development in central and southern Chile. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography at the University of Arizona and holds a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Oregon.

Kate A. Berry, Ph.D. is a Professor in Geography at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research interests focus on water governance, geographies of social identity, and resource extraction. She has experience in water and environmental conflict analysis and studies the cultural politics of water, working extensively on Indigenous water issues.

Collage, as a mode of visual culture, has long been associated with the prospect of rewriting history. Relatedly, it is a site for the material realization of visual trickery, fantasy, time travel, and much more. This talk, given by Brett M. Van Hoesen, Ph.D., examines the history and culture of collage in conjunction with the exhibition of Nick Larsen’s “Old Haunts, Lower Reaches.” 

Explore the arc of Latin American art and Guillermo Bert’s place in that history with Juan Carlos Guerrero Hernández, Assistant Professor of History of Art at the University of Nevada, Reno. 

About Juan Carlos Guerrero Hernández: 

Juan Carlos Guerrero Hernández’s interdisciplinary research in modern and contemporary art and visual culture focuses on the crossing between decoloniality, memory, violence, performance, gender, moving image, and photography in the Americas and the Global South. His research has been published in reputed journals such as TDR The Drama Review, Photographies, Cinergie—Il Cinema e le altre Arti, Revista Chilena de Literatura, and edited books (see Publications). He is currently working on two book projects. His research and teaching have been awarded merit-based grants such as the National Research Grant in Visual Arts, The National Research Grant in Dance, and the merit-based travel Grant from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center. He was also awarded the National Prize in Art Criticism. Guerrero Hernández has organized international symposia in contemporary art history and performance philosophy and has been a keynote speaker at art and academic events. He has directed interdisciplinary doctoral dissertations, master’s thesis, and undergraduate projects in Art History, Art, and Architecture, and is interested in advising graduate and undergraduate research, community-engaged, and curatorial projects at the University of Nevada at Reno. Before joining the University, Guerrero Hernández served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Art History at Kalamazoo College and Assistant Professor at Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia).

Musica Sierra and Carolyn Enger, critically acclaimed pianist, engage in an inspiring musical performance and conversation about climate change.  Resonating Earth is a multimedia solo piano performance that creates a meditative space for listeners to engage with music and environmental art in order to directly inspire environmental action afterwards.

About Musica Sierra: 

Musica Sierra was conceived in 2019 by musicians who desire to bring the benefits and enrichment of the fine and performing arts to the Sierra County community in Northern California. Seeing a need for both educational experiences in the public school system and arts engagement in the local community, the group has and continues to build programming and outreach that serves both these groups. Musica Sierra is now the sole provider of music education to hundreds of children and is growing the influence of the arts in the region.

Sydney Cain (aka sage stargate) (she/them), is a visual artist born and raised in San Francisco, CA. Their work reflects encounters with unseen realities. Cain’s work draws on their ancestry at the confluence of landscape, afterlives, and spiritual well-being of Black people. Join us as Cain discusses their practice and current artist residency in Nevada. Cain’s work, And They Are Not Afraid of the Night Because They Are the Color of It, 2021 is part of the Museum’s permanent collections and was on view in the 2022 exhibition In Frequencies.