Jack Malotte’s artworks celebrates the landscapes of the Great Basin, with a unique focus on contemporary political issues faced by Native people seeking to protect and preserve access to their lands. Malotte infuses wry humor into his work, even as he delves into subject matter that is sometimes serious and sobering. Malotte’s most recent work reconsiders historical narratives and myths of the American West, refers to Western Shoshone and Washoe traditions and legends, and highlights longtime political, environmental, and legal struggles of Native communities. Join us for a conversation between Jack Malotte and Ann M. Wolfe, Andrea and John C. Deane Family Senior Curator and Deputy Director. 

Doors open at 10:30 am with book sales. Signing to follow the talk.

Join author, photographer and co-founder of Burning Man, Will Roger as he reveals his newest book which includes a substantial collection of Roger’s aerial photos chronicling the ever-changing cityscape and transformation of the temporary Black Rock City. This program will feature a panel discussion between Will Roger, Crimson Rose, Tony Coyote Perez-Banuet and William L. Fox, Director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, moderated by James Stanford.

Doors open at 5 pm with bar. Book signing to follow.

Textile artist Toni Lowden uses fibers to explore color, texture and pattern in her large-scale weavings. Join us for a discussion about the use of textiles to communicate a narrative. 

The Art Bite lecture series is sponsors by Nevada Arts Council and Nevada Humanities 

“The center of the Wašiw (Washoe) world is Da’aw (Lake Tahoe) both geographically and spiritually. Like most native peoples our lifestyles revolved around the environment; the people were part of the environment, and everything was provided by the environment.” 

Join Washoe Tribal Council member, Helen Fillmore as she explores the history and geology of the West Shore through the Washoe oral history combined with modern geological discoveries.

About Helen Fillmore

Helen Fillmore is a research assistant in cooperative extension as she works towards her masters in Hydrology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Helen received her bachelor’s in environmental science and terrestrial resource management at the University of Washington. Helen was a wildland firefighter with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and with the Bureau of Land Management.

Helen currently sits on the tribal council for the Washoe Tribe as an off-reservation representative and is one of just a handful of remaining speakers of the Washu language. In 2017 Helen published an article titled “Using the Washoe Language to Inform Hydrologic and Environmental Models.” Today Helen joins us to share information about West Shore of Lake Tahoe combining Washoe oral history with modern geological discoveries.

Kenneth Carbone is a designer, artist, musician, author and teacher. As the Co-Founder and Artist-in-Residence of the Carbone Smolan Agency, he is among America’s most respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its balance of substance and style. Under his design ethos “unify, simplify, amplify,” Ken has built a reputation for creating outstanding design programs for a world-class clientele for over forty years.

Ken Carbone will share the joys, challenges, and rewards of a career in the arts. He’ll speak about his early love of drawing, how he turned that passion into a very successful 40-year career in design and his most recent pursuits in fine art. This presentation will offer encouraging examples and practices that will inspire anyone involved in the creative profession.

Following a presentation, there will time allocated for a Q & A session moderated by Jeff Pickett.

Ken Carbone is a professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and is a featured blogger for Fast Company magazine as well as Huffington Post. He is a recipient of the 2014 AIGA Medal, awarded to individuals in recognition of their exceptional achievements, services or other contributions to the field of design and visual communication.

Listen to the artist recount how his childhood memories of growing up in a bi-cultural household inspired the semi-satirical social commentary of his autobiographical work.

Susanne Schindler is an architect and historian focused on the intersection of policy and design in housing. Join us as Schindler explores ways in which design and architecture inform planning practices and can be used to address contemporary challenges including housing affordability and urban governance. Schindler argues that we need to understand how we got here if we want to change where we’re going.  

Susanne Schindler currently is a visiting lecturer at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. She completed a PhD on housing, architecture, and inequality in New York City in the late 1960s and writes regularly for a range of publications, including e-flux, Perspecta, and Planning Perspectives. Since 2015, she has been the housing columnist for Urban Omnibus. 

Doors open at 10:30 am with coffee hosted by BRDI.

Sarah Lillegard is an interdisciplinary artist whose installations and soft sculptures are influenced by both traditional craftwork and the landscape of the Great Basin. Lillegard is a member of the Reno Fiber Guild, a writer/photographer for the non-profit Fibershed, and local small flock sheep shearer. Join us for a talk about the natural dye process and how it connects to our local fibershed and environmental sustainability in contemporary craft culture. 

San Francisco-based Lundberg Design is a twenty-person architectural firm and fabrication studio founded by Olle Lundberg in 1987. With a philosophy rooted in environmental sustainability and “nature-inspired modernism,” Lundberg Design thinks long-term, designing singular places that last, buildings that will outlive the builders and spaces that demonstrate how we can live respectfully within the limits of our Earth. 

In addition to architectural design, Lundberg Design utilizes a fabrication shop as part of their core practice. The shop provides a place to experiment with materials and details; a place to build things and emphasizes the notion of craft in their projects. Utilizing process to informs the end result, the act of making is an inseparable part of the design practice at Lundberg Design.

Join us as founder Olle Lundberg discusses the “Five Food Groups” of Lundberg Design: metal, stone, glass, wood and found objects, and how those elements contribute to the unique identity of Lundberg Design.

Olle Lundberg graduated with a Masters in Architecture from the University of Virginia and also holds degrees in English Literature and Sculpture from Washington and Lee University. He moved to the Bay Area in 1980, and currently lives in San Francisco with his wife, Mary Breuer, and their dog Sammy (who also accompanies him to work every day). Weekdays they live in a loft apartment attached to the Lundberg Design metal shop, while on weekends they can usually be found at their cabin on the Sonoma Coast.

Doors open at 10 am with coffee in the Theater Lobby. Program begins at 11 am.

Like a blind date, the exhibition “In Conversation: Alma Allen and J.B. Blunk” stages an encounter between two people who never met but whose work and lives share a deep affinity. The work of the artists Alma Allen and J.B. Blunk blurs the line between design and sculpture, with both men creating evocative organic work from natural materials.

Join us for a gallery talk hosted by Brooke Hodge, Director of Architecture and Design at the Palm Springs Art Museum and curator of “In Conversation.”