Collateral & Co. returns to the Museum for a multi-disciplinary, evening-length dance work that examines the fragile and ephemeral nature of life through the presence and experience of the endangered monarch butterfly. Fragments of Existence follows the butterfly’s remarkable metamorphosis – its delicate appearance, the threat to its survival, and its graceful, impermanent existence – as a mirror to explore human transience, the passage of time, and our own vulnerability within the larger web of human life.

Featuring poetry by Melanie Perish and Collateral & Co. Artistic Director, Caitlin Bell, time-lapse sketching by scientist and artist Tiffany Pereira, and choreography by Caitlin Bell in collaboration with Collateral & Co. Dance Artists, the boundary between human and insect blurs, emphasizing our shared fragility and interdependence. Offering a reflection on our own place in the ever-changing fabric of life, Fragments of Existence is a call to awareness and action: a celebration of beauty, a meditation on mortality, and a call to protect what is at risk before it is too late.

*Doors open at 6:30pm with a cash bar 

This coming-of-age documentary directed by Paige Bethmann follows Ku Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner. As Ku struggles to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete, the memory of his great grandfather’s escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future.  Stay after the screening for a panel discussion. 

In celebration of Older Americans Month, the Museum offers FREE admission to seniors every Wednesday during the month of May.

In celebration of Older Americans Month, the Museum offers FREE admission to seniors every Wednesday during the month of May.

In celebration of Older Americans Month, the Museum offers FREE admission to seniors every Wednesday during the month of May.

Mary Anning was a pioneering paleontologist and fossil collector, yet little is known about her life. Anning’s history is incomplete and contradictory, her lifetime was a constellation of firsts. Join us for a discussion with Megan Bellister, Nell J. Redfield Curator of Learning and Engagement, as she places Mary Anning in historical and cultural context through the fashions of the time.

Denise Dutton, Statue of Mary Anning, 2022

Using camera lenses made of glacier ice, artist Tristan Duke explores our current moment of climate crisis. As Peter E. Pool Fellow at the Nevada Museum of Art’s Center for Art + Environment, the artist used his ice-lens camera to document the rapidly melting glaciers of the Sierra Nevada. Join us for a talk concluding his fellowship, and a preview of his book “Glacial Optics” forthcoming from Radius Books. 

Wendy Calvin, a planetary scientist specializing in optical and infrared spectroscopy of minerals and ices, discusses many different planets, why scientists believe these planets have interior oceans and upcoming missions that will expand our understanding in new ways. 

Join Museum volunteer docents for a discussion of Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray making connections to the exhibition When Langston Hughes Came to Town. Participants should have completed the book prior to meeting. Register online for guiding questions that will be discussed at the book club. Arrive early to place a lunch order with the Café! Space is limited, advanced reservations are recommended.

Before moving to Reno, Langston Hughes became deeply involved in the arts and politics of San Francisco and Carmel-by-the-Sea. He supported the Scottsboro Boys trial by organizing a celebrity auction in San Francisco and participated in the 1933 California strikes. His activism led to an unproduced play and threats that forced him to leave Carmel. Seeking safety, he went to Reno in September 1934, as described in his unpublished essay “The Vigilantes Knocked at My Door.”

In Reno, Hughes developed a new artistic perspective shaped by his experiences in the American West, contrasting the region’s promise with the severe poverty he encountered. Traveling through the South and California, and experiencing homelessness firsthand, he created two of his most powerful stories, “Slice ‘Em Down” and “On the Road.” Join Alex Albright as he retraces Hughes’s steps through the Biggest Little City and beyond.