Nevada Humanities presents the Nevada Humanities Literary Crawl keynote event, featuring speaker Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir. 

In Heavy, Kiese Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed, black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. A personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood—and continues through 25 years of haunting implosions and long reverberations. Heavy, shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Kirkus Prize, was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by the New York Times and other publications. There will be a question and answer session following the reading and presentation, hosted by Dr. Nasia Anam. Heavy: An American Memoir is a 2019 Nevada Reads book. 

A book signing will follow the program. 

Laymon is the keynote speaker for the sixth annual Nevada Humanities Literary Crawl, which takes place on Saturday, September 14, throughout the California Avenue corridor.

For more information about the Nevada Humanities Literary Crawl and for the full schedule of events, visit nevadahumanities.org

This event is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required. 

*Free admission to this program is sponsored by Nevada Humanities and the Nevada Museum of Art as part of the Nevada Humanities Literary Crawl

D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovation, Creativity, and Energy) brings together creatives, artists, and designers for a half-day symposium featuring speakers whose work celebrates and advocates the value of good design. Join us for D.I.C.E. 2019 as we explore the theme REDUX. While the ideas of the past are always revived, D.I.C.E. will delve into how design re-imagines and re-envisions those ideas, and fits them into contemporary environments. Without history and context, our world would not be as complex and interesting, and arguably, neither would design. 2019 D.I.C.E. presenters have been challenged to examine the concept of REDUX and how it is applied to the design process. 

As part of the symposium, D.I.C.E. will host a chair design competition that challenge designers to re-imagine the basic aluminum folding lawn chair, an easily recognizable with much the potential for evolution and innovation. For more information on D.I.C.E., the speakers and the chair competition, please visit designconferencenv.com

2019 SCHEDULE: 

2:30 pm | Benjamin Luddy and Makoto Mizutani of Los Angeles-based, Scout Regalia
3:30 pm | D.I.C.E. Design Competition Award
4 pm | Kerry Rohrmeier on Washoe ArTrail
5 pm | Beer & Bites
6 pm | Keynote Speaker: Rick Joy, Principal of Studio Rick Joy

AIA members can earn three (3) AIA LU(Learning Units) by attending the full event. 

NOTE: If you are not able to participate in the full D.I.C.E. Conference, but would like to purchase a ticket to the Keynote lecture featuring Rick Joy, please click here for a separate ticket option to attend the Keynote only. 

As a benefit of membership, active members of the Nevada Museum of Art are invited to preview the exhibition “Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern” before it opens to the public. Enjoy extended gallery hours, visit with gallery hosts, enjoy live music by Milton Merlos. Southwest style tapas and drinks are available for purchase at chez louie. 

Not a Museum Member? Join today and enjoy this sneak peek at the only venue in the Western United States to offer a new look at an iconic artist through her art, fashion, and style. For more information on membership, click here or contact Director of Membership, Ela Zawadzka.

The Museum and chez louie will be closed all day Thursday, July 4 in observance of the holiday. 

Please note, First Thursday has moved to Thursday, July 11.

Indulge your senses at an exclusive four-course dinner and wine experience featuring a creative menu prepared by chef Mark Estee and his chez louie team paired with premier wines including Roederer Estate L’Ermitage 2011, Altamura Cabernet Sauvignon 2014, Daou Soul of a Lion 2016, Quintessa 2015, and Sebastiani Cabernet Sauvignon 2015.

Reservations required at 775.284.2921 or bchilds@renolfg.com.

$190 / $170 Members / All Inclusive

As a prominent public speaking coach and former political fundraiser, Amy Ayoub always encouraged her clients to be authentic and to share their personal stories—painfully aware that she wasn’t ready, yet, to tell her own. Then, in 2012, she learned about Nevada Assembly Bill 67, a bill designed to fight sex trafficking. The Zen Speaker: Breaking the Silence charts Amy’s transformational journey from a tumultuous childhood in Las Vegas to her emotionally wrenching testimony before the Nevada State Legislature in 2013.  A personal portrait, the film explores the emotional and physical devastation associated with sex trafficking; being a survivor; public vs private personas; and finding one’s voice in unexpected ways.

Following the screening there will be remarks by Director Robin Greenspun and “The Zen Speaker,” Amy Ayoub. Discussion will be moderated by Amanda Horn.

View the trailer here.

In 2017 artist Kellee Morgado along with a group of interdisciplinary graphic designers presented an exhibition “SEAM” designed to challenge and modify consumer behavior by altering unwanted clothing. Through screen printing, repairing and re-purposing clothing the group worked to transformed undesirable articles of clothing to pieces of value in a gallery setting. Join us as Morgado shares the observations on waste and consumption in the fashion industry as formed by the project “SEAM.” 

Following the talk, visitors are invited to view the exhibition “Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern.” O’Keeffe’s signature style of dress embodies modernism through form, function and sustainability and features re-purposed, repaired and interchangeable articles of clothing.

Kellee Morgado is an interdisciplinary designer and artist. She received her BFA in graphic design at Appalachian State University (2017) and currently resides in Reno, Nevada as the Redfield Fellow at the Black Rock Press (2018-2020). She has a particular attraction to artist books, typography, printed matter, and letterpress and enjoys exploring this intersection of books, print, and design.

The Art Bite series is supported by Nevada Humanities.

Georgia O’Keeffe saw the modern world in unique ways, including the way in which she perceived the sky. Blue tones, clouds, and unusual perspectives of the horizon characterize much of her work. This talk will focus on O’Keeffe’s representation of the southwest sky in her paintings and fashion as well as in photographs of the artist.

Dr. Brett M. Van Hoesen is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The Art Bite series is supported by Nevada Humanities.

From an early date, Georgia O’Keeffe’s reputation as an artist was tied to her image; a public person crafted principally through photography. Central to this was her relationship, beginning in 1917, with Alfred Stieglitz. But Stieglitz was not the only photographer who made her a frequent subject. Friends, including Ansel Adams and Todd Webb, captured O’Keeffe in more candid moments. This talk focuses on photographs from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s collection. 

Dr. Ariel Plotek is Curator of Fine Art at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Prior to this, he served as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the San Diego Museum of Art, where his projects included Gauguin to Warhol: 20th Century Icons from the Albright Knox Art Gallery, Ron Nagle: Peripheral Cognition, The Art of Music, Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture, Modern Masters from Latin America, and Nancy Lorenz: Moon Gold. He received his undergraduate degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art, in London, and his PhD from the New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts where he studied under Linda Nochlin and Robert Rosenblum. In addition to his research, he is also an artist and writer. 

The period when Georgia O’Keeffe crafted her signature style of dress was also one of great development and change in American fashion at large. Against the background of war in Europe, a worldwide Depression, and the rise of Hollywood, America’s nascent fashion design industry sought to develop a distinctly American style to break free from the perceived dominance of French fashion.  This talk will look at the elements and sources of O’Keeffe’s signature wardrobe and locate them within the larger story of American fashion of her era.

Melissa Leventon, a founding partner of Curatrix Group museum consultants, is a specialist in European and American fashion and textiles.  Formerly Curator-in-Charge of Textiles at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco she has organized exhibitions involving art media ranging from contemporary glass to the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Melissa has been a consultant to museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, The Textile Museum, and the Chicago History Museum. Since 2006 she has also served as a senior consultant to the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok.  

Melissa has authored or contributed to numerous publications and was recently featured as an on-screen expert in the “California” episode of PBS’s Craft in America series.  In addition to her curatorial and appraisal work, Melissa teaches fashion history and theory at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

The Art Bite series is supported by Nevada Humanities.