For nearly 80 years, the Nevada Museum of Art has worked to develop a permanent collection of fine art unparalleled to that of any other public arts institution in the state. Held in trust for future generations, the collection helps to define the institution’s mission and identity, and continues to grow with each passing year. This exhibition surveys highlights from the permanent collection, with special emphasis on the ways in which past acquisition strategies have helped to inform the Museum’s current collecting initiatives focused on artworks that engage with natural, built, and virtual environments.
With an emphasis on art from the late 19th century to the present, the Museum’s collection is organized into five thematic focus areas. From Native American baskets and historical landscape paintings of the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin region, to contemporary photography of the altered landscape and new media installations that engage viewers’ virtual imaginations, the artworks in the collection elicit a range of responses from the Museum’s diverse audiences.
This exhibition will place objects from the permanent collection into new contexts that explore themes such as: nature and the human body; topography and mapping; urban environments; nuclear, water, and land use issues; and mining in the American West.