Barrick Museum gives orphaned Zine Library a new home for trove of DIY delights
After languishing for close to a year-and-a-half in a closet following the closure of The Beat Coffeehouse & Records, the Las Vegas Zine Library has finally found a new home in the UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum.
“I knew that we would find some kind of home — we were just really holding out for something that felt right,” says Zine Library custodian Jeff Grindley, who cofounded the library with his girlfriend, Stevie Seiler, in 2010.
Although the museum features only a third of the library’s total collection of around 2,000 zines, readers can flip through hundreds of category-based publications, including music, photo, political, poetry, and literary-themed zines.
“There’s something for everybody,” says the museum’s interim director, Alisha Kerlin.
She believes the museum’s partnership with the library is important not only for engaging more with UNLV’s student and faculty body, but the community as a whole, too.
“The enormous amount of effort with our small and humble staff was to swing the doors open and debunk that attitude that things that happen at the university are elitist,” Kerlin says. “The community is welcome.”
The museum also plans to host monthly community workshops in which people can contribute their own zines, and making an online database of its current collection. “We’re just really grateful and excited to see where it takes us, and excited to promote more zine culture here in Vegas,” Grindley says.