The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno is the state’s only accredited art museum, and late last month it celebrated the official opening of a massive, $60 million expansion. The Charles and Stacie Mathewson Education and Research Center added 50,000 square feet to the museum, including a new research library, classroom, rooftop garden, and more than 20,000 square feet of gallery space.
The facility, which grew from 70,000 to 120,000 square feet, was paid for entirely by private donations.
It’s an exciting moment for the museum as CEO, David Walker, joined staff, donors, and contributors to cut the ribbon on its recent expansion. He said this is the culmination of nearly a decade's work.
“What we've done that I think is really incredible by working with the same architect is that we've connected a 19-year-old building with a brand new building, and it all looks the same,” he said. “On the outside, you could see some articulation of the new with the old, but when you come in. We've redesigned so much of the interior that it feels like just one big museum, and we now own the whole block.”
Walker says this while standing in front of one of the museum’s newest fixtures, Centuries of the Bristlecone, an 11-foot-tall pendulum clock that measures time as we perceive it, as well as in Bristlecone time, an homage to the state tree and one of the oldest living organisms on the planet.
According to Walker, it’s a work of art set inside a work of art.
“We've been working as a staff with the architect for many years to look at how we could better accommodate and facilitate the vision for the museum to have a better connection to the community and to do a better job of presenting the permanent collections and to really put a fine point on our commitment to education, lifelong learning and access,” said Walker. “And here we are standing today, in what I think is one of the more beautiful buildings, certainly in Nevada.”
Will Bruder is the architect. He’s the one who designed the building when it originally opened in 2003. With his background in sculpting, he says, he wanted to create a building that would not just serve a purpose, but also reflect the community. So, he looked to Nevada’s rugged landscapes.
"Things that tie the original building with this building, material-wise, are its blackness," said Bruder. "With this inspiration from the nature of the Black Rock Desert, and looking at how the sun plays on the natural geology. That offers clues to your imagination of how I manipulate or play with that idea and translate it into the matter of a simple tile?"
Of course, these aren’t just simple tiles lining the exterior of the building. They’re dark gray rectangles, almost black, placed in long vertical lines. They randomly alternate between a smooth and craggy texture, like rock strata. They were produced specifically for this project, and Bruder worked side-by-side with the builder to ensure that each one was placed just so.
"I knew the tile I wanted to use, I knew what it represented," he continued. "It's unglazed, it has this blackness, it has its iridescence, but it's like belly buttons. There are innies and outies. So, when you look closely at the skin, 50% of the skin is backwards, and it's the back of the tile that's out rather than the inside. And so that's how you get again a play of variability, and again you're playing with a geological metaphor. Anyway, you're trying to create something that feels so organic, so natural that it just happened."
After the ribbon-cutting, museum members were invited to explore the new layout during a special event. A crowd of people sporting everything from ball gowns to camo shorts wandered the exhibits.
Currently on display are the works of Judith Lowry, exploring Native American creation stories, legends, and traditions. There’s photography and pottery. And there’s even a small temporary exhibit about Langston Hughes and his time in the Biggest Little City. It features a recording of the famed Harlem Renaissance poet.
Another exhibit tells the story of Nevada’s prehistoric past. Peter Barber and his wife, Karen, take in the sights as they walk down a hallway where toy dinosaurs hang from the ceiling and cast shadows on the wall. They hadn’t seen everything yet, but were pleased with the museum's progress.
"I'm just so proud of Reno," said Barber. "That they're able to do something like this... that they have people here that would contribute to this, and the museum leadership, must be amazing. And the board to have a vision and to make it work out like this … absolutely amazing. Hard to believe this is Reno, Nevada. It is pretty special."
For others, like Alissa Surges, the expansion is symbolic of Reno’s evolution from a down-on-its-luck casino town into an arts and culture destination.
"Obviously, the stereotypes about Reno still persist very much, and some of them are true," said Surges. "I mean, Reno is a town that's definitely changing, but I think the museum sort of reflects this kind of mix of what Reno has to offer."
For Museum CEO David Walker, the expansion underscores something he has known for a long time… Despite the Nevada Museum of Art’s relative size compared to many institutions around the globe, it’s having an outsized impact on the art world.
Part of that renown comes from the museum’s permanent collections, which include more than 2,500 pieces of altered landscape photography. The museum has also invested in expanding its Art of the Greater West Collection, which showcases Indigenous art and culture.
Those collections also help pay the museum’s $18 million annual operating budget.
"People think, 'Oh, you work at the art museum, how much fun that must be," Walker said. "Well, it is fun, but it is a lot of work too. There's a lot to it, but we see that about 20% of our annual operating revenue comes from donors and foundations in L.A., Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and so forth, and that's because the museum has a reputation. And when you do great work, you get support in places you never expected."
In addition to the expansion, officials also recently unveiled a new logo, which now consists solely of a simple bold capital “N.” They say the change helps “reflect the museum's ongoing commitment to innovation, stewardship, and environmental awareness.”
