Arts Advocacy Updates: Nevada's 2019 Legislative Session
Tilting the Basin, Contemporary Art of Nevada, Nevada Museum of Art traveling exhibition/pop-up exhibition in downtown Las Vegas, 2017. Image Nevada Museum of Art.
Sharing some Arts & Humanities good news and advocacy updates from the 2019 Nevada State Legislative Session. . .
Senators Yvanna Cancela and Joyce Woodhouse advocated for increased funding for Nevada Arts Council and Nevada Humanities budgets for the next biennium, to be included in the comprehensive budget bill.
SB 533, the bill to appropriate $5 million in support of the Nevada Museum of Art’s expansion in both northern and southern Nevada was heard in the Finance Committee on Friday and approved by the committee on Saturday, May 25. It was unanimously approved by the Senate on Tuesday, May 28 and was heard in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee on May 30.
Las Vegas arts advocates’ emails, online opinions and public testimony in support of the arts and arts funding made an impact during the last session. Please continue to remind our elected representatives that the Arts matter and are vital to thriving, caring communities. Here are some arts advocacy actions you may take so we stay on our legislators' radars, our votes matter!
Write, email or call your legislators to express support for state Arts and Humanities funding (Nevada Arts Council, Nevada Humanities). Personal stories are great, consider sharing an art/cultural experience or exhibition that moved or inspired you. If you are a NAC or NV Humanities grant recipient you might share that, too. Find your district here, your senator here, and your Assembly representative here.
Write your state senator and assembly member to express your support for the Nevada Museum of Art Las Vegas at Symphony Park. Thank your senator for their “Yes” vote for SB533.
Easy: express your support for the SB533 at this link.
Write or call Governor Steve Sisolak to let him know you support Nevada Arts Council and Nevada Humanities funding increases, an art museum in downtown Las Vegas, and ask him to support SB533. (775) 684-5670
Email Senator Cancela and Senator Woodhouse to thank them for their support of arts and humanities funding this session. This is Senator Joyce Woodhouse’s last term in the Senate, she has been a dedicated arts advocate in the Legislature.
Thank you for your advocacy and for sharing! Also join Cultural Alliance Nevada’s mailing list to learn how to attend future Arts Advocacy visits to Washington D.C. and Carson City and sign up for Voter Voice Arts Advocacy Action Alerts.
Las Vegas artist JK Russ leads a Community Days collage workshop during Tilting the Basin in downtown Las Vegas, 2017. Image Nevada Museum of Art.
These are images from the exhibition Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada, co-curated by Nevada Museum of Art Curatorial Director and Curator of Contemporary Art JoAnne Northrup; and Las Vegas-based art advisor Michele C. Quinn, MCQ Fine Art, LLC. The exhibition was originally presented at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno in 2016, then traveled to Las Vegas. At the time, NMA partnered with the Art Museum at Symphony Park board of directors to produce the Las Vegas pop-up exhibition on Commerce Street and Community Days programming which included artist talks and creative workshops.
From Nevada Museum of Art’s Art and Culture in Las Vegas document available on SB533’s Exhibits link - “While the Nevada Museum of Art provides organizational expertise and best practices to support the development of the art museum in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas community will define the museum’s identity and priorities, deciding how it will best serve the larger southern Nevada population. The museum will be successful only when all voices are represented, welcomed and engaged in the life of the new museum.”
Justin Favela’s Family Fiesta at Michael Heizer’s Double Negative located in the Moapa Valley on Mormon Mesa near Overton, Nevada on May 9, 2015. Favela’s video documenting the performance was included in the Nevada Museum of Art Tilting the Basin exhibition in Reno and Las Vegas. Justin is a past Nevada Arts Council Artist Fellowship recipient, and his work is on view in Justin Favela and Ramiro Gomez, Sorry For the Mess at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art; in a solo exhibition, All You Can Eat, at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (opens June 1); and Birth, Death and Regeneration at the The Museum of Art and History at the McPherson Center, Santa Cruz, CA (July-October). Image courtesy the artist and Nevada Museum of Art, photo credit Mikayla Whitmore.
Posted by Wendy Kveck May 29, updated May 31, 2019