The Nevada Museum of Art is an accredited art museum dedicated to exhibiting a variety of contemporary and western art, alternative landscape photography, and more.

Located at 160 West Liberty Street in Reno, Nevada, the thematic art museum focuses on the protection and preservation of the land through world-class art and photography and offers a variety of educational programs and community-based projects.

The Nevada Museum of Art was established by Dr. James E. Church, a professor at the University of Nevada in 1931. The museum was renamed the Nevada Museum of Art/E.L. Wiegand Gallery in 1988 after moving to a new four-story facility provided by the E.L. Wiegand Foundation. Today the building houses the Nevada Museum of Art, the E.L. Wiegand Gallery, and the Donald W. Reynolds Center for the Visual Arts.

Permanent Collection

The Nevada Museum of Art features a permanent collection of more than 2,000 works ranging from between the 19th and 21st-century, which is divided into four distinct areas with a focus on built, natural and virtual environments. The permanent collection showcases a variety of perspectives on the ways in which humans interact with the environments through a collection of world-class art.

Contemporary Collection

The Nevada Museum of Art features a developing collection of contemporary art by national and international artists, including paintings, sculptures, digital media, photography, works on paper, and mixed media installations. The Contemporary Collection focuses on shedding new light on contemporary society through art that reflects the institution’s commitment to their artists’ creative interactions with built, natural, and virtual environments. Featured artists include Andrea Zittel, Tim Hawkinson, Petah Coyne, and Lordy Rodriguez.

The Altered Landscape: Carol Franc Buck Collection

The Altered Landscape: Carol Franc Buck Collection is the museum’s largest focus collection and features award-winning landscape photographs from the contemporary genre that concentrate on the impact of human activity on natural environments. Established in the early 1990s, the collection addresses issues related to the ever-changing landscape and how land is used through a diverse representation of artists, ideological positions, subjects, techniques, and visual styles. The Altered Landscape: Carol Franc Buck Collection has a major book called The Altered Landscape book that features 150 images by 100 photographers, which has won the Frances Smyth Ravenal prize for the best publication designed by an art museum in the United States.

The Robert S. and Dorothy J. Keyser Art of the Greater West Collection

The Art of the Greater West Collection has a geographic emphasis on regions ranging from Alaska to Australia. The collections roots are based in the Sierra Nevada/Great Basin region and focuses on making connections between the artistic practices and diverse cultures of the West.

The E.L. Wiegand Collection

The E.L. Wiegand Collection concentrates on the work ethic in American art and features 19th and 20th-century paintings that highlight work environments and the people that work in them. Featured artists include Elsie Palmer Payne, Lorser Feitelson, Jacob Getlar Smith, Carl Oscar Borg, Moses Soyer, Helen Lundeberg, Grandma Moses, Lovell Birge Harrison, and Guy Pene du Bois.

Center for Art + Environment

The Center for Art + Environment was founded in 2009 as an initiative to establish a connection between people and the environment through art. The Center is home to the Museum’s research department and archive’s collection with more than 12,000 items representing works from more than 500 artists from around the world. Archived artifacts and materials include works by environmental architects such as Richard Black (Australia), Smout Allen (England), and Rodrigo Perez de Arce (Chile), and Earthworks artists such as Lita Albuquerque, Walter De Maria, and Michael Heizer. The Center is also home to the ongoing programs of the Land Arts of the American West and the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) and is the only research institute devoted to the study of art and the environment in the world. The Center for Art + Environment hosts a triennial Art + Environment Conference with a variety of international speakers and honorary guests from around the world.

The Nevada Museum of Art offers a variety of arts education programs and cultural programming for all ages from scholars and students with a central focus on the Museum’s collections. Educational programs and initiatives include the E.L. Cord Museum School, which offers art classes for students of all ages; a variety of ongoing through talks, gallery discussions and tours; and volunteering opportunities.

Visitor Information

The Nevada Museum of Art is located at 160 West Liberty Street in downtown Reno.

160 W Liberty St, Reno, NV 89501, Phone: 775-329-3333, website, Map

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