Reception for Allison Rasmussen March 3

Silver City, Nevada – A public reception for emerging Carson City artist Allison Rasmussen is being hosted by the Resident Artist Program in Silver City on Saturday, March 3 from 2:30pm -5:30pm at 142 High Street at McCormick House, the housing for visiting artists with the Program. Rasmussen's new artwork will be unveiled during the reception, which will include refreshments plus live music by Mylo McCormick.

About the Artist: Allison Rasmussen is an honors student at Argent Preparatory Academy, studying art at Western Nevada College through their early college entry program, "Jump Start College". She will complete an Associate degree this year at age 18.

As the Resident Artist Program’s winter visiting artist, Rasmussen has created a number of paintings, as well as a new permanent artwork for the Program, using one of Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet David Lee's poems as its inspiration.

During his 2016 visit, Lee wrote “Silver City Dawn Psalm,” a poem about watching the sun rise in Silver City. It was later nominated for a Pushcart Prize and will be included in his new book of poetry, scheduled for release in 2018.
UTAH POET LAUREATE DAVID LEE VIEWS ALLISON RASMUSSEN'S PAINTING INSPIRED BY ONE OF HIS POEMS ABOUT SILVER CITY NEVADA

Each year, the Resident Artist Program in Silver City hosts at least one young emerging artist, as well as established artists.

Previous Artists in Residence: During the reception, work by previous visiting artists such as internationally acclaimed photographer Frances Melhop, Oakland-based artist/writer Scott MacLeod, New Zealand artist Sophie Scott, and British artists Stewart Easton and Claire Scully will also be on display.

Painting and drawing of the art studio at McCormick House by British artists Stewart Easton and Claire Scully.

About Silver City and the Resident Artist Program: Silver City is located within one of the nation's federally designated historic landmarks, three miles from Virginia City and 29 miles from both Reno and Lake Tahoe. The town's irreplaceable historic buildings and sites, and its crystal clear views of the Sierras and the Comstock, attract visiting plein air painters and photographers from across the country. Recently declared an "Arts and Cultural Resources Production Center," Silver City is already home to a surprising number of Nevada's highly productive artists, musicians, artisans, academics and other innovative thinkers and unique souls. The Resident Artist Program provides a venue for those from other parts of the U.S. and the world to engage with the town and the Northern Nevada region through the arts. Visiting artists reside at the unique Resident Artist guest housing, a geodesic dome designed by artist Jim McCormick in 1972, in exchange for offering free public performances, exhibitions, workshops, etc.

More about the Resident Artist Program:
https://www.facebook.com/silvercitynevadaresidentartistprogram/

Harry Bruce: Comstock King of Dixieland Piano

Silver City, Nevada - Harry Bruce, a Ragtime Dixieland pianist, lived in Silver City with his wife, poet Irene Bruce, for many years. He was a popular performer in Virginia City saloons during the later 1950s and 1960s, but before that, he played night clubs in Los Angeles and Hollywood, and was with Fred Nagel, Jr., and his Dixieland Band, playing Northern California shows. Earlier still, Harry Bruce was accompanist for David Brinkley’s NBC Television show Marriage Mills of Nevada, where his gift for turning tunes such as Mendelssohn’s Wedding March into ragtime was ballyhooed.

According to 1950s newspaper articles, Harry Bruce began playing piano when he was 10 years old. As a young man he was on a number of radio shows, including The Voice of Oklahoma on KVOO in Tulsa. Over the years he made recordings for stations such as KOLO in Reno and KPTL in Carson City.

By 1958, he had mastered hundreds of songs and was playing at the Great Western Bar and Cafe in Virginia City six days a week, “playing nostalgic melodies, happy melodies, devil-may-care melodies.” According to a 1958 Reno Gazette Journal article, “the stirring notes of a rag time piano reach out...and pull you...off the board sidewalk to listen to Harry Bruce, known on the Comstock as the King of Dixieland Piano.”

Swami Pooja of the Silver City Ashram recalls seeing Harry Bruce playing piano in Virginia City in the 1960s, when she and her aunt were there as tourists. She asked him to play the song “Red Wing” and he did, perfectly. Coincidently, years later, she bought the Silver City house where Harry Bruce once lived. The house, and a number of homes nearby, later became the Silver City Ashram. More about the Ashram, and Swami Pooja, later...

I haven’t been able to find information about exactly when Harry Bruce moved to Silver City, or precisely when or where he was born. If anyone knows and would like to share, please contact me.

HARRY BRUCE AT A NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY, 1949 or 1950. DETAIL FROM A PHOTO BY GUS BUNDY, FROM UNR'S SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.

Winter and Spring 2018 News With the Silver City Citizen in Mind

Silver City has many of its own arts and culture events, and our community is also located near the many arts and culture events of our sister city, Carson City, as well as Tahoe, Reno, Virginia City, etc. Following are a few winter/spring 2018 events and programs in Silver City and our surrounding region that may be of interest:

Mementi Mori Exhibition: A free reception and artist talk by UNR’s Paul Baker Prindle will be held Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 at the Nevada Arts Council’s OXS Gallery in Carson City. The reception starts at 5:30 p.m. and the artist talk at 6:15 p.m. For nearly a decade, Baker Prindle has documented sites from California to New York that look extraordinarily ordinary, downright banal. Yet each of these places and their everyday landscapes has an important story to tell. His Mementi Mori series documents locations across the country where hate crimes against gay and lesbian individuals occurred. His images build on the traditions of portraiture, but quickly confound those traditions by using index, vernacular conventions, and the landscape to evoke impressions of the body that go beyond what is visually represented. The OXS Gallery is located at 716 N. Carson St., Suite A, in Carson City. The photographs will be on view until March 9th, 2018. More details: http://artscarsoncity.com/event/mementi-mori-paul-baker-prindle-nac-osx-gallery/

UNR Exhibition Reflexions: Artist Jim McCormick, who designed the unique home now used to house visiting artists with the Resident Artist Program in Silver City, has artwork in Joan Arrizabalaga’s new University Nevada, Reno exhibition. UNR galleries curator Paul Baker-Prindle asked Joan to choose pieces from the university’s permanent collection and create responses to them. She selected a few pieces from about 5,000 pieces owned by UNR, “including...a couple of lithographs of architectural interiors by the late Jim McCormick, who was a long-time UNR professor and a friend. ..She contemplated her selections for a while, then made a fresh body of work. Now, the pieces from the gallery’s collection and Arrizabalaga’s new works hang together in UNR’s Sheppard Gallery. Interior drawings of her own living room hang next to McCormick’s lithos..." Her exhibition, Reflexions, is on view at the Sheppard Contemporary Gallery in UNR’s Church Fine Arts building through February 23, 2018.

Abstractions is a new exhibition in Reno at the Sierra Arts Foundation gallery featuring the work of internationally exhibited artists Susan Watson and Nes Lerpa. Stop by Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Feb 24 2018. Danish artist Nes Lerpa brought a pop-up show of his large scale abstract paintings to the Silver City School House in 2014, and donated copies of his book Nes Nevada to the local volunteer library, and donated a number of his smaller paintings to help fight the encroachment of open pit mining on Silver City.

Silver City Historic Cemetery Advisory Committee Meets Saturday, February 24, 2018 - 11:00 am at the School House. On the agenda: discuss preservation of the historic section of the cemetery and construction of a new section.

Monthly Acoustic Jam at the Silver City School House, Saturday, February 24, 2018 from 3pm-5pm and Saturday March 24 from 3pm-5pm. Bring your instruments and play along with everyone. All are welcome.

Symphony: Diane Kotik of Silver City will perform with the Carson City Symphony Concert on Sunday, February 25 at 4:00 pm at the Carson City Community Center. Cellist Stephen Framil will be performing American composer Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2.

Culinary Arts: The public is warmly invited to join dietitian Kim Mason and chef Cynthia Kroon for a free healthy cooking demonstration, followed by dinner, on Monday Feb 26th at 5:30pm at the Dayton Valley Community Center at 170 Pike Street. Bring a friend or meet news ones at the free class. There’s no need to register, and everyone is welcome. On the menu this month: Asian noodles with peanut sauce, Crunchy Pea and Turkey Salad, and Warm Blueberry Crisp. Questions? Call Healthy Communities at 246-7550 or see healthycomm.org

Artist Reception at McCormick House: There will be a reception on Saturday, March 3 from 2:30pm -5:30pm for the Resident Artist Program in Silver City’s winter visiting artist, Allison Rasmussen.Stop by for light refreshments, plus live music by Mylo McCormick, and see what she's created during her Residency this winter. (McCormick House is the housing for visiting artists with the Resident Artist Program). Allison is an honors student at Argent Preparatory Academy studying art at Western Nevada College through their early college entry program which will allow her to complete an Associate degree by age 18. Each year, the Resident Artist Program in Silver City hosts at least one young emerging artist.

Meet and Greet with Sarah [McCormick] Peters at McCormick House: There will be a meet and greet with Assembly District 24 candidate Sarah Peters on Saturday, March 10th at 2:30pm at McCormick House. The event includes appetizers, an opportunity to see some of the artwork in the permanent collection of the Resident Artist Program, and time to discuss issues with Sarah. At heart, Sarah is a problem-solver who has dedicated her career to strengthening Nevada. With over a decade of experience in Environmental Engineering, she has been part of a team that provides technical support for complex site cleanups such as the Yerington Anaconda Mine CERCLA Site in Northern Nevada and the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin. She understands federal and state regulations and how those affect Nevada families’ quality of life. Sarah will spend her time in the Assembly advocating for everyday Nevadans, prioritizing clean air, safe water, good schools, and jobs with living wages. As a homegrown candidate who was born and raised in Nevada and attended its public schools, Sarah has a deep understanding of the region, and she’s equipped to fight for Nevadans. Sarah is the granddaughter of artist Jim McCormick and businesswoman Sandy McCormick, who built McCormick House in Silver City in 1972.
Photo: SARAH PETERS

New Book of Poetry and More: This winter emerging artist Allison Rasmussen is creating a permanent artwork for the Resident Artist Program in Silver City using Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet David Lee's poem "Silver City Dawn Psalm" as its focus. His poem about a sunrise in Silver City, which has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, will be published in a new collection of poetry next year, along with other poems he wrote during Residencies in Silver City in 2016 and 2017. In more good news, he’s visiting Silver City again this February 2018 and is being interviewed by KNVC (where Silver City’s Joe McCarthy is General Manager). David Lee is Utah’s first and longest serving poet laureate. He was named one of the 12 greatest writers to ever emerge from the state by the Utah Endowment for the Humanities. He was previously considered as a candidate for Poet Laureate of the United States, and his books Last Call and Bluebonnets, Firewheels, and Brown-Eyed Susans were both nominated for a Pulitizer Prize.

DAVID LEE AT THE SILVER CITY SCHOOL HOUSE

The exhibition Mountain Picassos:Basque Arborglyphs of the Great Basin will be at St. Mary's Art Center in Virginia City from March 12—May 4, 2018. http://nvculture.org/nevadaartscouncil/exhibitions/nti-traveling-exhibition/nti-schedule/

Silver City Arts group meets at the Silver City School House on Wed March 14th at 7pm. Contact Dr. Carol Godwin for more details: godwinsilvercity@aol.com

Spring Visiting Artist in Silver City: The Resident Artist Program’s Spring 2018 Resident will be Megan Berner of Reno, who has also experienced an art residency in the Arctic Circle. Megan explains , "One thing I was struck by while in the Arctic was how similar the geology is to Nevada...In some ways, they are both extreme environments...[Both Nevada and the Arctic are] dramatic, awesome, stark, vast, I would even use sublime in the true sense of the word for both, stunningly beautiful and maybe a bit harsh." Megan creates site-specific installations that incorporate video and sound and constructs performative scenes that ultimately exist as photographs. She has a Masters in Fine Arts in Intermedia with a minor in drawing, and is the public art program coordinator with the City of Reno's Arts, Culture and Events department where she works to further the City's public art goals and maintain its public art collection.

MEGAN BERNER

International Collaboration: Two of the Resident Artist Program in Silver City’s previous Residents, Danish writer Peter Krogh Andersen and emerging Nevada artist Marielle Toll, are collaborating. When Peter met Marielle in 2017, he asked her if she'd be interested in illustrating his short story, "The Beast". Now the two are collaborating to publish the illustrated allegory. Peter writes, "It was actually written with Europe in mind but the presidential campaign suddenly made it fit the US. The kinds of animals have been changed after my stay in the dome [McCormick House] - and now with Marielle’s drawings the cross-continent circle is complete."

PETER KROGH ANDERSEN, MARIELLE TOLL, SAM TOLL, CHRISTINA BALSVARDE, THEO MCCORMICK AT MCCORMICK HOUSE 2017

True Grit: In May and June, Carson City will host a series of events funded by the National Endowment of the Arts. The Big Read is centered around True Grit, the Charles Portis novel that tells the story of a young girl, Mattie Ross, who seeks to avenge her father's murder with the help of Rooster Cogburn, a man she thinks has true grit. There will be about 30 separate events, according to Mark Salinas, director of Carson City Arts and Culture. Silver City native Mylo McCormick will perform during a reception for an art show and the NEA True Grit kickoff event at the Western Nevada College gallery on May 3 at 5pm. Photo: MYLO MCCORMICK

At the Nevada State Museum, Carson City in February:

Frances Humphrey Lecture Series: Victorian Fashions and Dress Reform by Jan Loverin.Thursday, February 22, 2018 – 6:30 to 8:00 pm at the Nevada State Museum, Carson City. This lecture is an engaging look at women’s 19th century fashions. Reservations needed. Contact Mary Works Covington at 689-4810 ex. 224 or mcovington@nevadaculture.org

Plants and animals of Nevada by George Baumgardner, Ph.D. Friday, February 23, 2018, 10:00 am and 1:30 pm. Contact Holly Payson 687-4810 ext. 222 for reservations.

Basketry Collection by Gene Hattori, Ph.D. 10:00 am and 1:00 pm – Basketry Collection by Gene Hattori, Ph.D. Contact Holly Payson 687-4810 ext. 222 for reservations.
.
For purpose of brevity: School House = Silver City School House/community center at 385 High Street, Silver City, Nevada 89428.

Fred Swanson and the Resident Artist Program

Silver City, Nevada - When he heard of the passing of long time Silver City denizen Fred Swanson, Utah's Poet Laureate David Lee wrote, "Alas, alas: I loved that man." David Lee was one of many visiting authors and artists with the Resident Artist Program in Silver City who Fred befriended.

Like so many others, I’ll always miss and fondly remember Fred, who passed away on Dec. 24, 2017. He was a supporter of all things creative and an extraordinarily kind, thoughtful, generous, intelligent, skilled, and talented human being, a lover of good -natured fun, and a secret doer of unsung good deeds.

Fred at McCormick House, attaching a nameplate he created for the USS Silver Clipper, which was made collaboratively by Silver City folks and Oakland artist Scott MacLeod, 2016.

His earth-sheltered, energy efficient home, which he carefully designed and built himself in the 1980s, sits just south of McCormick House where visiting artists with the Resident Artist Program stay during their Residencies, which last anywhere from two weeks to several months.

Fred was key to the success of the Resident Artist Program in Silver City. In my role as Director of the Program, I witnessed Fred’s neighborliness and enthusiastic involvement with the Residents, who come from across the U.S. and the world. As a man with an extraordinary range of skills and talents and endless curiosity, Fred appreciated the particular skills, talents and interests of each visitor. He welcomed them with challenging, high desert walking tours of Silver City's "outback", useful tips on local history and culture, use of his well-appointed workshop, help with transporting their artwork, gifts of rare found objects, and much more.

Fred giving a mountain hiking tour of Silver City to writer Peter Krogh Andersen and Christina Balsvarde, both of Denmark, 2017. Photo courtesy of Peter Krogh Anderson.
Fred’s connection with the artists began through his love of all living creatures. Michigan artist Brian Schorn arrived at the Resident Artist Program in 2015 just after a feral cat gave birth to four kittens under McCormick House. He helped Brian tame the mother cat and the kittens. Good homes were found for all of the kittens, but not for the tiny but fierce and not-quite-tame mother cat. Fred adopted her, giving her the life of a cat princess with her own room, saying, “She’s suffered enough.” Later, this cat, who he named Sweetie Pie, was immortalized as "Fred's rattlesnake killing cat" in Pulitizer-Prize nominated poet David Lee's 2016 poem, "Silver City Dawn Psalm." Althought she became a pampered indoor cat, she still ventured outside now and then to kill some of the town’s enormous rattlesnakes, sometimes leaving them at the door of McCormick House as a gift (or warning?) to our visiting artists.

In addition to helping Brian tame the kittens, Fred took him on long hikes around the Comstock, showing him where to find the fascinating historical detritus – bits of old bottles, dishes, toys, and medicine bottles from the 1800s – that Brian incorporated into more than 20 artworks that became his “Comstock Wabi Sabi” series. The exhibition has since been shown at St. Mary’s Art Center in Virginia City, and three locations in Reno, including Truckee Meadows Community College. Brian dedicated his January 2018 newsletter to Fred, describing him as “my dear friend,” and noting that “the work I created while a Resident Artist in Silver City would not have been possible without the kindness of Fred. I am so grateful for our friendship and the good times we shared."

After Brian left, Fred had a burst of creative energy, creating dozens of assemblages from Comstock found objects that he left along a popular local walking trail in the hills surrounding Silver City. One of the most photographed is his kinetic trailside artwork, made with pieces of green desert glass ingeniously woven into the remains of a 19th Century ore shoot. Fred’s assemblages have inspired local artists, and visiting artists, who have added their own pieces to the trail over the last few years.

PHOTO BY EVANGELINE ELSTON

Fred also shared friendship with Oakland-based artist and writer Scott MacLeod. He helped Scott install a tribute to Comstock legend Bob McKinney high in the hills above Silver City. Startled hikers sometimes happen upon the beautiful ship model art piece and post their find on Instagram. Scott created the ship with found objects in 2016 while he was at the Resident Artist Program. Fred also created the unique name plate for another ship, the USS Silver Clipper, a collabortively made artwork created by Scott and Silver City locals in 2016 that was later on display at St. Mary’s Art Center.

PHOTO BY JONATHAN BYRNSIDE

The artists and writers who’ve visited were equally smitten with Fred, and they photographed him and his artistic creations, recorded his stories and wrote about him. For instance, some of Fred’s stories about Silver City and why he chose to make it his home, and a large scale portrait of Fred, are preserved in Frances Melhop's Comstock Portrait Project which was presented as a solo show at UNR and at the Haldan Gallery at Lake Tahoe Community College in 2017. Fred's portrait was taken, and his stories were captured, at the Silver City School House in 2016 while Frances was a Resident Artist in Silver City.

PHOTO BY FRANCES MELHOP OF HER COMSTOCK PORTRAIT PROJECT EXHIBITION AT UNR 2017.

Over his lifetime, Fred expressed his own artistic skills through the creation of unique homes, vehicles, jewelry, woodworking, glasswork and more. When he graciously gave tours of his home to our visiting artists, they photographed the astounding range of beautiful things he built, such as a reclining Morris chair with clawfeet, a bright orange Ford Model A truck with wood paneling, an imitation Victorian Cottage he built for his daughter next to his own unusual earth sheltered home, jewelry made with things such as bits of broken dishes left by the Chinese men who built rock walls in Silver City in the 1800s, etc.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER KROGH ANDERSEN

Today we keep photos and a number of mementos of Fred at McCormick House - one of his beloved Christmas cacti, a colored bottle, a tiny glass Buddha. We’re working on a spring garden in memory of Fred; it’s on the west side of McCormick House and includes a purple lilac, honeysuckle bushes, and an ever-expanding number of tulips. Thank you, Fred, for the beauty you brought to the world.

Memorial: Fred’s daughter Las writes that “a service will be held to honor the memory of Fred Swanson’s life, his humor, his contribution as a whole and to each of us individually, to comfort each other in our loss and say our good byes. Dessert and coffee will be served. All whom he had the good fortune to know or were touched by him are invited to attend. Please feel free to dress casual, burning man or formal; whatever suits you. The colors purple and orange were his favorites! Please bring an interesting, inspirational or funny story or memory if you would like to share. No flowers please. If you wish to make a financial remembrance, please donate to the NEVADA HUMANE SOCIETY-Spay/Neuter Program, 549 Airport Rd, Carson City, NV 89701.” The memorial takes place on

Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 1 p.m.
at the Carson Plaza Hotel Event Center
211 E. 9th Street
Carson City, Nevada 89701

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN SCHORN, 2015.

Resident Artist Program Winter 2018 Newsletter

Silver City, Nevada- The winter visiting artist at the Resident Artist Program in Silver City is emerging artist Allison Rasmussen, an honors student at Western Nevada College. Our Program hosts at least one young emerging artist each year. Meet Allison and see what she’s created during her Residency this winter at a reception at McCormick House on Saturday, March 3rd from 2:30pm-5:30pm. The reception includes appetizers and music by Mylo McCormick.

Our Spring 2018 Resident will be Megan Berner of Reno, who has also experienced an art residency in the Arctic Circle. Megan said, "One thing I was struck by while in the Arctic was how similar the geology is to Nevada...In some ways, they are both extreme environments...[Both Nevada and the Arctic are] dramatic, awesome, stark, vast, I would even use sublime in the true sense of the word for both, stunningly beautiful and maybe a bit harsh." See some of her remarkable work at her website: https://www.meganberner.com/

In other news:

New Artwork and Poetry Publication: This winter emerging artist Allison Rasmussen is creating a permanent artwork for the Resident Artist Program using Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet David Lee's poem "Silver City Dawn Psalm" as its focus. Lee’s poem about a sunrise in Silver City, which has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, will be published in a new collection of poetry next year, along with other poems he wrote during Residencies in Silver City in 2016 and 2017. In more good news, Lee will visit Silver City again this February and will see Rasmussen’s artwork based on his poem.

International Collaboration: Two of our previous Resident Artists, Danish writer Peter Krogh Andersen and emerging Nevada artist Marielle Toll, are collaborating. When Peter met Marielle in 2017, he asked her if she'd be interested in illustrating his short story, "The Beast". Now the two are collaborating to publish the illustrated allegory. Peter writes, "It was actually written with Europe in mind but the presidential campaign suddenly made it fit the US. The kinds of animals have been changed after my stay in the dome [McCormick House] - and now with Marielle’s drawings the cross-continent circle is complete."

Sharing Artwork by New Zealand Artist Sophie Scott: We were lucky to have Sophie as a Resident in both 2015 and in 2017. She generously gifted a number of her paintings and stencils, based on historic photos of Virginia City, Silver City, Sutro and Lake Tahoe, to the Resident Artist Program. We are seeking venues in Carson City and elsewhere to show them. They were previously in shows at St. Mary's Art Center (Oct-Dec 2017) and Silver City (2015 pop-up show).

Silver City’s new podium and postcards: During their 3 month Residency in 2017, Sue Mark and Bruce Douglas of Oakland worked with the community to create an absolutely beautiful artwork that doubles as a unique town podium, plus a dozen postcards celebrating the town’s strengths and recent history. They write, “Based on messages collected in the post office, as well as histories gleaned from town gatherings, hikes and visits with local archeologists, inventors and thinkers, we created civic tools for advocacy and preservation...Built with a town craftsman, the podium is dedicated to righteous stories, authentic free speech and preserving this community's spirit of generosity. A potluck in the community center inaugurated the podium with open-mic storytelling and music.”

Scott MacLeod: We’re seeking venues in the region to display the beautiful found object ship artwork created collaboratively by Oakland artist Scott MacLeod and Silver City residents in 2016. The ship was on view at St. Mary’s Art Center during the summer of 2016. Read about that ship and Scott’s other work during his Residency here: https://silvercityreads.blogspot.com/2016/08/following-is-scott-macleods-beautifully_77.html

Brian Schorn's Comstock Wabi Sabi exhibition, featuring 22 assemblages created with local found objects during his Residency in Silver City, was on view from December 6, 2017, until Wednesday, February 7, 2018 at TMCC. This was the 4th solo show for the collection, which is being championed by Sierra Arts Foundation through their Galleries at Work Program. View each fascinating piece in the Comstock Wabi Sabi series here:
https://brianschorn.com/comstock-wabi-sabi/

Frances Melhop's Comstock Portrait Project, which includes many photos of locals taken during her Residency here in 2016, was on view at the Haldan Gallery at Lake Tahoe Community College Sept-Dec 2017, and at UNR in Nov. 2017. Details: http://www.rgj.com/story/news/local/leader-courier/2017/09/21/show-features-portraits-lyon-and-storey-residents/691824001/

PHOTO OF WORK IN PROGRESS BY FRANCES MELHOP

Some of UK artist Claire Scully's gorgeous work can be viewed on her website. Claire was one of our 2016 Resident Artists. http://www.clairescully.com/

PHOTO OF STEWART EASTON AND CLAIRE SCULLY IN DAYTON, NV BY FRANCES MELHOP

Are you following London-based artist Stewart Easton? He was one of our 2016 Resident Artists. Since then, his brilliant work has been shown in LA, New York, Portland and London (including at the Tate Modern; the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University; and the V&A in London!) Using folk song and story as a starting point, Stewart weaves story-based narratives within his tapestry based works. http://www.stewarteaston.net/new-blog/

For more information, see the Program’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/silvercitynevadaresidentartistprogram/ or contact director Quest Lakes at quest@theodata.com.

Award-winning Scientist Barbara Zielinska and Silver City

Silver City, Nevada – Silver City, a community located in a National Historic Landmark near Virginia City, has a way of attracting remarkable people. Sadly, we’ve lost a number of them in recent years, including iconic radio music pioneer and news commentator Travus T. Hipp; Renaissance man Fred Swanson; and artist Jim McCormick, to name just a few.

During the summer of 2017, another extraordinary person with deep ties to Silver City, scientist Barbara Zielinska, passed away. For more than 30 years, Dr. Zielinska was a world expert in applying advanced organic chemistry knowledge to atmospheric air quality (including fundamental air quality research in Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, and Reno).

Summary of accomplishments: Throughout her career Dr. Zielinska made significant contributions to air quality research, advancing understanding of chemical processes that affect air quality, visibility, climate, and ultimately human health. She taught in the University of California system, and later became a full professor at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno. There she established and developed their Organic Analytical Laboratory, which she turned into one of the premier global laboratories for organic chemistry analyses and utilized this capability on topics ranging from groundbreaking tunnel studies of car emissions to biomass burning and the impacts of hydraulic fracturing. She authored or co-authored 125 peer-reviewed papers and made presentations at scientific conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally. Her work attracted more than $17 million in research funding during her time at DRI - most from competitive national programs such as the National Science Foundation. Dr. Zielinska was recognized with DRI's Women of Achievement Award in 1999 and DRI's highest recognition, the Dandini Medal of Science, in 2002. In her later years she became president of Satyachetana International and bought a house on Main Street in Silver City adjacent to the Silver City Ashram. She mastered advanced meditation techniques, which she taught to aspiring spiritual seekers.

Further details about Dr. Zielinska’s life and important work: Barbara Zielinska was born in Lódz, Poland in 1946. Even during her childhood she had a keen interest in science. As a young woman, she earned a Master's of Science degree from the Lódz University of Technology, and a doctorate from the Polish Academy of Sciences. A 1981 Humboldt Scholarship allowed her to continue her research at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. Soon after her arrival in Germany, Poland was taken over by a military regime that declared martial law; with the Polish universities in disarray and the future of scholars uncertain, she decided to immigrate to the US, taking a visiting position at the University of California: first at San Diego, then at Riverside. Zielinska came to the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno in 1989 as an Associate Research Professor, and in 1997 was awarded full professorship. She worked at DRI until her retirement in 2015.

During her tenure at DRI, she established, developed, and sustained their Organic Analytical Laboratory. Her research included development of measurement methods for organic compounds present in both ambient air and emission sources; atmospheric transformations of organic compounds; and exposure measurements of hazardous air pollutants. The combined capabilities of OAL and the Environmental Analysis Facility positioned DRI scientists to conduct many of the most significant air quality studies of the past three decades. The data from these studies were used to establish relationships between pollutant emissions and downwind pollutant concentrations; results provided the basis for developing control strategies for attainment of national air quality goals.

Zielinska authored or co-authored 125 peer-reviewed papers and made presentations at scientific conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally. Her service to the scientific community included membership on the National Research Council Committee on Risk Management and Governance Issues in Shale Gas Development and U.S. EPA Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee as well as active participation in scientific societies and peer reviews for numerous scientific journals. She was recognized with DRI's Women of Achievement Award in 1999 and DRI's highest recognition, the Dandini Medal of Science, in 2002. You can find her resume here: http://www.dri.edu/images/directory/resume-108.pdf

Despite her numerous responsibilities, Zielinska found the time and energy to cultivate her adventurous side: she was an avid skier, mountain biker, hiker, kayaker, and an inveterate world-wide traveller. She practiced the demanding hatha yoga of bikram until her retirement.

Silver City: In her later years, Barbara Zielinska bought a house on Main Street in Silver City adjacent to the Silver City Ashram. She was "multi-dimensional, but everyone agrees that one dimension that nourished all the others was her spirituality". She was the president of Satyachetana International (SCI) where she was known as Vidya, for nearly a decade. She mastered many advanced meditation techniques, which she also taught to aspiring spiritual seekers. Her influence continues through other SCI board members and those in the Satyachetana Movement who meet regularly at the Silver City Nevada Ashram. A celebration to honor her life was held at the Silver City Ashram in August 2017. Vishnudash OM wrote, “One of the realizations manifested by Vidya (Barbara) was that of Verse 222 of the Bhagavad Gita, the scripture at the core of the yoga path that she followed, and on which she led others. That verse says that a person that has attained true wisdom sees the same soul in every living being, whether it is a learned person, a cow, an elephant or an outcast. For Vidya, all were one, and she loved all equally, with never a bad word about anyone. She truly saw and felt the same soul in all.”

Adapted from Barbara Zielinska's obituary, and from a tribute to her written by her DRI colleagues.

https://www.dri.edu/newsroom/news-releases/5539-in-memoriam-dr-barbara-zielinska

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/rgj/obituary.aspx?pid=186385865

Silver City’s Volunteer-Powered Library

Silver City, Nevada - The Silver City Volunteer Library has thousands of books thanks to donations from Lyon, Carson, and Washoe library systems, and individuals and groups across the U.S. And since Silver City is a community of book lovers, there have been donations of materials from just about every household. The collection includes something for most interests and for every age. Our little library has no regular hours, but locals can borrow books whenever they're at the Silver City School House (community center) for a town event or meeting. Most of the collection is stored in the basement of the School House so that there is plenty of room for other uses on the main floor. Volunteers rotate the books every three to four months, and new arrivals are added each month so there are always new things on the shelves.

History: The Volunteer Library began around 2003. It first existed as a casual collection at the School House with a few book shelves that locals browsed during "Coffee House Fridays" and other events. After the original Silver City School House burned, the books that survived the fire were kept at the Silver City Fire Station and the collection gradually grew while the School House was being rebuilt. By the time the collection was moved to the new School House building in 2008, it included thousands of books.

The Collection: The library includes books by current and former Comstock residents such as Robert G. Elston , Robert Elston Jr., Karen Wright, David Toll, Jim McCormick, Shelia Swan, Shaun Griffin, and Peter Laufer, as well as publications by visiting writers and artists such as Pulitzer-Prize nominated poet David Lee and Danish artist Nes Lerpa. There are hundreds of titles in the sci-fi and mystery categories, as well as best sellers, poetry, and a broad range of nonfiction. Due to a generous donation from local artist Karen Kreyeski, the library has a section on art history and selected artists, including works on Picasso, Wahhol, Escher, Goya, Gaughin, Klimt, van Gogh, O’Keeffe, Judy Chicago, and Aubrey Beardsley. Former residents Kristen Bachler and Betty Kaplowitz have made several large donations over the years, including multiple new copies of novels such as Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Orwell’s 1984 when their book store closed last year. Many have thoughtfully donated collections of classic literature that had been cherished by their parents or spouses. United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra has been a generous donor of children’s books.

Public Programming: Even though Silver City's is a tiny volunteer-run library, by partnering with other groups it has been able to offer arts and cultural programming such as history lectures, book signings, and performances. For instance, Dr. Sue Fawn Chung, an expert on Chinese-American history, came from Las Vegas in 2006 to give a well-attended lecture on 19th century Chinese contributions to the Comstock. In 2010 Dr. Doris Dwyer gave a Chautauqua living history performance in which she portrayed the famous photographer, Margaret Bourke-White, who, coincidentally, married novelist Erskine Caldwell in Silver City in 1939 when the couple toured Nevada. Both events were supported through Nevada Humanities.

Over the years the library has sponsored book signings and meet and greet events with authors such as geographer Robert Elston Jr and artist Jim McCormick. And the library has also partnered with groups like Silver City Arts and St. Mary’s Art Center to co-sponsor readings by award-winning writers such as Shaun Griffin, and pop-up art shows by internationally known artists such as Nes Lerpa of Denmark. During the years when the Harry Potter books were all the rage, the library partnered with Healthy Communities Coalition to host several Harry Potter-themed parties that nearly every kid in town attended.

Contact: Silver City's volunteer-run library is located within the Silver City School House at 385 High Street. For more information, contact Quest Lakes at 847-0742 or see the library’s Facebook page.
A version of this article appeared in the Mason Valley News in 2018.

Finding Silver City Poet Irene Bruce

Silver City, Nevada - One of the things that continues to come as a surprise about Silver City is how often it is erased from recent history. For instance, although an unusual number of Nevada artists, writers and musicians have made the tiny town their home since the 1960s, their place of residence is often listed as Carson City, Reno or Virgina City. There have been very well known artists who’ve made their home in Silver City for twenty and even thirty years who are nevertheless always listed as Carson City residents in art exhibition catalogs. Partly this has been due to a desire for privacy on the part of some of these Silver City denizens. But it has also been an error of more urban biographers, researchers, and reporters who assume that Silver City is not a “real” community due to its size, or that it must be merely a place to sleep, a “ghost town” not worth naming. And perhaps, people who aren’t familiar with the area hear “Silver City” as “Virginia City” because they don’t realize that the historic village exists at all.

So of course I was delighted to discover the seldom reported fact that prolific poet Irene Bruce and her husband, Harry Bruce, a Ragtime Dixieland pianist, lived in Silver City for many years. Some of Irene's poetry can be found in her books A Legend of Pyramid Lake; Crag and Sand; and Night Cry. Her first book, Crag and Sand, was self published but was so popular that it sold out in 2 years, according to UNR Professor Cheryl Glotfelty. A 1950 review in the Berkeley Gazelle declared that “it is seldom that the West...comes so alive as in the descriptive and well-disciplined verse of Irene Bruce.” Some of her poems were included in Desert Wood, Shaun Griffin's 1991 anthology of Nevada poetry, and in Cheryl Glotfelty's comprehensive literary anthology of Nevada, Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State (2008). Over the years, more than 500 of Irene’s poems were published in the San Francisco Examiner, Nevada Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, Sunset, etc. In addition, Irene was poetry editor for Nevada Magazine, co-editor of the literary magazine Destinies, and host of a weekly poetry broadcast on KOH radio.

Irene and Harry Bruce are of particular interest to me because their time on the Comstock spans an unusual time period. There was a fascination with Virginia City held by post World War II “bohemian” artists and writers, which began to fade by 1965. This was followed by the “cultural re-population” of nearby Silver City, which began around 1965 with the arrival of “bohemian” artists, musicians, writers, and academics who’d left cities in New York, Oklahoma, California and elsewhere.

1950’s era photos of Irene and Harry Bruce with literary greats such as Walter Van Tilburg Clark (The Ox-bow Incident) survive in collections by multi-disciplinary artist Gus Bundy and in the Reno Gazette Journal’s archives. Bundy captured several glamorous photos of Irene in Virginia City, including one with some of the other “lights of Nevada’s literary world” such as Duncan Emrich, Roger Butterfield, Charles Clegg, and Lucius Beebe.

PHOTO DETAIL FROM A PHOTO OF IRENE BRUCE IN VIRGINIA CITY BY GUS BUNDY, UNR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Before moving to Silver City, Irene lived in Oklahoma, Texas, Reno, and Virginia City (poet Gary Short recalls that she had a house on B Street not far from the Castle). Bernard Mergen, professor emeritus of American Studies at George Washington University, writes that he remembers a “small, but strong, community of publishing poets [in Reno in 1956] that included Margaret “Monte” Thornton..., Irene Bruce, Dorothy Caffrey, Robert Hume, Gus Bundy, and Harold Witt." Poet Shaun Griffin notes that Irene was a “dear friend of Joanne de Longchamps,” a central figure in both the literary and visual arts community of Northern Nevada for more than 40 years. De Longchamps and Irene Bruce were among the co-founders of the remarkable Reno Poetry Workshop.

It’s not entirely clear when Irene and Harry Bruce began living in Silver City, although Red Dog Saloon co-founder Don Works recalls that they were already residents of Silver City when he moved there in 1963.

After Harry passed away, Irene decided to sell her Silver City house and move to a smaller place in Carson City. Around 1971, she sold her property to newcomers Patty Marshall, who was a horse trainer and artist at the time, and her husband Mert Crouch, a pre-med student with a degree in psychology who had studied sculpture in Switzerland. Poet Gary Short recalls visiting Irene Bruce at her Carson City house on Hot Springs Road in the 1980s and having dinner with her to celebrate a grant she'd been awarded to support her writing.

Drawing of Irene Bruce from her book of poetry "Night Cry."

Bruce Home Later Became Part of an Ashram: Beginning in 1993, Patty Crouch made a number of trips to India where she met Swami Sri Atmananda in Pondicherry and became his first disciple. She gave up painting and devoted her life to study, meditation and contemplation. Her Silver City home, and a number of other nearby houses, became the local branch of the international Satyachetana Ashram in 1995, attracting sincere ascetic practitioners of meditative practices from around the world. Today Patty, who is now known as Pooja, wears the orange tunic of the Sannyasini (female Swami), and resides in the Ashram, a complex of buildings that includes a meditation hall. Swami Pooja recalls Irene as a woman who loved cats and plants, and wore moccasins to avoid damaging any growing thing. She notes that the Ashram’s trees and lilac bushes, which provide a lovely barrier from road noise, were planted by Irene Bruce about 50 years ago.

A version of this article appeared in the Mason Valley News in Jan. 2018.