Awhile back I noticed a gorgeous new mural of a fuzzy honey bee on the old Craft Guild building in Mound House on State Route 341 near the Chocolate Factory. Then a sign reading “Bee Magic” appeared on an arched entryway to the property.
This development was especially interesting to me because the building, known as the Craft Guild, was built by Silver City folks in the 1970s as a sort of co-op for artisans and craftsmen.
Longtime Silver City resident Don Works was among the Craft Guild founders. Although Works is known as the co-founder of the Red Dog Saloon and the music scene that attracted talent such as Janis Joplin to Virginia City in the 1960s, he is also a skilled stone mason. The uniquely beautiful completed building was something of a largescale work of art for him.
Ralph and Barbara Stein of Silver City were also key members of the Craft Guild.
In his memoir, Ralph Stein wrote that he helped create an “artisans cooperative” when he lived in Silver City. My husband remembers that as a kid, Ralph taught him how to use a lathe at the Craft Guild to make spinning top toys.
Before coming to Nevada, Ralph lived in New York City where he spent time at an artists’ hangout, the Waldorf Cafeteria in Greenwich Village. There he met and was influenced by famous artists such as Jackson Pollock. After having a stroke in 1962 at the age of 33, he moved to Silver City with his wife, artist Barbara Stein, and their children. He wrote that the quiet, rural place helped him recover, and allowed him to pursue his passion - painting in Pollock’s abstract expressionist style. However, he was also a craftsman who made his living creating custom made cabinetry.
His wife Barbara Stein had trained at the Art Students League in New York under German expressionist artist George Grosz. In Silver City, she is remembered as the artist who created an iconic poster for the town’s short-lived Silver City Free School.
Original founders of the Craft Guild also included ironworker Barry Crandall (can anyone help me fill in details about Barry and the Craft Guild)?
Wayne Thomas could also frequently be found at the Craft Guild. An artist working with glass and other mediums, Thomas created some of the building’s stained glass windows.
The Craft Guild was also the spot for some gatherings that resulted in stories that are still told today. In 1972, Silver City held a benefit for its new Free School at the nearby Craft Guild with popular local bands like the Sutro Sympathy Orchestra. Someday, maybe I’ll devote an entire column to the story of the “ringing of the anvil” and the story of the race between a horse and a motorcycle at the Craft Guild property.
Today: So what is going on at the old Craft Guild and why does it now have an Erik Burke mural of a honey bee? The building is now called the “Bee Magic Building” and it’s the meeting place for both seasoned and novice beekeepers, “offering a place to gather in kinship with those who have a passion for beekeeping.” Great Basin Beekeepers of Nevada, an organization of people interested in the well being of the honey bee, host regular monthly meetings there on the fourth Monday of each month (excluding December), at 6:30pm. For more information about Great Basin Beekeepers, see their website at https://greatbasinbeekeepersofnevada.org/
I’m delighted to see the building put to this good use, especially now when the world is in dire need of more pollinators. And about that large honey bee mural on the outside of the building: it’s by award-winning artist Erik Burke, who is known for his enormous murals in Reno, Bosnia, South Korea, Italy, etc.
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