Silver City, Nevada - During a 2014 Arts Town Hall meeting in Silver City hosted by the Nevada Arts Council, one resident quipped that, "Silver City has more artists than trees."
A 2014 Cultural Resources Inventory of the Comstock region funded by the Nevada Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts showed why someone might have that impression. The Inventory showed that fully 1/3 of Silver City adults are involved in producing work in the visual, theater, literary, folk, or musical arts or are working in some aspect of archaeology, anthropology, or historic preservation, consulting or publishing, or are skilled craftspeople working with gemstones, metals, wood, etc.
With a concentration of people working in the arts and/or career fields related to cultural resources, over the last 50 years the community of less than 200 people has been responsible for a remarkable body of work that has had a demonstrably positive impact on the town, the state and beyond. Residents have contributed their diverse talents and skills to produce regionally and nationally recognized work in archaeology, visual art, theater, music, historic preservation, and academic research and projects resulting in technical reports and a variety of other publications.
Yet other residents have created hand-crafted items in silver, wood, gemstones, clay, etc. and examples can be found in a wide range of places, from the Smithsonian American Art Museum to the region's historic cemeteries and buildings.
An Arts and Cultural Resources Production Center: Accordingly, in 2014 the Silver City Advisory Board resolved to recognize the existing character of Silver City as an "Arts and Cultural Resources Production Center", and formally recognized the considerable work residents have contributed and continue to contribute to the production of important work in the areas of arts and cultural resources.
The Board also formally recognized the extraordinary support the entire community has given and continues to give to local arts and cultural resources production, events, and programming. Today the town has arts and preservation groups, a resident artist program and a summer arts and science program that create public programming such as concerts, exhibitions, lectures, poetry readings, film screenings, etc.
Recent Examples: To name just a few recent contributions by locals to the arts and culture resources fields, Dr. Robert Elston, who was awarded the Nevada Archaeology Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014, received a National Science Foundation grant this year for a multi-year archaeological project in Grass Valley, Nevada, in collaboration with grant recipients Dave Zeanah of Sacramento State, Brian Codding of the University of Utah, and Craig Young of the Far Western Anthropological Group.
*Long time Silver City resident Erich Obermayr, along with Robert W. McQueen, used archaeological “data as a foundation to tell the story of life in one of Nevada’s most intriguing, long-lived mining districts” in their recently published book, Historical Archaeology in the Cortez Mining District.
*Over the last two years, artist Karen Kreyeski’s "The Women Project", highlighting contributions of women from the Comstock region, has been the focus of exhibitions at St. Mary’s Art Center in Virginia City, the Jeanne Dini Arts Center in Yerington, the Carson City Art Gallery, etc. and her writing has also been showcased in readings at several venues.
*Local musician Will Rose has recorded more of his original music during the last few months, including a title track he was commissinoned to write for an independent film.
*In recent work by local groups, this summer the Silver City Arts group hosted retrospectives of paintings by Silver City residents Larry Kotik and Molly Brunhild. The Silver City Historic Preservation Society; Evangeline Presents; Yellow Truck Productions; and the Resident Artist Program were among local groups hosting concerts with everything from blues, reggae, rock, and folk to opera and show tunes.
*And finally, over the last two years, the Resident Artist Program in Silver City has hosted people from around the U.S. and the world who've created poems, art, archival portrait projects, sculptures and more. In just a few of many examples, Pulitizer Prize-nominated poet David Lee wrote a number of poems during his stay, including one about Silver City that was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Internationally acclaimed photographer Frances Melhop held one of the photo shoots for her award winning Comstock Portrait Project while at the Program, and some of her photos documenting Comstock citizens and houses have since earned inclusion in shows in Chicago, Georgia, Lake Tahoe, and Spain. Michigan-based artist Brian Schorn’s exhibition featuring 22 assemblages created with Comstock “found objects” while he was at the Program in 2015 has been in demand, with 3 solo shows in Reno, and in Virginia City so far. New Zealand artist Sophie Scott’s artwork based on historic photos of the Northern Nevada region was the subject of a 2015 exhibition in Silver City that attracted art collectors and history buffs from around Northern Nevada, and her painting based on an 1860s photo of Silver City was selected for the Nevada Legislature’s 2017 display of fine art. Oakland-based artist Scott MacLeod's ship art piece, created in partnership with locals, has been on display at St. Mary's Art Center, and several of his very popular public art pieces can be found in the hills around Silver City. Sue Mark and Bruce Douglas of marksearch.org created a unique art piece that doubles as a town podium, along with post cards celebrating the town's sense of community.
Definition
Silver City falls within the definition of a rural arts and cultural resources production district in that it has a concentration of residents actively producing work in relevant fields and 2)has many home studios, workshops and offices related to these endeavors and 3)has a well -established tradition of public and community programs related to arts and culture 4)has a center for arts and culture activities, i.e., the School House Community Center and the Silver Pavilion outdoor performance stage, 5) has an active arts group, a resident artist program with diverse public programming, and a volunteer library that all show dedication to local arts and culture 6)has an ongoing, long history of cross-sector community support for arts and culture production, events and programming and a record of collaboration amongst local, state, and regional groups to support the same.
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