PHOTOILLUSTRATIONS BY HAYLEY DOSHAY
The warehouses on Dickerson Road have become a hub for artists.
But for that New Year’s issue, to ring in 2011, the theme was something a little more radical, a concept that we spent a big chunk of the paper explaining: the renaissance generation. In her cover story about the subject, author Patricia Martin described a type of cultural renaissance, where artists of different stripes collaborate with each other and with forward-thinking entrepreneurs on large-scale projects. She described the conditions necessary for such a renaissance: An economic depression or other crisis that creates a vacuum to be filled; a few creative visionaries to act as catalysts; easy access to information; a dense but accessible, affordable and environmental urban core; and a friendly, cooperative spirit among the locals. “Sound familiar?” wrote Martin. “Reno is filled with the artists and thinkers, movers and collaborators who exemplify the trend. Maybe you know someone who goes all out for Burning Man every year. Maybe you know a business owner who gives back to the community in unique, charitable ways. From the university to the Nevada Museum of Art, from the 15-minute commutes to the bike paths that bisect the city’s core, from the geothermal and biofuel-powered casinos to the wind turbines on City Hall, even in the midst of foreclosure and employment crises, there are many indications that Reno is in the early stages of a cultural renaissance.” Now, as 2013 gets underway, it’s time to revisit this idea. Has Reno experienced this cultural rebirth? Or
R
OUGHLY TWO YEARS AGO, ON DEC. 30, 2010, WITH THE ADVENT OF A NEW YEAR, THE RN&R PUBLISHED ONE OF OUR OCCASIONAL THEME ISSUES, WHEREIN EVERY ARTICLE CONNECTS SOMEHOW TO SOME CENTRAL CONCEPT. IN THE PAST, THESE THEMES HAD BEEN RECOGNIZABLE OBJECTS, THINGS WITH WHICH MOST OF OUR READERS WERE PROBABLY ALREADY FAMILIAR TO ONE DEGREE OR ANOTHER, LIKE BICYCLES AND MARIJUANA.
OPINION
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NEWS
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GREEN
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FEATURE STORY
have at least a few more phoenix feathers emerged from the ashes? Erik Burke is a Reno artist who often travels around the country and abroad working on large public artworks, like murals. He says he’s seen this kind of cultural rebirth and renaissance first-hand in places like New Orleans, Detroit and Brooklyn.
involved with West Dick, an old warehouse on Dickerson Road with musician practice spaces, a metal shop and a woodshop. It’s also been an occasional venue for art exhibitions and music performances, and it’s part of a loose cluster of such places along Dickerson Road, including Reno Art Works, a gallery and artists’ work-
“WHY WOULD YOU PUT A THEATER IN THE BACK OF A THRIFT STORE? BUT I TELL YOU WHAT, YOU TRY IT OUT, IT’S AWESOME.” Aric Shapiro, Allie’s Alley stage manager “I’ve been noticing it slightly in Reno, but not to the degree of other places I’ve lived,” he says. “But there are those opportunities that are coming to fruition. There are changes and people taking advantage of how cheap it is to live here, but at the same time, we have a Virginia Street with so many motels that are vacant. If that hypothesis were true, I would think that those would be art studios or galleries. But we have so much post-gambling real estate that is not being utilized.” Still, there are seemingly innumerable new arts venues and studios that have sprung up in the last year or two, many of which are in old warehouse spaces. They are becoming hubs for cultural elbow-rubbing. Burke is
space, Wedge Ceramics Studio, and Infinity Forge, a blacksmithing shop. There are dozens of different variation of creative collaborative working places around town—Bridgewire Makerspace, Reno Collective, 420 Valley, Holland Project, Wildflower Village, Artists’ Co-op Gallery … the list goes on. So, while the empty real estate might still overshadow these places, creative, collaborative spaces seem to be multiplying. “The impulse for collaboration I think is incredibly simple,” Matt Schultz says. He’s a lead artist with The Pier Group, a group of artists best known for their Burning Man installations. “I think everyone who is creative or anyone who has ever had an idea, I think they struggle
with trying to find someone to start it with them. It’s always easier to do something in a group, whether it’s a basic idea or something much more complex.” For last year’s Burning Man festival, The Pier Group constructed “Pier 2” a life-sized wooden replica of Spanish Galleon smashed into a pier. The sculpture topped many attendees’ highlights lists. The Pier Group hopes to one day install the ship on the island in Virginia Lake. Schultz is also the director of The Roots of Happiness, an award-winning documentary film that takes a critical look at the role of charity in the lives of African orphans. And the artist group is currently working on a large-scale installation for Burning Man in 2014. “With the ‘Pier’ project, we really fought the entire time to try to bring together both skilled and unskilled people,” Schultz says. “At the beginning of the process … we had 54 people—maybe six were professional woodworkers. The large majority of us had never done anything like this. We only had one person who had ever worked on a tall ship before, and she had done the rigging. So we didn’t understand how to put a ship together. Through time, using all the small skills that people brought to the table, we were able to make ourselves much stronger than the sum of our parts. We were able to come together and build something that a lot of people found really spectacular.”
“SPACE”
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ARTS&CULTURE
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IN ROTATION
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ART OF THE STATE
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FOODFINDS
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FILM
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NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS
| THIS WEEK
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MISCELLANY
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JANUARY 17, 2013
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