September Member’s Meeting

Posted on by board

The September meeting of the Friends of Nevada State Museum Las Vegas was held on Thursday, September 16 at the Museum.

Our speaker for the meeting was our former Media Coordinator, Ms. Carmen Beals. Carmen, representing the Nevada Museum of Art, spoke about various land artists and specifically about Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains, one of the largest land art installations in the world and located right here in southern Nevada. This public work of art, located 30 minutes drive south of Las Vegas, is visited by over 1,000 people per day. The Nevada Museum of Art, located in Reno, is Nevada’s oldest cultural statewide institution, and is celebrating 90 years in 2021. Their focus is on art related to land, environment, and education – primarily large, outdoor art.

Fun facts Carmen shared with us about the Magic Mountains are:

  • they are made up of 33 boulders with an average weight of 40,000 pounds;
  • the average height is 30-30 feet
  • the display took five years to design and build;
  • the Mountains have been repainted 3 times
  • the Mountains cannot be used for commercial purposes/gains
  • all boulders are from a quarry north of Las Vegas;
  • the Museum of Art is negotiating to have the Mountains remain in location in perpetuity

Other key points from the meeting were:

  1. The Museum has started hosting Discovery Saturdays, a family activity program held each Saturday
  2. a new fabulous exhibit “Find Your Folklife” is now up and is in collaboration with the Nevada Art Council.
  3. Sarah demonstrated the digitizing record player that the Friends purchased for the Museum so that old records could be saved.
  4. Friends total cash on hand is $19,801.24.
  5. The Friends website redesign is complete. View at NSMLV.org. thanks to Michael for completing this project.
  6. Macaroni Grill fundraiser is September 17 from 11 am through 10 pm.
  7. Maya Migotti accepted a board position as Media Coordinator
  8. The final total of “Money for Mannequins” donations was $7,181. A proposal on spending this money will be brought to the members on October 21 for consideration.
  9. A fundraiser will be held at Pinot’ Palette on December 5. Cost is $39/person
  10. Stacy Irwin has requested new storage racks for the education storage room, primarily for trunks.
  11. The board will forego other major expenditures until the Museum completes its strategic plan later this year. Our spending will be then tied into the Museum’s plan.

Our next meeting will be Thursday, October 21, starting at 2:30 pm, with doors opening at 2 pm. Our Guest speaker will be Mr. Dylan Person, an archaeologist from the Desert Research Institute.