Reno Tahoe Art & Culture - Reno Tahoe's dual personality
by Scott Mortimore

Lamp Post - Stainless Steel creations adorn lamp posts in the downtown arts district photo©Paul Hamill

A half-block or so downstream, music lightly pours from a riverside wine café and mingles with the afternoon sun. The blend complements the hypnotic rhythm of the river and the occasional laughter from kids playing at the water’s edge and kayakers bobbing in a roil of whitewater. Then, just as you’ve found a pocket of quietude, you detect a sound unlike any you’ve heard before. A whirring and humming from above, a delicate contraption of copper and steel teaming with the breeze to bring life to an otherwise lifeless lamp post.
It’s yet another example of the seamless collaboration of music, nature and art that flourishes in downtown Reno. The city once known for its rebellious attitude and frayed edges has become a haven for those in search of all things artistic.

The aforementioned kinetic lamp post sculptures – creations of Reno artist David Boyer – are pleasing guide posts for locals and tourists alike with time on their hands and art on their minds. The sculptures ring what’s known as the city’s Truckee River Arts and Culture District, a gathering of galleries, parks, coffee shops, restaurants, cafés and creative enclaves all within a short stroll from the towering trees, benches and stages that line the banks of the Truckee. This creative heart was a vision set forth and carried out by the city’s Cultural Master Plan, an endeavor of imagination and foresight that has helped make Reno one of America’s most art-minded communities.

Epicenter of the city art scene is Wingfield Park, where free noontime concerts take center stage at the amphitheater, providing a pleasant escape for brown-bag lunch fans, as well as soundtracks for kayakers tackling the west’s most impressive whitewater course. It’s beneath these same trees – as well as at other venues in the city – that Artown comes alive each July. This month-long event, which has drawn the eye of the national press and internationally-acclaimed performers, is alive with more than 200 performing and visual arts. Local troupes, singers, and artists share the limelight with performers from around the world. Marcel Marceau and Davis Gaines have enthralled crowds. Musical guests cover a spectrum of sound, with talents ranging from Congolese to Caribbean, Latin to Zimbabwean, hip hop to philharmonic. Artown is many things to many people, but perhaps it has best been described by the National Endowment for the Arts as “one of the most comprehensive arts festivals in the country.” Get a taste of it just once and you’ll see why.

The Nevada Museum of Art photo©nma

Another cultural centerpiece of downtown Reno is Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, a block south of the Truckee River and catty-corner to the Riverside Artists Lofts. The Pioneer is home to the highly-acclaimed Reno Philharmonic which, from September through April, holds its Master Classics series, a popular evening of works from the likes of Gershwin, Schubert, Mozart, Copland, Beethoven, Dvorak, and Tchaikovsky. The Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts is also home to locals and visitors in serious need of a shot of Broadway hits like “The Producers,” “The Graduate,” "Peter Pan," “Stomp,” “42nd Street,” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” to name just a few.

As you might expect, The University of Nevada, Reno is a wealth of cultural resources with several galleries, a performing arts series, a variety of music groups and clubs, and Nightengale Hall, centerpiece for many of the lectures, exhibits, readings and concerts that take place on campus. This is also the home of the Reno Chamber Orchestra, a comfortable and acoustical gem where you can enjoy the RCO’s outstanding interpretations of the finest works ever written for smaller orchestras.

Bone Tree - Installation at Burning Man, a weeklong festival each labor day in the Black Rock Desert photo©Justin Couch

As for art galleries, you’ll find they run the gamut – both in terms of size and in terms of content. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, world renowned as the premier gathering for aficionados of wildlife and sporting art, has made Reno its new home. Reno’s City Hall itself embraces the art scene by providing generous opportunities for local artists to display their work at The Metro Gallery, located within City Hall. There are dozens of galleries around town, including four on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno. Intimate coffee joints in the midst of the arts district also feature and sell local art while such galleries as Bleulion feature eclectic and edgy works from rising artists in the area. If it’s stuffy, safe, and familiar, it ain’t there.

Back within a stone’s toss of the Truckee River are other anchors of the arts scene, including the wonderfully-preserved Riverside Artist Lofts. Built in 1927, the towering brick building provides living and working space for 35 aspiring artists in the heart of Reno’s arts and culture district, as well as office and gallery space for Sierra Arts Foundation.

Across the river and tucked into the shadows of First Street is Bruka Theater, an ensemble of players and producers of creative theater who’ve drawn the attention of local theater-goers as well as reviewers from the Wall Street Journal. A few bends upstream and you’ll come to the home of Lear Theater, a stunning building with front row tickets to the stream. A block away is The McKinley Arts & Culture Center, originally built in 1910 as a Mission style school and now a home to galleries, arts and crafts workshops, auditorium and office space for local non-profit arts organizations.

Find yourself in downtown Reno listening to the soothing sounds of water slipping by or the majestic sight of snow-capped peaks and you may well feel that this in itself is a work of art. But look just a bit beneath the surface and listen closely to the artistic hum of copper and steel from the lamp post above and you’ll come to see why Reno’s arts scene is among America’s most colorful.

Take in the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival on the shores of Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe photo©rscva

There’s a lake whose moods can quickly shift from placid to brooding, both stunningly beautiful in their own rights. Coves that spend half the day reflecting Tahoe’s sharp ceiling surrender to the telltale blue line and its army of white horses that occasionally sweep across the lake on afternoon breezes. Sunsets are in no hurry to move on to other horizons. Rock and mountain and tree complete the palette, composing what is truly one of the world’s most stunning sights.

It’s mother nature at her finest. And human nature does its best to complement the scene. Art galleries and music festivals and wine tastings and plays and concerts and all things that appeal to our appreciation for art and culture thrive here.

Of the dozens of year-round events that people at Lake Tahoe – locals and tourists alike – look forward to, perhaps few are more well known or anticipated than the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. The stage is truly stunning, tucked beneath pine trees and nestled into sand dunes with a balcony seat no more than fifty yards from the water’s edge. The festival runs from late July through August. Yet while days are usually warm, veteran theater goers are always pleasantly prepared with a fleece wrap and a blanket to settle into as night falls on the Sierra’s most stunning venue.
Not far from the Shakespeare stage at Sand Harbor is the Thunderbird Lodge Historic Sight. Here you’ll get a feel for what Tahoe’s “high life” of another era was like. An hour’s walk through the estate – built in 1936 for George Whittell – takes you to the Lighthouse Room, the Old Lodge, the maids’ quarters and original kitchen, as well as a trip through the 600’ underground tunnel leading to the infamous Card House and Boat House, “garage” for a stunning 55’ long, John Hacker-design yacht with mahogany hull and dual aircraft engines – a one-of-a-kind masterpiece built in a bygone era.

The Lear Theater, Downtown Reno. photo@rscva

Tahoe City is a gallery lover’s paradise, its streets and back alleys and lakefront cottages offering works from local, regional and national artists alike. Next door neighbor to the local fire station is the North Tahoe Art Center, offering summer classes for kids and adults, as well as monthly exhibits and presentations. Within the center is the Visiting Artists’ Workshops which draws art experts from around the nation. And not far away is the North Lake Tahoe Historical Society, which features the Gatekeeper’s Cabin Museum, the Marion Steinbach Indian Basket Museum, and the Watson Cabin. A national landmark, the Watson Cabin was built in 1909 as a honeymoon cottage on the shores of Lake Tahoe and today remains decorated with original furnishings that date back nearly 100 years.

An art of a distinctly different form is that of the wooden boat. Every August, Tahoe City hosts Wooden Boat Week and The Concours d’Elegance – a flotilla of waterborne art, streamlined beauties that grace the local waters. The combination of deep-throated motors and well-honed woodwork make this a spectacle that’s well worth the journey, complemented by a visit to the nearby Tahoe Maritime Museum where you’ll find captivating photos, stories and videos of boats and artifacts that played significant roles in Tahoe’s maritime history.

Another organization active in preserving Lake Tahoe’s cultural heritage is the Tahoe Heritage Foundation which helps fund local causes through such events as the Gatsby Festival and the Fall Harvest Festival and Sale. Toward Lake Tahoe’s South Shore, at the Tallac Historic Site, the Valhalla Music and Arts Festival features fine art exhibits, music concerts broadway company - paul kolnik, classic films, and staged plays, as well as a vast range of historic interpretive experiences. And not far downstream from Tahoe City is Squaw Valley, a world-class ski destination that converts nicely in the summer season to a place that’s alive with arts and culture. Between towering peaks of granite, the valley’s cultural calendar of temptations runs deep, ranging from the American Bluegrass & Blues Festival to the Lake Tahoe Summer Music Festival to the Squaw Valley Art, Wine & Music Festival and the colorful and always popular Lake Tahoe Autumn Food & Wine Festival.

And in case you imagined that culture was strictly a warm weather phenom at Tahoe, think again. Across the lake you’ll find autumn events of all kinds, as well as winter festivals and film fairs that shake even the deepest cases of cabin fever. If you’re headed for the high country, be prepared for jaw-dropping beauty. But make sure you also set aside time for an equally impressive display of art and culture.