SUBMITTED PRESS RELEASE
CARSON CITY, NEV. Capital City Arts Initiative’s Courthouse Gallery kicks off 2010 with “Work Bench Project,” a site-specific exhibition by northern Nevada artist Jim McCormick. The exhibition opens on Tuesday, February 9, with an artist reception on Friday, February 12 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
Printmaker by training and practice, Professor McCormick is also a master of assemblage. Assemblage is a process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects. “Work Bench Project is something of a experimental collaboration,” comments the artist. “To create a series of portraits, I invited members of the Courthouse staff – judges, administrators, guards and clerks – to contribute a handful of meaningful personal objects. From these come the artworks. I hope they capture the spirit of each individual.”
Professor McCormick is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Reno where he taught from 1960 to 1992. In 1990, he received a Nevada Governor’s Arts Award. In addition to presenting numerous local and national art exhibitions, he directed the Nevada Art Research Project at the Nevada Historical Society, creating files on Nevada-related artists from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.
CCAI Curator Jon Winet comments: “Jim has played a central role in the development of contemporary art in northern Nevada for fifty years. His irrepressible spirit of creative discovery, combined with his generous dedication to promoting the work of his students and peers have been critical to the cultural life of the area. In Work Bench Project, he encourages us to imagine new ways to think about place, participation and both personal and civic life.”
A catalog essay by Art Historian Marcia Growdon, former Chief Curator and Director of the Nevada Museum of Art, will be available on line and in the gallery. Special workshops and special programs are also in the planning stages in conjunction with the exhibition.
The CCAI Courthouse Gallery is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m to 5 p.m. The exhibition runs through May 7. The gallery is located at 885 East Musser Street in Carson City. Admission is free and the public is cordially invited.
The Capital City Arts Initiative is an artist-centered organization committed to the encouragement and support of artists and the arts and culture of Carson City and the surrounding region. The Initiative is committed to community building for the area’s diverse adult and youth populations through art projects and exhibitions, live events, arts education programs, artist residencies, and its on line presence.
CCAI is funded in part by the Nevada Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recovery Act; the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the James W. Calhoun Foundation; the John and Grace Nauman Foundation; U.S. Bancorp Foundation; Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities; Carson City School District; Douglas High School; McQueen High School; Sierra Nevada College; Carson City Library; United Latino Community; Mark Twain Elementary School; St. Mary’s Art Center, Virginia City; CCAI Business Leaders: Allison, MacKenzie, Pavlakis, Wright, & Fagan, LTD.; Dr. Bob Gorrindo; Coldwell Banker Best Sellers; Data Graphics; Pro-Form Labs; and Vineburg Machining Inc.; and CCAI’s Board of Directors, BrAG [CCAI’s ‘Brilliant Advisory Group’], and CCAI’s growing membership.
For additional information visit CCAI’s website at www.arts-initiative.org.
