The Nevada Museum of Art, Donald W. Reynolds Center for the Visual Arts, E. L. Wiegand Gallery, announced yesterday evening that The Robert S. and Dorothy J. Keyser Foundation has granted the arts organization $1 million to support both art collections and family programs over the next ten years. The announcement was made at the Museum’s Savor 2014 Summer Garden Party held at the Montreux home of John and Christine Worthington.
The majority of the funds–$900,000–will go toward the newly named Robert S. and Dorothy J. Keyser Art of the Greater West Collection. The balance of the grant will help fund the Hands ON! Family Program, for which the Keyser Foundation has been named 10-year lead sponsor.
The Robert S. and Dorothy J. Keyser Art of the Greater West Collection is rooted in the Museum’s founding collection of historical landscape painting from the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada regions. The Greater West is a super region that crosses continents spanning from Alaska in the north to Patagonia in the south, and from the Rocky Mountains of the American West across the Pacific Ocean to Australia.
David Walker, executive director and CEO for the Nevada Museum of Art, says the Museum has a deep commitment to growing this permanent collection. “The artworks in the Robert S. and Dorothy J. Keyser Art of the Greater West Collection, and the educational materials and programs that are built around it, will provide essential opportunities for children and adults alike and facilitate learning about the shared histories, geographies, and ecologies of Nevada and a super region we’ve identified as the Greater West.”
Presented the second Saturday of every month free to the public, Hands ON! offers art projects and gallery activities for the entire family. Walker says the Keyser Foundation lead sponsorship of the legacy program enriches the Museum’s ongoing commitment to provide meaningful social, educational, and cultural activities for the community.
“We are extremely grateful to the Robert S. and Dorothy J. Keyser Foundation for their confidence in the Museum and generous financial support of this emerging signature collection, and the Museum’s popular Hands ON! Family Program,” Walker said.
Keyser Foundation Trustees G. Blake Smith, Michael J. Melarkey, and Tim Cashman attended yesterday’s Savor dinner to formally solidify the announcement with the Museum and to promote additional fundraising for the Robert S. and Dorothy J. Keyser Art of the Greater West Collection. US Bank Private Client Group and Porsche of Reno provided major sponsorship for the event.
