Online chatter calls the art piece “wasteful” and “pile of rocks”
Some local residents have called the plan to move the “Seven Magic Mountains” art installation a waste of government spending. Those comments got the attention of Washoe County Commissioner Mike Clark, who on Aug. 20 voted to approve $500,000 in Covid-relief funds to move the massive rock sculpture to Washoe County.
On Monday, Clark asked Commission Chair Alexis Hill and District Attorney Mary Kandaras to revisit the approval at an upcoming meeting.
The sculpture consists of seven towers of large, stacked boulders painted in bright colors. The Nevada Museum of Art owns the massive piece, which was created by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone out of stacks of boulders and Day-Glo paint. The Art Production Fund and the Nevada Museum of Art commissioned and financed the piece, which was intended to be in place for just two years, but its popularity led to its much longer residence.
Now, the museum plans to relocate the art closer to home and is searching for a site in Washoe County to house it. Claire Muñoz, the museum’s deputy director, said the expansion of the Las Vegas airport necessitates the move. The grant from the county will only cover a portion of the cost to de-install, transport and reinstall the sculpture at a new location.
Despite public comment at the Aug. 20 board meeting questioning the spending, which some said could be used for things such as addiction treatment services, Clark voted to approve the funds. Now, he said he’s having second thoughts about his vote.
“I’ve heard from over 100 residents who are riled up about this use of funds,” Clark said in an email to local media. “Yes, I know there was [sic] lots of articles and reporting about the art installation, but I don’t live in Vegas and don’t have the time to follow this closely.”
Clark pointed to several posts made on NextDoor, the neighborhood social networking site, where residents called the massive sculpture made of stacked boulders “a half-million dollar pile of rocks.”
“We don’t have rocks? We don’t have local artist, or in this case local spray painters?” a resident who goes by P.H. on the site asked. “We don’t have citizens that would benefit from $500,000 dollars [sic]. And where did all the money go that was earmarked for businesses downtown to help beautify?”
The funds set aside for downtown Reno facade improvements are from the City of Reno, not Washoe County.
Others suggested the Nevada Museum of Art, which owns the sculpture and manages its maintenance, find donations to cover the cost of moving it. Museum officials
Beth Dory, who shared some of the NextDoor posts with Clark in an email, said she couldn’t “wrap my head around spending public money on these rocks. We depend on you people to be good financial stewards, and with this expenditure, you have clearly failed.”
Many other local residents have been positive about having “Seven Magic Mountains” become a part of the local art scene.
“I’ve visited it down south, and it’s pretty cool,” L.V. wrote on NextDoor. “And guess what? It was free and it was packed on a weekday. In the middle of nowhere 40 minutes from Vegas. Depending on where they place it, it will be as busy if not more here. And if it goes anywhere near the neon line, that’s just gonna drive more traffic, i.e., people spending money into those areas.”
Kris Vagner, publisher of the Double Scoop arts news site and editor of Reno News & Review, wrote last week that she was aware of the criticisms of the plan to move the sculpture but was willing to keep an open mind. She noted that American Rescue Plan Act funds, which are the source of the grant to the museum, were intended to rebuild the nation’s economy, of which public art is a part.
“Typically, with a project like this, much of the money spent ends up in the pockets of working families—via the trucking companies, drivers, heavy equipment operators, painters and many others who will be contracted to do the labor,” Vagner wrote. “I’m sure there will be some overhead in the budget, but much of it will likely go to Nevada business owners. That is not a bad place to invest money, and that is exactly what ARPA funding was intended for.”
She, like many others, also acknowledged that she too was skeptical about the artwork until she saw it in person.
“The experience of standing under these gargantuan rocks hit just the way it was supposed to, and the more I learned about the artist, Ugo Rondinone, the less pretentious and more welcoming it seemed,” she said.
Clark’s request to re-hear the agenda item was placed too late to have it appear on this week’s meeting agenda. It could appear on the agenda for the Sept. 10 Board of County Commissioners meeting.
