Best known for his innovative work in ceramics, Peter Shire (b. 1947) is represented in Nevada by the sculpture Control Tower. Originally commissioned by the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, the sculpture was situated in the central staircase, rising from the ground floor to the main departure area. During a major renovation of the space, the artwork was put into storage. Whimsical and colorful, it was installed in 2001 at the entrance to KNPR’s Donald W.

For the native people of the Great Basin, weaving carries both historical and contemporary significance. In their past, the Shoshone, Paiute, and Washoe people practiced a way of life based in part on the seasonal harvest of wild plant resources, and weaving provided most of their tools used to harvest, prepare, and store these foods. As Euro-American people moved west into the lands of the Great Basin Indian people, ways of life were forced to change. Although native people adopted many Euro-American goods, weaving baskets endured as a symbol of native identity and artistic expression.

For many decades, a seventy-foot-tall cottonwood tree, known by travelers and locals alike as the Shoe Tree, could be found at a dusty roadside pull-off, just beyond the old Pony Express stop at Middlegate Station. It was on the north side of U.S. Highway 50, approximately sixty miles east of Fallon. Shoe trees are scattered throughout the West and are the subject of local folklore, but none stood more majestically than this one on Highway 50.

Charles F. Cutts was a major force behind the Nevada Art Gallery. Born in Wakefield, New Hampshire in 1871, Cutts came to Nevada in 1891. He had been educated at Packard College, an early commercial business school founded in New York City in 1858 on the upper floors of the famed Cooper Union Building. Cutts settled in Carson City and ran a successful dry goods store on Carson Street for over twenty-five years. Married in 1897 to Bertha L. Meyers, he was widowed only seven years later.