Online Nevada Encyclopedia

The Arts

Nevada Rawhide Since 1870

The most important and widely practiced craft tradition introduced to the Great Basin by California stockmen was rawhide braiding. Much of the distinctive horse gear associated with Nevada buckaroos is made of this material (reatas, hobbles, hackamores, reins, and quirts). Unlike saddle making, rawhide braiding did not require an extensive tool kit or materials ordered from suppliers at a distance.

Nevada Opera

Nevada Opera, based in Reno, is the oldest professional performing arts organization in Nevada. It was founded in 1968 by Ted and Deena Puffer, who gave the organization a solid foundation and trained many talented artists. The opera has produced over 140 operas, operettas, and musicals over the years, and translations by the Puffers are regularly in use today.

Nevada Noir

The term noir, the French word for "black," refers to a particularly dark literary mood, and often to a specific narrative genre. These are stories that deal with guilt, sex, and violence, and usually a combination of all three. When transposed to the desert setting of Nevada, noir takes on an especially lonely, existential cast, tinged with mystery and isolation.

Nevada Mystery Novels

Nevada is the setting of more than one hundred contemporary mystery novels, with most taking place in Las Vegas, fewer in Reno and the remainder in the vast space in between. Recurring themes include gambling, corruption, land development, population growth, and conflict between ranching culture and wildlife preservation.

Nevada Museum of Art

The Nevada Museum of Art (NMA), located in Reno, is the oldest cultural institution in the state. It was founded in 1931 as the Nevada Art Gallery and occupied three different locations before moving to its current home, the first designed specifically for the museum, in 2003.

Nevada Memoir

The lives of Nevadans are recorded in many places, including letters, diaries, transcripts, and the volumes and manuscripts produced by the University of Nevada Oral History Program. Nevada memoirs, although somewhat rarer than these other kinds of life stories, are nevertheless plentiful enough to provide a fascinating variety of subject matter and writing styles.

Nevada Casinos and Gambling in the Movies

Cacophonies of color, sound, and movement, where an instant's action can change a life—Nevada casinos are ideal settings for screen stories. Even as gambling and casinos have filtered into almost every state ending Nevada's decades-long monopoly, Las Vegas reigns supreme as the iconic place for winning or losing a fortune. Movies gain visual excitement with a shot of the Strip that moves into one of the city's unique themed operations.

Nevada Arts Council

The Nevada Arts Council (NAC) is a state agency charged with the mission "to enrich the cultural life of the state through leadership that preserves, supports, strengthens, and makes excellence in the arts accessible to all Nevadans." The NAC is an agency of the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs and has offices in Carson City and Las Vegas.

Neoclassical Style Architecture in Nevada

A revival of interest in classical models of architecture dates from the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. The neoclassical style came into vogue during the last decade of the nineteenth century and retained its popularity through the first half of the twentieth century.

National Automobile Museum

The National Automobile Museum evolved out of casino magnate William F. Harrah's well-known auto collection, and opened in 1989 in its current facility on the banks of the Truckee River in downtown Reno. The museum has been ranked one of the top ten automobile museums in the country by Car Collector magazine and by the editor in chief of Road & Track magazine, and as one of the top sixteen internationally by AutoWeek magazine.

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