Showcasing a powerful fusion of art and activism, a new exhibit in Truckee presents 16 projects by more than 50 artists and culture bearers committed to making a difference in their communities.
Nevada County Arts Council and the Truckee Cultural District present the Artists@Work! Exhibition at the Steve Randall Community Recreation Center. Every piece illuminates activism — from public health access, civic engagement and social justice opportunities, to climate crisis solutions, whether watershed health and forest management or emergency preparedness and disaster response, often incorporating, and informed by, tribal ecological knowledge.
The artists in Artists@Work! received grant funding through the Upstate California Creative Corps Grant, a program administered by the Nevada County Arts Council on behalf of the California Arts Council. The initiative distributed $3.38 million to 27 partner agencies and 54 lead creative partners across 19 counties, benefiting 80 grant recipients. In total, 1,010 artists and culture bearers were supported.
“Over the previous year, Creative Corps artists were hard at work, their projects creating a noticeable impact within our communities. There have been music performances, community surveys, youth-focused classes providing tools for challenging times, open mics, artist calls, comic books and catchy tunes on the radio reminding us what to do in an emergency,” said Donn Harris, former Chair of California Arts Council and now a member of Nevada County Arts Council’s board of directors, in a press release. “Artists@Work! brings these projects together to demonstrate the scope of their work as part of the Creative Corps.”
The grant program aims to uplift Northern California’s most underrepresented communities and those facing significant challenges. With amounts varying from $5,000 to $200,000, money was targeted to reach small agencies and individual artists. More than 90% of grantees were first-time applicants without prior access to state funding, many of whom are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists. A complete list of grantees can be viewed at upstatecreativecorps.org/grantees, which includes five projects in Nevada and Placer counties.
The Truckee exhibit features artists who received grants, and live in, work in, or serve Nevada County.
Truckee/Tahoe artists Troy Corliss and Sara L. Smith were awarded grant funds for “Talisman of the Watershed,” a program they created that encouraged young artists to develop their art while exploring their relationship with the environment.
“The experience of working with the kids was fantastic. We really needed the time that we had to draw the kids out and engage them and get them to where they felt comfortable with their skills,” Corliss said. Talisman is on display as part of the exhibit.
Artists@Work!, previously showcased at the Eric Rood Administrative Center in Nevada City, was curated by Hannah Mosby, program lead for Art in Public Spaces with assistance from Nevada County artists Ruth Chase and Troy Corliss.
The exhibit runs through April 15.
Keen readers might remember this exhibit space being home to another art-with-purpose exhibit, the immersive Forest Fire in 2021, which, as Nevada County Arts Council executive director Eliza Tudor stated, “shows us that at the core of science is creativity and that there are solutions to the ever-increasing effects of climate change.”
For more information, visit nevadacountyarts.org.
~ Priya Hutner, Special to Moonshine Ink
