Barrick Museum changes hands following funding crisis 

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Fine arts college looks toward contemporary exhibitions, Las Vegas works

After losing all of its $250,000 in state funding, the Marjorie Barrick Museum has been transferred from the Harry Reid Center to the college of fine arts.

The funding shortage had left many in the Las Vegas arts community concerned that the museum would close, but the shift has resulted in new opportunities for the art department.

The space will house contemporary art, including works that came to the Barrick after the Las Vegas Art Museum closed in 2009.

Jerry Schefcik, director of the fine arts college’s Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, said that the LVAM collection was bound for UNLV regardless of the Barrick’s management change.

“They just happened at the same time, serendipitously,” Schefcik said. “The coming of the collection worked out really well.”

The Barrick was designed to host and exhibit research work focused on American Southwestern and Mesoamerican cultures and history. Before it was moved from the HRC and the Division of Research and Graduate Studies, the museum’s staff took steps to raise funds to keep the facility functioning.

In November, the Barrick hosted a benefit exhibit called “We Will Survive.”

State money was never the only source of funding for the Barrick Museum.
Allotments from UNLV’s self-supporting budget and dollars from private donors will remain part of the facility’s budget.

“There are very dedicated lines to the Barrick Museum,” said college of fine arts dean Jeffrey Koep. “They will just happen to be assigned to us. The monies that were there before will continue to be there.”

Koep added that condensing operations may save the operation money.

“I think it provides a lot more opportunities for us to raise funds for the Barrick and all our art operations,” he said.

Contact David Serabian at david.serabian.ry@gmail.com.