Nevada Museum of Art named national award winner

RENO, Nev. - The Nevada Museum of Art was named Thursday one of three winners of a national award recognizing community service and will be recognized at a White House ceremony next week.

The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and the St. Simon's Island Lighthouse Museum in Georgia are the other winners of the sixth annual National Award for Museum Service issued by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

"This national honor is a tribute to the power of museums to engage children, families and communities in towns and in cities all across America," said First Lady Hillary Clinton, who will hand out the awards on Sept. 29.

The award is the only one issued nationally in recognition of a museum's public service role.

All three winners are "serving their communities in innovative ways and bringing about positive change," said Beverly Sheppard, acting director of the institute, a federal agency based in Washington.

Steven High, executive director of the Nevada Museum of Art, and Peter Pool, president of the museum's board of trustees, plan to travel to Washington to receive the award.

"To be recognized at the highest national level for bringing the best of art education and services to our community is an honor for the state of Nevada and the people of our community and a marker of the surging importance of the arts here," Pool said.

The Nevada Museum of Art offers hands-on family programs, tours for people with special needs and a scholarship program offering fine art classes for all ages.

It's traveling school services program features exhibition tours and workshop opportunities for public school districts that currently have no visual art education in their elementary schools.

The museum does a number of collaborative programs with non-traditional partners, High said.

They include Youth Artworks, an arts-based youth employment program, and Art Odyssey, a program designed by museum eduators and elementary school teachers that integrates art into the public school curriculum.

"The Nevada Museum of Art is an excellent facility with an unparalleled commitment to art education," Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said.

"I wish the museum much success in their continued dedication to education through the arts."

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