- In this edition of artifacts, art town is back.

Go behind the scenes with me as executive director of art town.

See how art town poster designs capture the month long event.

And the making of heartbeat to heartbeat, eye to eye from Reno, with love.

It's all ahead on this edition of artifacts.

- [Narrator] Funding for artifacts is made possible by, Sandy Raffealli, the June S. Wisham Estate, Carol Franc Buck, Merrill and Lebo Newman, Heidemarie Rochlin, Meg and Dillard Myers, the annual contributions of PBS Reno members, And by... - Hello, I'm Beth McMillan and welcome to artifacts.

In addition to hosting artifacts I'm also the executive director of art town.

The month long celebration of arts and culture that happens through out the Reno area during the month of July.

I'm ecstatic to let you know that after a year off of doing no performances, art town is back.

I'm at Rancho San Rafael regional park, which will host our main stage for many of our live events.

We are ready to bring back the live performances that we know and love about art town.

In the special episode of artifacts we will celebrate the return of art town.

We'll share some of our past stories from the festival, while also looking ahead to what's in store for art town this year.

In our first segment, I take you behind the scenes with me in the moments leading up to art town and show you how every day throughout the month of July brings its own excitement and its own challenges.

It all begins with the opening night Jubilee.

Welcome to art town, 2016, you guys!

(Cheering) Opening night, everything's just super happy.

I hope You're ready for a nice long beautiful summer evening in Reno.

As we start art town 2016 I used to always worry that what if people don't show up on the 1st of July.

I used to really think that maybe people are like maybe like oh well, but it's people just show up.

They know, they just know, and everybody's waiting for it.

Hi, you're 'Drinking With Clowns'?

- Yes.

- I'm Beth.

- Nice to meet you.

- By the time I've booked the artists I've probably seen them perform.

I know who they are.

I know what to expect.

And I'm, I'm only going to bring things to our community that are going to be absolutely fantastic and worthy of our community.

So you're going to go on at six.

I will just come and introduce you at about five to six Our opening night Jubilee, we're staying completely local this year.

I'd like you to help me welcome to open art town 'Drinking With Clowns'.

We enjoy every part of our town.

Are the Mandela folks here tonight.

Oh!

Let's go say hi, perfect!

- Obviously there are things that make you want to pull your hair out.

Things that go wrong, things that go sideways.

- Food and drinks, you know if it's cash only?

- I think it's cash only.

Do you need money?

It's all about problem solving.

We've got these 25 Washington Mandela fellows that come from all over Africa.

They're here to visit us for the whole of July and they happen to be in the park, and none of them had cash.

Let me see if I can make a plan to get them fed.

So I went to the vendor and asked if we could please feed these 25 wonderful young people that had come all the way from Africa.

Okay.

They can get a meal at dinner and a drink and they need to tell them that they're a Mandela fellow, and they'll get you taken care of.

I look forward to every event.

One year I tried to go to every event then you can't I try just like for at least a day to go to everything and you can't even do it for one day.

I always commend the audience at the end of July, I always congratulate them on making it through the month, because it's tiring for everyone.

You know, this is what I do all the time.

You have to do what you do and go to art town.

- That's great.

- Thank you so much.

Today is the day of visual art.

It's one of my favorite days during art town.

And it happens all throughout the old Southwest which is a neighborhood with older homes.

It's just outside of downtown Reno.

- Hello, nice to meet you.

- This is the day where I get to actually meet artists.

Are these old cigarette cases?

- Yeah.

- Most everything is repurposed.

- These incredible people fix up their backyards they're absolutely beautiful.

They curate the, the, the art exhibit and sale.

Everything from furniture art, to garden art, to watercolors, to sculpture, to many, many different types of art.

It's a day where people come out and they take a piece of art town home.

The family nights series is so delightful.

There are so many activities for kids to do between the hours of five and seven.

Crafts, workshops, art activities, in Wingfield park kids jumping up and down, and not sitting in a theater seat is encouraged, not prohibited, you know.

Children involved in the arts, these are your future artists, these are your future leaders, your future audience members.

You're expanding their knowledge of the arts.

My very favorite thing to do at art town year in and year out is to sit back and watch the audience take in the arts.

That to me feeds my soul.

Because we do it for our community, and so for me, it's watching the community take it in.

It just, there's nothing better than that.

When we recorded that segment the opening night festivities were held in Winfield park in downtown Reno.

And now I'm standing in the very location where opening night will be held this year, in Reno's own Rancho San Rafael, regional park.

Every year, art town is commemorated with a special poster that encompasses the meaning of art town.

While visually incorporating elements that are unique to our region.

In this next segment we meet our town poster to artist, Michelle Lassaline.

She makes animal masks out of papier-mâché and they each have their own personality.

She also performed at different events and art galleries throughout Reno.

It was these performances that inspired the whimsical design of the 2016 art town poster.

- My name is Michelle Lassaline and I'm an interdisciplinary artist.

I am a painter and a performance artist and a mask maker and costume designer.

As I'm building a mask the personality starts to appear with the kind of asymmetrical eyeballs and eyebrows and the mouth.

The expression starts to form a little bit by chance and a little bit by me molding it that way.

When I get into one of those masks I kind of become that character.

Each character is like allowing me to isolate one part of myself and just really build on it and exaggerate it which is really fun to do.

I wear the goat most often partly because it's a really sturdy one and it works well.

The mouth works well and it also kind of looks like a really ancient animal.

And like, I kind of feel like a really old person when I'm wearing it.

So I'm kind of subverting certain archetypes with different animals.

One of my main goals is to create artwork that's really direct and interactive and accessible.

I'm not trained in theater.

My performances are more of a visual experience than something on stage.

One of my most recent performances was for art town, last summer.

Where I built a trailer that was towed by bicycle and rode on the trailer as the coyote.

And we would park at each art event or family event for our town.

And I would draw spirit animal portraits for kids.

Art town is the Rino arts and culture festival that happens during the month of July.

And this year I made the poster which features coyote and other animals in a parade.

Art town put out their call for their poster artists.

And I applied with a proposal that involved animals in costumes.

So they're kind of human bodies with animal heads wearing all different costumes and it was accepted, which was very exciting.

And then I worked with art town to come up with a final concept.

And what we came up with was a herd of Northern Nevada native animals but wearing costumes that are kind of significant to the arts and culture of our region in a parade, kind of marching along.

The idea of each different version of the arts being represented.

So music, and dance, and theater, and painting.

There's a big horn sheep, of course, in the front with his kind of blue and white marching uniform on.

And then there's the blue bird who is wearing this kind of show girl outfit, that's kind of gold.

And that's based on all of the people who moved here to be in the hello Hollywood show because a lot of friends that I've had my age their moms all moved here for that show.

There's a rabbit who's wearing this kind of athletic costume because part of art town is being outside and biking around and walking and just being active and our wonderful climate and region.

And then there's a pronghorn because they're a beautiful animal that not everyone knows we have here.

And he's marching along with a big drum because they kind of sound like they're galloping feet.

And then the coyote is behind that which is kind of my representation of myself.

She has a big paint brush and she's splattering paint all over and then a burrow and a raccoon, a new sense but a really lovable little character.

My past performances have influenced the art town poster for this year.

Just combining kind of my love of painting with the performances in a new way.

A lot of the masks came from painting, but now this painting is kind of going the opposite direction.

The masks are influencing my painting.

Having people interact with something that's out of the ordinary makes it feel like an experience that's a little bit of a coincidence and a little bit magical in their daily life.

And other goals for my performances are to inspire this kind of childlike wonder in people that we forget about.

That's what drives my artwork, I think.

- To learn more about Michelle, visit MichelleLassaline.com in a different art town poster design, Reno artist, Kate O'Hara drew from the surrounding geography of our area combined with our local arts and culture scene and used it as inspiration for her art town poster design.

Let's meet Kate to see how she captured the spirit of art town in her work.

- I would describe my artwork as being mostly nature based.

I draw a lot of plants, and animals, and organic forms.

I like how you can make interesting compositions by weaving different things together.

And there's a lot of fluidity in drawing organic forms.

You don't have to stick to like a rigid composition or anything.

And I enjoyed the detail too, that goes into it.

That's really what excites me about drawing.

This year I designed Rino's 2017 art town poster.

I knew for this year's art town poster that I wanted to do something based on lettering and letter forms that would fit our town well and represent the city.

So I decided to make each letter a different pictorial representation of Reno in our town.

So things that are represented the different art that our town showcases and I work those into the different letters.

So each letter represents a different aspect of Reno our town.

With the 'A' I drew Reno and the city's lit up with the different colors kind of reflected in the blue greens, that we see in the Nevada mountains behind it.

In the cityscape there's some of the casinos and buildings of downtown Reno for example, the sphere of the silver legacy.

And then behind that, you have the circus circus.

The 'R' represents the dance component of art town.

It's some ballet shoes and they're wrapping with their ribbons around the letter 'R'.

The letter 'T' is a Bristlecone pine.

It is wrapping around and forming the shape and it represents the nature around Reno.

And then there's also some Sage brush down at the bottom.

And Sage brush is one of the most well known plants around here.

The letter 'O' is a pallet with paint on it, um, and a paint brush representing the art of our town.

I think music is a really big part of our town.

A lot of the events are based on music and shows.

So I wanted that to be a part of the poster.

So the letter 'W' is representing music and it has a guitar, So the letter 'W' is representing music and it has a guitar, it has a harp, and a horn, and then completing the letter is some music staffs wrapping around.

letter is some music staffs wrapping around.

The 'N' is two birds which are Mountain Blue Jays, which are the state bird of Nevada.

And they're flying over a background of paint strokes representing more of the art of our town.

I do a lot of birds and flowers, so it's a place to explore with my fine art.

And it is sort of like a meditation, but it was just very organic.

And I can just sit and do that for hours sometimes.

It's just me being free and drawing.

- To find out more about Kate visit Kate-O'Hara.com.

While we're on the subject of art town posters.

We want to show you our 2021 art town poster that was created by Yvette Venezuela to commemorate the special year of art town.

Our vibrant arts and culture scene is blessed with a number of outstanding performing artists.

Many of whom will be on stage throughout the month of July for art town.

In this next segment, we go behind the scenes during the making of heartbeat to heartbeat, eye to eye, from Reno, with love, a song and music video featuring over 50 members of Reno's performing arts community.

That carries a message of hope and unity for our biggest little city.

♪ Playing Heartbeat to heartbeat, eye to eye ♪ - Heartbeat to heartbeat, eye to eye, from Reno with love is a song and video production that we created here in town at the direction of mayor Schieve.

It's basically in conjunction with a nationwide project of city songs.

- We were selected along with Nashville, Austin, Chicago some really great cities, obviously that come from a lot of arts and culture movements.

And so I just knew that Reno could step it up and knock it out of the park.

- Reno's arts and culture scene is vibrant and it is actually quite a large arts and culture scene.

Whether you're a rapper, a violinist, a pop artist or you do Americana or folk.

You have a place in not only this community but in the arts and culture scene.

And that's really the backdrop of what makes this video so exciting, and what made this project so relevant to so many.

- I thought about it, and I said 'this is something that I wouldn't want to pass up'.

It just sounded like an incredible opportunity for me to work with these musicians, who I follow.

Some of them I've sang with and to just be a part of this huge being where we are presenting hope and, you know, love to a community.

And I was honored to be a part of it.

- As an artist, when you undertake a project, whether it's a solo project or you're producing, you know a pretty major production like this, of course we want people to like what it is we're doing, but at the same time, you can't let that be your goalpost for creation.

You have to actually create from a place of authenticity.

- In March, our lives sort of changed forever, and we really wanted a message to show people not only across the country, but across the world that, you know arts and culture is still very much alive and we can be inspired by it.

Even though we're in this time where we're separated and things are very different and even stressful.

And so this project really is something that is meant to inspire you and make you want to come together as a community.

And so many of our artists right now are struggling because they are out of work.

COVID has really changed how, you know, we operate daily, and especially for our artists.

So to have this opportunity to bring them back together as one was really inspiring.

- The scale of this collaboration is impressive because it brings together not only 53 artists from diverse backgrounds and cultural and musical backgrounds, but it also brought together the city of Reno, the Reno fill and art town all together to do something that helps propel, promote and support the local arts community during this most critical time.

- Eric and I, we, we go back a ways we've worked on a number of projects together, and he gave me a call and said that he had this amazing project.

He was commissioned to help write this song.

And he needed a music video.

He originally, when he contacted me he told me that he was going to be collaborating with a lot of musicians, I kind of assumed, you know, maybe 15 20 musicians.

At the end of this, when he was all done recorded, he had about 50 plus artists involved in this music video.

So it, it cut very large.

- Getting that many artists together in such a short period of time is unbelievable.

We all have different schedules, we're creative, we don't really show up on time.

We, you know, and for him to be able to make that happen in the time period that he did, I am in awe.

- We ended up filming the majority of the artists in different scenarios, different scenes.

And so it was a really collaborative fun project to be a part of.

And it brought out some of Reno's finest musicians.

- It's really shown the diversity of our city and the different depths of talent.

We have the native American dancers, and then you have you know, rap in there and then you have beautiful symphony.

I was just in awe of the inspiration and the feeling that you get when you watch it from the lighting to the sounds, to the music, to all of the people that participated, to the diversity, to all the scenes throughout our city.

- People message me and say, I'm having a bad day, I put on heartbeat's heartbeat, and it just makes me feel good.

It makes me feel hopeful.

It makes me think about being connected to you.

And I think that's what we wanted to do through that song.

We wanted everybody to know that the creatives in Reno are here for you.

We can't be there for you at the bar or at the restaurant where we play or sing but we wanted to put something out there to let them know that we're still here writing music, singing music, that will lift them up.

- One of my biggest hopes is that when people watch this video that they are inspired to give back to our arts community.

They've been so impacted by this pandemic.

- We thought it would be a great thing to do to provide a fund that would help the base needs of these artists who have been so affected by the pandemic.

And 100% of the money raised from t-shirt sales, and also from downloads of the song, and from streaming revenue, go to the artists themselves.

Plus there's the fund itself.

And people have been very generous in contributing to that.

And a hundred percent of those proceeds go to the performing arts community.

- It absolutely blew my wildest expectations out of the water.

And I mean, that's a testament to just the cooperation and the enthusiasm of all the artists.

- People are responding to it in a way that I don't think we really even realized would happen.

- When I watched it, I just felt this sense of incredible pride, and all the artists throughout our city that came together in a time when we all need to be inspired.

Now more than ever, when things are really challenging and tough and we can feel so disconnected right now.

This video really spoke volumes to who we are as a community and why we do come together in times of need.

♪ Playing 'Heartbeat to Heartbeat, Eye to Eye' ♪ - What a remarkable collaboration that was.

You can head to arttown.org to see the full music video in its entirety.

This year, our town is proud to welcome to our stages.

Many of those artists who you just saw performing in that video.

Joining me now is art town marketing director, Oliver X, to talk about some of the performances art town is bringing back this year.

- Beth in 2021, our town is proud to be presenting some of the most homegrown artists in art town's history on one single stage our main stage here at Rancho San Rafael, regional park.

And many of those artists were featured in heartbeat to heartbeat, eye to eye.

- [Beth] Yeah.

Can you tell us who those were?

- [Oliver] Yeah.

Eric Anderson, Kyle Ray, the members of the sex tones, Grace Hayes, Tim Snyder especially Khalila Smith Cage, July 10th over at the Elm EST.

- We are so proud that we really are showcasing our local artists this year, because with COVID and everything we've been through I think it's really important to really put a spotlight on everyone that is so unique to our community.

Can you tell us about some of the other performances we have maybe some that are headliners.

- [Oliver] Yes.

AJ Croce, the son of Jim Croce, the great seventies artists.

He's playing the great hits of his father, and that's called AJ Croce Croce plays Croce and that's July 8th.

- Wonderful.

- Yeah.

Then we're going to be featuring Kronos quartet.

One of the great orchestral ensembles in all the world, that's July 15th.

And then one of our favorites, Keb' Mo', the Delta blues five time Grammy winner.

He's going to be playing July 22nd.

And then we want to have the incredible Shelea.

One of the proteges of Quincy Jones and David Foster.

So July 29th, we're really looking forward to that.

- [Beth] There are how many events in total Oliver?

- [Oliver] We'll have over 300 events in and around Reno, and it's going to be amazing.

- [Beth] And everybody wants to get out the summer, so let's celebrate the arts in July.

- [Oliver] And this year our town 2021, the theme is everybody art town.

- [Beth] We're actually using art town as a verb.

We're saying, come art town with us.

- [Oliver] It's going to be a great footprint here with our main stage in the beautiful surroundings of the park.

It's going to be awesome, I can't wait.

- So much to look forward to for the month of July.

For more information about upcoming art town events visit arttown.org, and that wraps it up for this edition of artifacts.

For more arts and culture, and to watch past episodes visit PBS reno.org/artifacts, until next week, I'm Beth McMillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Narrator] Funding for artifacts is made possible by, Sandy Raffealli, the June S. Wisham Estate, Carol Franc Buck, Merrill and Lebo Newman, Heidemarie Rochlin, Meg and Dillard Myers, the annual contributions of PBS Reno members, And by... ♪ Up-beat music