- In this special edition of aRT take a tour of Reno's Playa Art (exciting music) - [Eric Brooks] This is your city, and this is your art.

And you, you should want to expl and share it with others.

(exciting music) - [Beth Macmillan] Reno communities engage in public art (upbeat jazz music) - [Megan Berner] The idea behind to get people in neighborhoods to work with artists and collaborate with each other.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Beth Macmillan] Putting art on every Reno street corner.

(soft pop music) - [Megan Berner] And so it's just a wide variety of designs that get placed throughout the c (soft pop music) - [Beth Macmillan] And Heartbeat to Heartbeat, Eye to Eye from Reno with Love.

(exciting music) - People are responding to it in that I don't think we really even realized would happen.

(exciting music) - It's all ahead on the City of Reno edition of aRTeffects.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Narrator] Funding for aRTeffects 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 Macmillan and welcome to aRTeffects.

The City of Reno has a wonderful arts community that has been growing over the last several years.

In this episode, we will take a look at some ways this biggest little city has com for the sake of art.

In our first segment, let's take of the Playa Art Trail, where many Burning Man sculptures find life after the Playa and call Reno ho as pieces of public art for the community to enjoy.

- The Playa Art Trail is a collection of all the art that has once been to Burning Ma and now resides temporarily or permanently here in the city (exciting techno music) Reno is a great city for art and in all forms.

And the city has a huge public art collection and a lot of those pieces happen to be from Burning Man.

Reno is considered the gateway to Burning Man, and when people come here, they know that we're around Burn They might not know a lot about what it is, but it is the world's largest interactive art fair.

And it's a great honor to have t very creative playful work.

A lot of it's meant to be intera and we have those here for our c and for those who come to visit (exciting techno music) A couple of years ago, there was a real need especially for visitors coming t to have a map of the art that has been to Burning Man and come back here in a permanent or temporary fashion.

So my business partner and I put together a list of all that there's 15 pieces currently, seven of which are temporary.

You can go to artspotreno.com and click on the Reno Playa Art and there'll be a self-guided ma And you can take this Playa Art to get a little bit of what it would be like to be out on the desert and interact with these pieces.

(upbeat techno music) We were on a tour not too long ago and it was brought up.

Does public art mean that it's interactive?

Does it have to have an interactive element to be public art?

Being interactive would include touching it, hearing it, seeing it.

it's more than just looking at s it's, it's experiencing it with one of those other senses.

(upbeat techno music) We have the beautiful Space Whal done by Matt Schultz and The Pie that was installed a couple of w and lit up for the first time la At night it's very visual, there's lights going off.

(upbeat techno music) And the City of Reno and The Arts and Culture Commission worked out a deal to rent that f So we'll have that here in our c I would say it's already generated thousands and thousand of pictures on Facebook.

(upbeat techno music) Probably the most recognizable s that we have in Reno is The Beli It was built by Laura Kimpton and Jeff Schomberg.

They've been going to Burning Ma and they have always been doing these big word pieces.

And you might notice the little that are cut out of these.

Laura was with her father when h and she looked out the window and saw a big flock of sparrows.

And she thought, "That's representative of my dad passing And so they started cutting out (exciting music) We also have a beautiful piece by Kate Raudenbush, that's over by the Nevada Museum (exciting music) And there's a Bryan Tedrick piece, Portal of Evolution, which is very interactive and its permanent home is right on the river.

It's a beautiful space for it.

(exciting music) For placement of the sculptures, there's a couple of different bodies that work on that.

The Public Art Committee has a v and they recommend to the Arts and Culture Commission.

And then they can recommend the city council where they think it would be bes Since the money is coming from a for public art, the parks depart is definitely an area where the city has ownership so they can place it.

(exciting techno music) There have been businesses that have stepped forward in the past and said, "You can use our property if you like to place something temporarily."

The Playa Park's an example of t It's a private and development f but before they build the next p they were happy to lend their space for the Playa Park.

(exciting techno music) It's great walking around and seeing these different sculp There's always somebody taking a photo of themselves in front of them.

And most of the time it's people from out of town.

So they're having a positive experience in Reno and bringing that back to their The City of Reno wants to place public art all over.

It's not just a matter of where should we put the Burning But as we're collecting the Burning Man art for our bigger collection, where will they be most accepted?

Where will they have the most im Where can we put them in neighborhoods and demographics where a pie-, a big piece of pub will make a huge difference in civic pride?

People don't wanna walk down the and have garbage in front of a beautiful piece of art.

It's very very common to see people coming around the statue and picking up any garbage that might've blown around it.

People wanna take pride in, this is not the City of Reno scu this is my sculpture.

And that's what we wanna really instill in peoples.

This is your city and this is yo (exciting techno music) and you should want to explore i and share it with others.

(exciting techno music) - Art Belongs Here is an initiat started by the City of Reno.

Artists and community organizati combined forces to create public in different communities around In this segment, we'll learn wha to get these art pieces into the (pleasant music) - The Art Belongs Here Grants In is a neighborhood creative place project for public art.

The idea behind it is to get people in neighborhoods, to work with artists and collaborate with each other, to create art projects that exist outdoors in public space, in their neighborhood.

Projects that reflect community identity, heritage, the personality or character of (pleasant music) One of the projects that got app sculpture titled Good Luck Horse that's happening at the Reno Rod So the Reno Rodeo partnered with artist Michael Gray to bring this sculpture to Reno and permanently locate it.

- [Michael Gray] We had to use the chipping hammer to bust out the concrete so that it would sit flat.

And then we drilled holes on the for concrete anchors.

- [Deb Armstrong] And then we put the banner on the top for stability.

- It keeps the Horseshoe from separating because you know, people are gonna climb all over (pleasant music) - The Good Luck Horseshoe to me is a real piece of inspiration I think that Mike had to take something out to the Black Rock Desert that sort of symbolized the horses of our area, the Western culture and things l and be able to provide it to the people that were at Burning And it's just completely appropr that it ends up full circle back (pleasant music) Mike was able to source the mate like the horseshoes that are in the Good Luck Horseshoe are all repurposed horseshoes that he collected from different and different people with horses in the area.

But a lot of those folks that are our neighbors, they have horses that are in the drill team and things like that.

So the likelihood that those horseshoes have been in the actual Reno Rodeo grounds are probably pretty good.

(pleasant music) (soft music) - [Megan Berner] There's a project happening along, Fourth Street of artists that's working on that is actually doing bike benches.

So he's taking bike parts and making them into these really cool benches.

- I'm involved with the Reno Bik and the Brewery Arts District from Fourth Street.

We're putting out a series of artistic bike benches that are also bike racks.

It provides somewhere for cyclists to park on Fourth Stree and produces some art for the co and promote cycling in the area.

Today I'm assembling the first finished version of our latest prototype.

(electricity rattling) While working on this project, a lot of things have affected our overall design.

We've had to take into account ADA regulations as well as, sidewalk regulations and developing a bench that will conform to the codes as well as, be a piece of art and be functional as far as parking the bike and noticeable that it is a bike rack and a bench and for cyclists.

(upbeat music) (upbeat guitar music) - [Megan Berner] Another project that's happening is on Wedekind Road at the 395 o And that is a community mural pr It's Be The Change Project working with artist Asa Kennedy.

- The mural is going to be a Day of the Dead themed piece.

The wall behind us is just, it's and it's always been ugly.

And it gets tagged and it gets painted over to gray and it gets tagged again, and that can easily be changed.

And as we talked to the communit and kind of got some feedback, people were really positive about the idea.

We just, we just went with it af (upbeat music) - About a week or two ago, we went to the elementary school, kind of ran through the concept about what it was gonna be and went through some small exercises, asking them what images, what elements and ideas do you kids think represent this cultural festival And from then we went from the answers being provided to them drawing.

Part of their actual more direct inclusion is gonna be structuring some of the and the work for students own original work, where my job as the lead artist is to come in and weave all that together.

- [Kyle] Part of it is incorporating their own designs and bringing their, their ideas right to the wall itself.

So that at the end of the day, when, when the mural's done and they're walking past it to go to school, they can say, you know, "I did that."

- Yes, I wanna.

- We see public art as being an integral part of city life.

- A lot of times while I'm working on public art people when they see it they get so excited and they really do feel like a sense of ownership over some of the art.

- It's good for the people.

It's good for the town.

It's good for the city itself.

I mean it's, art makes people ha - I want people to come here tha that aren't from here and they're traveling and visiting.

They see it and it's character.

It's our city.

(upbeat music) - And now let's take a look at this week's art quiz.

As of June 2021, how many permanent and temporary works of art does the City of Re Is the answer A 52?

B 85?

C 152?

or D over 185?

(upbeat jazz music) Stay tuned for the answer.

With every traffic light, comes a utility box on the corner.

Most see this as a big gray slab But many artists see this as a blank canvas.

Let's learn how the City of Reno through the Art Signals Project has given artists the opportunit to put their work on nearly every street corner.

(pleasant pop music) - The Art Signals Project started back in 2008 with just a few select signal boxes in downtown Reno.

You know, they're are kind of the unsightly utility boxes that have to exist.

We have about 50 boxes total rig they are for sure down in the ci and all the way up Virginia Stre but on every corner that there is a utility box in the neighborhoods and in our downtown city center, we are trying to make sure that we get artwork on them.

It's a wide variety of designs.

And so the city doesn't actually what goes on the boxes.

We put a call out to artists and they submit proposals.

And so it's just a wide variety that get placed throughout the c (soft pop music) - My name's Kendel Leslie and I'm a local artist in Reno, So my style, I would say it's very colorful and whimsical.

And a lot of my work focuses on animals and nature.

Lots of plants usually.

Usually the backgrounds are more blocks of color in different patterns.

And the main focus is going to b the animal or the plants.

(pleasant pop music) The first single box I did is focused on Nevada wildlife and Nevada scenery.

So that one includes a coyote, a jack rabbit, and a pronghorn antelope.

(pleasant pop music) My second one was more focused on just plants and really bright colors and pat (pleasant pop music) This one's going to be a jackalo and it's more of a space, kinda fun design.

(pleasant pop music) My first step was to kind of get a rough sketch of what I was going to do onto the signal box.

I then went in and added blocks and then I'd go in and kind of add more details and just build up that detail until I got to the very end.

And usually with all of my art, the last step is kind of adding adding fine details to just make (pleasant pop music) - The thing that I feel most connected to about it is that it's giving young artists in our community exposure for their work, and it is giving them an opportunity to work with the cit on a public art project.

I think public art is becoming more and more prevalent.

This project is scaled in a way that we can give a lot of opport to a lot of artists.

- Working on these signal boxes and having my work shown more pu has really made me want to keep pursuing that and keep trying to share my art just because it's so great how the community responds to it and how much it brings people to Having art like this surround Re it really lets artists express t And I think it's really fun to just drive around and you see murals and you see the signal boxes around town and it just kind of brightens up (soft pop music) - And now let's review this week's art quiz.

As of June 2021, how many permanent and temporary works of art does the City of Re is the answer A 52?

B 85?

C 152?

or D over 185?

(upbeat jazz music) And the answer is D over 185.

(upbeat jazz music) For our final segment, we go behind the scenes into the making of Heartbeat to Eye to Eye From Reno with Love.

A song and music video featuring over 50 members of Reno's Performing Arts Commun It carries a message of hope and for our biggest little city.

(upbeat rock music) - 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 Schiev It's basically in conjunction wi nationwide project of city songs - We were selected along with Na Austin, Chicago, some really gre obviously that come from a lot of arts and culture moveme And so I just knew that Reno could step it up and knock it out of the park.

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

Whether you're a rapper, a violi a pop artist, or you do Americana or folk, you have a place in not only in this community, but in the arts and culture scen And that's really the backdrop of what makes this video so exciting and what made this project so relevant to so many.

♪ Stay strong now together ♪ ♪ We're gonna survive ♪ - I thought about it and I said, "This is something that I wouldn't wanna 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 hu where we are presenting hope and you know, love to the commun And I was honored to be a part o - 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 be your goalpost for creation.

You have to actually create from a place of authenticity.

It's a long road.

♪ Long road out ahead of us ♪ But we're gonna ♪ But we're gonna bridge this di - 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 so 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, yo we operate daily and especially for our artists.

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

(exciting music) - The scale of this collaboration is impressive because it brings together not only 53 artists from diverse backgrounds and cultural and musical backgro but it also brought together the City of Reno, the Reno Phil and Artown all tog to do something that helps prope promote and support the local arts community during this most critical time.

(exciting music) - Eric and I, we, we go back awa We've worked on a number of projects together and he gave me a call and said that he had this amazin He was commissioned to help write this song and he needed a music video.

He originally, when he contacted me told me that he was gonna be col 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 got very large.

- Getting that many artists toge 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 (laughs) you know, and for him to be able make that happen and the time period that he did, I am in awe.

(exciting music) - We ended up filming the majority of the artists in different scenarios, differen And so it was a really collaborative, fun project to be a part of.

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

(exciting music) - It's really shown the diversity of our city and the different depths of tale We have the native American danc (exciting music) and then you have, you know, rap and then you have beautiful symp (exciting music) 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 ♪ Stand strong now together ♪ ♪ We're gonna survive ♪ - People message me and say, "I'm having a bad day, I put on Heartbeat to 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 or at the restaurant where we play or sing, but we wanted to put something o to let them know that we're still here writing music, singing music that will lift the (slow music) - One of my biggest hopes is tha when people watch this video, that they are inspired to give back to our arts community, they've been so impacted by this - We thought it would be great thing to do, to provide a fund that would help the base needs of these artists who have been so affected by the And 100% of the monies 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 p go to the performing arts commun (slow music) - It absolutely blew my wildest expectations out of the water.

And that mean, that's a testamen to just the cooperation in me, 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 sense of incredible pride and all the artists throughout our city that came together in a time when we all need to be now more than ever, when things are really challenging and tough, and we can feel so disconnected this video really spoke volumes to who we are as a community and why we do come together in times of need.

♪ It's a long road out ahead of ♪ But we're gonna bridge this di ♪ Heartbeat to heartbeat ♪ ♪ Eye to eye ♪ ♪ Cause love won't let us down ♪ ♪ Heartbeat to heartbeat ♪ ♪ Eye to eye ♪ - And that wraps it up for the City of Reno edition of aRTeffects.

For more arts and culture, or to watch past episodes visit pbsreno.org/arteffects Until next week, I'm Beth McMillan, thanks for watching.

- [Narrator] Funding for aRTeffects 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.

(pleasant music)