Book Festival Invitational “10 x 10:  A creative exchange between visual artists and writers”

October 24 – December 2, 2011 in the Clark County Government Center Rotunda Gallery 500 S. Grand Central Parkway  

Reception: First Friday, November 4 6-8 PM, 6:15-7:00 prose readings, 7:00-7:30 performances, 7:30-8:00 poetry readings  

Visual artists and writers whose work is influenced or inspired by Southern Nevada engage in creative discourse for this exhibit that celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the Vegas Valley Book Festival. Visual artists and writers were partnered and asked to make new work in response to each another’s sculptural objects or written texts. The installation and accompanying limited print portfolio present the objects and literary texts emerging from these exchanges which share ideas about narratives for utopia, our relationship to objects and architecture, cultural identity and family, the aging body and mind, the desert landscape and the Nevada Test site, impacts of the housing market crash, and more. 

A partnership with the Vegas Valley Book Festival; this project is funded, in part, by Nevada Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a national agency.  

Vegas Valley Book Festival Webpage: http://www.vegasvalleybookfestival.org/ 
Vegas Valley Book Festival Press Release (PDF)

Click on the names below for images and YouTube video readings by the writers:

• Catherine Borg and T.R. Witcher
• Noelle Garcia and nila northSun
• Shannon Eakins and Erica Anzalone
• Sam Davis and Bliss Esposito
• David Sanchez Burr and Danielle Kelly
• Jason Adkins and Becky Bosshart
• Jesse Smigel and Alissa Nutting
• Brent Sommerhauser and Maile Chapman
• Troy Gillett and Dayvid Figler
• Erin Stellmon and Jarret Keene
• Shan Michael Evans and Jeffrey Bennington Grindley
• Andreana Donahue and Kathryn Kruse  

Another part of the book festival is the Nevada Humanities Salon: An Evening with Poet Martín Espada, with a reception at 7:30 p.m. and the free program at 8 p.m. Friday, November 4 at Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 S. McLeod Drive.  

Called “the Latino poet of his generation” and “the Pablo Neruda of North American authors,” Espada has been widely recognized with numerous awards and fellowships, and his poems have appeared in the The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, and The Best American Poetry. Espada will be available to sign his recent collections of poems The Trouble Ball, Alabanza: New and Selected Poems, and The Republic of Poetry, which will be available for sale after the program. The reception will feature refreshments and a musical performance from the Nevada School of the Arts. Reception and program are free and open to the public.  

Watch YouTube video about 10 x 10

For more information, contact Patrick Gaffey at (702) 455-7340 or Wendy Kveck at wendyccnv@gmail.com