Nevada Museum of Art, Reno
Yesterday, in connection with my post about the whirlwind tour of American museums by Italian cultural officials, I issued a rare CultureGrrl correction. I had said that an already touring show of Leonardo drawings from the Biblioteca Reale, Turin, would be be coming to the Nevada Museum, Reno. In fact, it wasn’t. I had based my erroneous report on a recent press release (in Italian) posted on the Italian Culture Ministry’s website.
David Walker, executive director and CEO of the Nevada Museum (whom I contacted for help after my mistake), clears up my muddle:
At the 11th hour, due to complicated international agreements that couldn’t be modified in time, the decision was made to let the Leonardo drawing exhibition travel back to Turin as scheduled following the close of the exhibit in San Francisco. The Nevada Museum of Art was not originally in the plans when the two-venue tour was organized.
We do plan to regroup and along with a yet-to-be identified partner museum in the U.S., organize a second tour of the drawings, tentatively looking at a June or July date for the Nevada Museum.
Our meetiing with the Italian delegates on Jan. 4 included an interesting discussion about a long-term relationship whereby we would (along with our local partner in Reno—ARTE ITALIA) establish a program to bring certain Italian artworks to Reno each year. The Leonardo exhibit would represent the first of several exchanges.
The Northern Nevada region has a rich Italian heritage so we believe such a relationship with Italy would be fruitful.