Let's Talk UNLV

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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on Public Radio. KUNV 91.5. Welcome to another episode of Let's Talk Funal View at KUNV.

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This is Tanya and I'm here with... Alicia. Hey Alicia.

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Hello there. How are you doing today?

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You know, I'm good.

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I'm solid.

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It's not too hot. So, how was your weekend? Well, I'm glad you asked. My weekend was wonderful. All because I really didn't do anything but practice what we just mentioned at the top

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of the show before we got on, resting. That did include some barbecue, you know, and hanging out with family and friends, but

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overall, a great time.

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What about you? Oh, resting is my bestie. So, I'm just going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started.

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I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to go ahead and get started. hanging out with family and friends but overall great time. What about you? Oh, Rusty is my bestie. So this weekend it was actually quite interesting. I attended a mock Ethiopian wedding. Wow. Yeah. Was it gorgeous? Oh my gosh, it was amazing. So I'm the advisor for a group called HSA, the Habesha Students Association and this weekend their signature event was a mock Ethiopian wedding and it was fabulous. I'm here for the food. There was drumming and dancing and food and revelry and OMG, the ways they set up the table. I'm like, I need you to cater my event.

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Yes.

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Because it was so classy and so magnificent. And I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but everyone in that group is absolutely gorgeous. Yes, it's like I walked into a modeling set You know think Iman Just what? well just know that every woman in that room was just drop-dead and Every dude was like why do you have so much hair and why do I have such a little hair? Some straight-up hair and be all you want good fashion and good food the culture alone. I mean phenomenal the Ethiopian culture. Yes Oh, the food was magnificent and the I didn't know that, you know part of the wedding dances like a whole swirl of people So like really like a crowd of people dancing in a circle It was wonderful. Wow, it was wonderful. Well, yeah

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Well, I have to have something interesting next time to talk about it.

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We're going to talk about it next week

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because that just puts the icing on the cake. But we also have our guest here today as well, right?

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Yes, we do. We are joined today by Alicia Carlin, Executive Director of the Barrett Museum. Oh, thank you, I got it? Yeah, you got it. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Good when I get those names. So, while we're talking weekends, how was your weekend? What did you do?

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Oh, wow, I, you know, it was a tough week, right? Coming off of Friday, it was like a cliff. So I spent all weekend gardening and getting my hands dirty, digging in the dirt, like releasing that stress. And went to Rainbow Theater Company at Charleston Heights Art Center with my daughter. She's doing theater. I'm learning a lot. You know, they do exercises like, yes, let's. Oh, my goodness. Anything you want to do, you know, they're acting it out. Okay, I'm gonna dig a hole. Yes, let's you know, wow The next person goes, you know, I want to make some pancakes. Yes, let's So theater plus improv. Yes, absolutely. Oh, I love that. I feel like it should be a life motto. Mm-hmm I want some pancake. Let's yeah, let's yeah, and when people have ideas, right? Mm-hmm, you know, yes I'd like to sleep. Yes, that's

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Love that that's amazing. Well, we're so happy to have you here They can't see but you're gorgeous I mean you have the beautiful earrings the the blazer that you have on you fashion. Lisa. I love it Love him through and I walked in and I thought oh I should have dressed up

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Oh, I'm faking it with the red lipstick. So I figured you know, you look good. You look good, Tanya. Oh my gosh.

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Fabulous. You look fabulous.

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Oh wait, accept the compliment.

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You did say that.

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Right. Thank you.

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Yes, let's not deflect.

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Yes.

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We ought to have a show on that one day.

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We should. I think we, yeah.

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Okay.

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We will talk for segment after segment after segment. I will be surprised how many women and men can benefit from speaking on that subject alone, but yeah, we're glad to have you. We're looking forward to kind of digging in and learning more about the museum and really bringing some visibility and awareness to the audience that's listening about all that the Barrett Museum has to offer. So I'll let you get started if you want to

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kick us off here. What an incredible thing to have a museum on your campus. I don't know that that's a common practice. So I'm really grateful to have that. But I'm curious, I'd like to know more about your origin story. Me personally or the museum? Well, they sort of converge at some point. So yeah, how did you come to this work? How did you come to this place? And tell us more about how you came to the museum.

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All right. It's a bit of a story. When I was 30, I was in New York, working at galleries hustling Grind culture definitely making my art. I'm trained as a painter And I just wanted to get out of the market out of New York and take a break I applied for a residency at UNLV had never been to the desert. I thought it was a dry flat place Wow, no idea what I was stepping into Fast forward after eight weeks. I decided to stay. So I made the move back from New York all the way to Vegas, which brought me to the Barak Museum. I was a part-timer when I stepped in. The museum was founded in 1967. It was on Maryland Parkway before. Now it's in the old gym, the gym gym, like where the basketball players played and where Elvis and M. Margaret danced for Viva Las Vegas. Oh my goodness. I did not know that. I didn't either. Okay. I love it when the impersonators come in.

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They have that saunter, you know, and I'm like, oh, yeah. Oh, wow. Who knew? We have an Elvis connection in there. And that's history. They should talk about that more because that's incredible. I'm similar to you. I actually came from the East Coast. I've been here almost two years and relocated to the desert. Now my question will be outside of this, which do you prefer? Do you like the East Coast better or do you officially embrace all things West Coast

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dry heat desert? You know when I got here people would say actually it's a dry heat. Yeah. Like that makes it better. I loved it though. I guess I was like just, I needed to air out and I felt like it was good for my bones. Like I would let the sun hit me and it just felt so good. And I don't really divide the country that way. I think the people, I love the people here. I really love the people here. And I grew up in the Southeast, moved a lot as a child. So it's like if you take like the Southeast and you put it with New York, then you get Vegas. And the city, I'll never understand the city. I came here and my brain was just like, you know, firing off. And I felt like I'll never understand her. And I love this city. I felt like the artists here were so interesting. They're doing things like redefining what art can be. The students were smart and they understood complex ideas like you take one big thing and you put it next to another thing, it makes a new thing. They get that, right? They get that because that's the strip. That's the landscape here. So it just was so interesting and I never looked back. So I've been here 11 years. Okay. Yeah. That's one of my favorite numbers by the way so I'm just keep getting all these signs you know and

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clues. 11 is one of my favorites but I'll let you ask a question I kind of cut you

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off there. Oh no you're fine so I was just thinking so all three East Coast transplants. Mm-hmm. Also East Coast Brooklyn, New York. Oh what part of Brooklyn? East New York, Flatbush, Park Slope. Oh my gosh. We moved a lot. Yeah me too, me too. I've lived all over. So all parts and so and I was just thinking about you being a transplant and then I was thinking about the building itself Is this transplant right? Yeah, I live somewhere else and now it lives here. Yeah Yeah, well the museum was you know, Maryland Parkway and then it moved into the old gymnasium. There's a renovation, of course And it was this it's the second oldest building. So we have a picture of it back in the day a lot of parking It's just surrounded by dirt, you know. So there's history there and it has those historic basketball floors. People come in and always comment on that and very noticeable ceiling tiles that are acoustic tiles. And say we have an opera in there, we have a performance with a musician, the sound in there is

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absolutely beautiful. Oh my goodness and it's got a beautiful surrounding too, like it's got that bench, we can just come and sit and be. And as you were mentioning art, I immediately thought of all the different graffiti styles that I've seen in Las Vegas. Las Vegas has some of the most beautiful, first of all, just art on buildings, and even the highway. It's like, the highway is decorative.

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I'm not used to driving by and like, oh, look, a sculpture.

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Oh, not at all.

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Not at all. I did not necessarily assort, I did not necessarily connect artistry to Las Vegas till I got here. And I realized how much art is there and how much art is possible. So, can you, well you did talk a little bit about this. Yeah, my origin and how the museum started. Yes. You talked about the transformation of the museum, just as a building, as a place. What's your favorite part of the museum? What do you love the most about that space?

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It depends on my mood, really. So when I came in 2012, it had joined the College of Fine Arts. It used to be a standalone entity. It was closed down, and we were going to reopen it as an art museum, but natural history was on the outside of the museum. The sign was still there. Eventually, I took it down and added of art to the end of the name. So we're the only art museum in town, we're free. It's a really big deal, right? And it's on UNLV's campus. A lot of places, a lot of campuses across the country do have galleries, but museums not so much. So if you think of other cities like Brooklyn, for example, there's a lot of places to choose from that are free that you can go to as a kid. This is the place. There's other museums like Neon Museum and all these incredible museums, but they're charging. It's hard. There's definitely like a wall. And what I love about the museum is that it welcomes people into the space and I really care about that. That people have a positive experience with art and if it's their first time, it's likely their first time visiting the museum, especially if they're a college student or K-12, that they have a positive experience, they get to see art, they see themselves in the art and we're not sitting around telling them, like, this is why it's important. You must eat your spinach. Like, you know, culture, da, da, da, da, da, da, you know, and like, if you don't talk about it a certain way, then you don't fit. That's not how we do it. I believe that when people come in contact with art or with another person, right, it's relational. And what people bring to the art and what the art gives to them, that's where the meaning starts. And I just, I think that's my favorite part that I get to see people visit and look at art for the first time, over and over again. And I get to see them define what art is. Over and over again, it's beautiful. I've seen people have like emotions in front of artwork, like that time when you cried and when you went to a museum, they have that here. And it's so beautiful, and it's such a privilege. It's so tender, right? Yeah.

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I love art as relational.

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I love that. Yes.

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I've never heard it described as that, but you do. You have, it's relational. It's individual. It's personal, how we see and how we feel and how we connect with artistic pieces. And I love the idea also that I'm not going to tell you what to feel. You know, a lot of museums you feel like you have to like it because it costs money.

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Or it's in a museum and it's sort of like there's a ritual. You walk through the door and you're not yourself anymore. You're yourself in a museum and how do I act? You know, I just love being able to like welcome folks in. There are ways, like certain shows you can't touch the art. We say, look with your eyes, not your hands. You know, but mostly like, it's a place that you can be loud. You can visit with your friends. Like we rent the museum. These are some of my questions.

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She's answering them, I love it.

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Yeah, we had a wedding there once. I know, it's so fun. Our openings, some of them are just, you know, pre COVID 600 people coming through. And that's not what it used to be. It's been a labor of love for sure. Small and mighty team. Okay, you know, I can go on and on.

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I love it. I love it because we don't have you really answering I kid you not how much does it cost? So you know, how do you reserve? Can you rent the space out? All these are great things. I want to know too, because this helps connect the dots as well, but you mentioned your background as being a painter. So have you always been an artist? And I don't know if we're all, like you said, we're all artists in some kind of way. But have you always known that you were an artist? And did this start as like childhood and brought you full-fledged to this point in your life? Can you talk a little bit about that? Because when you speak, I can see the passion. Yes. I can feel the passion.

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I can feel it. I can feel it just resonating off of your body.

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Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I guess it does make me emotional because I do feel that art, I've seen art really change people, like for the better. They find themselves, like if they can't express themselves to their family or the world, they can do so through a character, they can do so through paint, whatever kind of art it is, and that's wide open. That could be nail art, that can be clothing, that could be painting, that could be dancing, it could be all of that stuff. You know, like, let's get rid of those hierarchies, okay? So yeah, I was a shy kid, moved around a lot, you know, always walk into the room and like take inventory, you know. And I was good at math also. So like, I remember once I did like a drawing of a cat or something like something. And my friends in school like started buying them, you know, like giving me money for my drawings. And I was like, once I got to exhibit my painting in the library, another time in the mall, and one time I won a little award, you know, and that right there was like enough for me, right, to be like, okay, maybe I can do this. But it wasn't encouraged in my family. I was really good at math. And so like I started out math or business or something like that. And I just wasn't happy. And that's when I met a professor, right, school so important. And he, he really instilled in me that art isn't just about what it looks like. It can be so much more. And for me, there's like math that multiple ways to get to multiple answers. That's what art is, you know, so expansive. And I felt that I could somehow make a difference if I could express that. It's hard. It's hard to be an artist because you put your stuff out there. It's really fun to be a director and curator though, because artists, you know, it's hard to put your stuff out there. It coach and mentor that Is so rewarding right like we'll give you this space. We'll give you the resources We'll install it for you. You know all of this and here you go, right? What do you want to what's your theme? What do you want to do? And that has just been so so wonderful for me When I showed my work in New York, for example, I didn't I didn't have a great experience. And so I think I use that sensitivity as an artist to really inform how I treat curators, how I treat artists. Just like a visitor coming in, someone showing at a museum, like you hear museum, it's scary. I want them to have a positive experience as well.

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I love that. So I hear what you're saying is that art requires vulnerability. And you said something else that really resonated with my soul, because I say it as well, I say that your body is your canvas.

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Wow, yeah.

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This is painted how you choose, painted in what brings you joy. So when I see people with tattoos or earrings, this is your canvas. And the other thing that I remember telling students about art is that art is for you, you know? Art is for you and that different people will have different artistic tastes and someone's inability to see the beauty of your art does not make it less beautiful. That's good. So smart. It does not make it less beautiful. So smart. The right connoisseur will come along and go, that speaks to my soul. I've gone to museums and I've told a story about me and the Met where I got in trouble.

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Oh, tell me everything I want to know. Yes, I want to hear it.

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I was at the Met Museum looking at art, and I was leaning up against the wall, and the security guard comes up to me and he says, excuse me, ma'am, you're leaning on the art.

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Oh, oh, crap. I'm sorry.

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I thought it was wallpaper. I had not put together that art could exist on the wall without being in a frame so, you know that says to me that It's how it speaks to you is how you interpret it. That doesn't make it less art because I did not recognize it Just in the same way that if someone doesn't see what you have to offer It doesn't make your offering less valuable. Right. You know, they may just not be attuned to your gifts, which is fine because you want someone who's going to love your art, display your art, and feel like they're willing to invest in your art.

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Yep, invest over time, invest in your experience. Yes. Really share it with people with the hope that you're really, you're conveying the message that they want and they wish for. I love that you said that too, that art is for you. Yes, as well. So I always think about audience, right? Who's the audience for this? You know? And sometimes it's one person, right? They could be gone from the planet or it can be yourself and there's no right way to do it wallpaper, it just makes me think like at some point that probably was resistance to artwork having to be a painting.

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I had a fixed idea of what art should look like. And that challenged my idea of what art is. And in the same with the art for yourself, I think once we, I feel like once you try to monetize this thing that is so precious to you, your lens shifts. It sure does. And you forget the reasons you created the art.

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That's why I came out here. Honestly, I wanted to get away from the market and just make work. And this place was so inspiring.

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You can't monetize your soul.

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No, no.

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You know, so keep coming from your soul and the right connoisseur. Yeah, we'll see.

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You need one person. Yeah, you need one person to like it.

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I'm telling you, I had no idea. I thought we were just gonna talk about the museum today, but there are so many and I'm sure the person that's listening And whoever's out there. There are so many gems. I feel like it that have been shared embracing who you are Expressiveness I can't remember. I want to say it was Nelson Mandela. This is it's go something about like Our biggest fear is not that we're inadequate. I think they were powerful beyond measure. Yes. Marion Wilson.

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So it was Marion Wilson. It also, it always gets attributed to Nancyl Mandela.

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It does, but I knew it was somebody who, the originator. Yes. My deepest fear. It's not that I'm inadequate, my deepest fear is that I'm powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us the most. Absolutely. And then he goes on to talk about you know, who am I to be brilliant and talented and all these different things. But the part that resonates is that they go on to talk about us dimming our light to make others feel comfortable, that it doesn't serve anyone let alone ourselves. So hearing you all talk about the power and the ability of expression is like really touching my heart, like touching home today. I mean, I'm glad that we're having this conversation. I love the fact that we're just kind of going with it, although yes, we had questions, yes, we had scripts and things that we want to follow, but letting the conversation take a turn or create its own being in the space is just phenomenal. It's phenomenal.

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Oh my gosh, you're talking about boundaries and taking up space. This is like a theme in my life right now. Yeah, I just hope that when people come in, they remember this conversation and that they feel this from the space. I have a lot of young people working with me, you know, maybe it's their first job, you know, artists coming in, it may be their first museum show. And I remember one in particular, Erica Vital Lazar, beautiful person, a poet, writer, so many other hats, a mother and a curator. She wanted to fill the space with black women, like pictures, research, her grandmother's linoleum floor. Oh, my God. Oh, wow. We painted a giant mural. And, you know, I went with her. She got the whole center gallery inside and out. And I went with her to the framer. And I left there, I was like almost like hungover, because there was so much work. And there were these women that she had printed photos of, and we brought them in, and we got to play. And Erica, it was incredible, Erica picked frames to fit the personality of the people inside of them, and we just filled that whole space. It was called Scene Scene. And just an incredible, incredible show. But this idea that you can play and that you can have permission to take up space and do things against, you know, like it's not doesn't have to be like a flat wood frame. It can be something that speaks to the person's personality, you know.

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I love that.

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I hear that artistry helps you to uncover and recover Parts of yourself sure does I hear expansion of our understandings of ourselves in the world comes through art

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Yeah, and you know, it's like you're mentioning this and I keep having the artist Adriana Chavez comes to mind. Mm-hmm You know grew up in a Catholic family California is LGBTQ and she created a character that is subversive and irreverent. And he, you know, he comments on everything maybe in a way that is like kind of pushing boundaries, you know, and reflecting what society looks like, which is not always beautiful, right? And so when talking to her, she says that she's able to find parts of herself and express parts of herself that she never was able to with this character. His name is Juanchico. He's like macho. And he's always just like, he's always doing something. He's got a cigar. And we did a series of performances every month and in February He was doing like a swap meet Valentine's sale at the museum So, you know her family would like sold flowers at swap meet so, you know at Easter Bunny You know, we did Easter egg hunt in in the museum and instead of candy there were seeds and or corn or things like that It's funny. It's funny stuff, but it's also very serious. But yeah, this self-discovery, expression, being able to do things that like if her mama knew.

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Probably turnover, right? Liberation.

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Yeah, liberation.

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I hear liberation. I hear that art liberates you. Art frees you to be your truest self.

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Absolutely. Oh my goodness. That's so powerful. Or it gets you gets you on the train right or whatever it is to like To like be yourself, you know, we I don't know if we reach our true selves or anything, but the life journey that life journey Yeah, definitely

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Now Alicia what about so you we talked about the are you mentioned the different artists? How do you all select what exhibit's gonna take place or you know particular artists? Is there like an interview process, a submission process?

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It's kind of, you know, I'm a flexible museum director and curator. Oh, I love that. Flexible. I think we need to be more flexible in our world, right? Where else can we do the things that don't exist yet, right? So some museums will take traveling shows that are already done, plop them in there, and then they move on. on and we've done that. But people can just submit a proposal like who's it for? Why? Why? You know, why? And saying, I don't know, is also a stance. I want to know. Things like this. Yeah, so it just, it's a really easy thing like open door policy. If someone visits and they see something they like, tell us. If they don't see what they want to see, tell me. And we'll invite a curator to curate artists from the community. Sometimes we'll do an open call. It just depends.

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So this has been a phenomenal conversation that I want to go on for much longer, but according to our sound guy, I hear the Oscar music playing in the background. So, we'd like to give you the last word. Anything that you want to share, and something I guess we didn't get to ask you is, how can students become involved in this wonderful work that you do? And while giving direction, how can they contact you? Because I would be remiss if we didn't have that happen before we left.

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No, we're open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 to 5, walk through those doors. Okay. And it's your museum. Okay. It's your museum. It's not activated until you activate it. Okay. Right. So you, you must come in and even if it's to do homework, rest, have a mindfulness day, like you said, just come into the museum. We hold our collection in public trust. It's for the people. So come on in. My name is Alicia. I work in the office with the rest of my team. You can talk to any one of them and say I want to get involved. Volunteer, come to the openings, come to the events. Just sit down with us and talk about what you want for your career. Say, hey Alicia, will you look at my resume? I do that all the time. So yeah, just get involved. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for this wonderful, so enriching, like I thought we were just talking about a museum. Well, it's not just any museum. It's an experience. And it's a great, it's a great place and such a privilege to run it. So yeah,

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so grateful to have you on. Thank you. Okay.

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Transcribed with Cockatoo