Holland Project show reframes handmade bullwhips as objects of craft
Around 2017, the recreational cracking of handmade bullwhips became a somewhat common pastime among people—mostly unhoused people, apparently—in some Reno parks. In 2021, the Reno City Council banned this activity in the downtown area. In 2022, Fil Corbitt, a local audio journalist and podcaster, made a radio documentary on the subject, which aired on NPR’s Snap Judgment in 2023.
“When I went into it, I had this idea that it was kind of about power—being intimidating or something,” Corbitt said.
But he also heard another side of the story. In a canyon near the Truckee River in Sparks, people living in tents talked about the whips as forms of craft and objects of amusement.
“Over and over again, people told me, ‘No, it’s about release. It’s like, I can play with this thing. I can make this sound. It’s like this audible feedback when I do it right,’” said Corbitt. “So it gave them something, and then as a group, it gave them this way to talk to each other and hang out.”
He said that a system of communication emerged among people in camps—snapping the whips in one way to say someone was arriving, and snapping them another way to signify someone was departing.
Corbitt and his partner, artist Eleanor Qull, have borrowed a few of these whips, purchased a few and even commissioned one, and displayed them as objects of craft at the Holland Project—complete with all of the curatorial elements one might use to revere an object of craft: blackened walls; thorough explanatory wall text; and a video recording, on loop, of the City Council meeting in which the whips were banned. The exhibition, Whip Craft: Illegal Art in Downtown Reno, is on view at the Holland Project through Saturday, April 18.
This is the first project from the new Department of Theoretical Public Works, an artists’ collective that Corbitt and Qull have launched.
“We want to do more looking into speculative and theoretical ideas about the West and living in the West,” said Corbitt. You can find the fledgling group on Instagram @dept.theoretical.public.works.
A changing of the guard at Western Nevada College’s gallery
The Bristlecone Gallery at Western Nevada College in Carson City has a new coordinator—and a new direction.
For many years, the gallery was programmed by the Capital City Arts Initiative, a nonprofit that brought in mid-career and established artists from around the state for exhibitions and talks. In October 2025, CCAI’s longtime director, Sharon Rosse, retired, and the organization closed. Also late in 2025, Francine Burge retired from her job in marketing and communications with the state of Nevada. This month, Burge began working part-time for the college as the art gallery coordinator.
Under Burge’s tenure, the Bristlecone Gallery’s mission will change a bit. “The college wants to use the art gallery as a mechanism for more community engagement, more ways of bringing people to the college, and also for the college to go out and meet people in the community using the art gallery,” she said in a phone interview.
She plans to set up an advisory panel that includes artists and others to help steer future programming. She expects that some exhibitions will showcase work by the college’s art students. She added: “Since this is a college with incredibly diverse knowledge bases, we’d like to incorporate talks, lectures and workshops to make the art more accessible and create deeper connections using the faculty in different disciplines.”
The current exhibition, The Chemigram Show, features abstract images made by “painting” on light-sensitive photo paper with chemicals by Nolan Preece—a local master of this technique—and a dozen artists who have learned it in his workshops. While Preece’s workshops are open to all, they have attracted at least a few professional artists seeking out a new medium. This show’s lineup includes some names you might recognize, like Arika Perry, director of St. Mary’s Art Center in Virginia City; Reno sculptor Elaine Parks; and Kyle Karrasch, director of the gallery at Truckee Meadows Community College. It closes Monday, April 13.
Next up in the gallery is a show of works by Adam Jahiel, a Wyoming photographer who shoots Western landscapes and portraits of cowboys, from May through September, followed by a show from photographer and gallerist Frances Melhop.
The Bristlecone Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, in the Bristlecone Building at Western Nevada College’s main campus, at 2201 W. College Parkway, in Carson City. If you’d like more details or if you are an artist who would like to propose an exhibition for 2027, email Francine Burge at m.burge@wnc.edu.
Burning Man 2026 art grantees announced
In a March 19 blog post, Burning Man announced its honoraria winners—75 of them, from 17 U.S. states and 15 countries, awarded a total of $1.3 million to bring their projects (14 with fire!) to Black Rock City in 2026.
Among the awardees are Reno’s Adrian Landon, whose project, “The Sound of Time,” is a graceful, architectural arrangement of clock-like gears.
You can see the full list of grantees on the Burning Man Journal. Note that this list specifies only the 75 projects that Burning Man has offered to fund, and that there will be countless more on the playa during the event, which will take place Aug. 30 to Sept. 7.
Business owners, want a mural? Artists, want to paint one?
Some Reno businesses that want a new outdoor mural can apply for reimbursement grants as part of the city of Reno’s new Small Walls pilot program, and local artists who want to paint one can apply to be paired up with one of the participating businesses.
This program, run by the Reno Redevelopment Agency (RDA) and the city of Reno Arts and Culture Division, will reimburse accepted businesses for up to 50% of the cost of an approximately 750-by-1,000-square-foot outdoor painting.
Businesses located in two designed “redevelopment areas” can apply through the RDA’s business application page and can email the city’s Arts and Culture Department at publicart@reno.gov to learn more about pricing estimates. Artists can apply on the city’s artists application page. Applications are due Friday, April 10.