Ahoy!

At the risk of lapsing into the sort of boosterism that we here at the RN&R despise, we’d like to reiterate one of our favorite things about the Reno community: the spirit of collaboration that exists among the city’s creative class. There’s lots of evidence of this: the collaborative art spaces, like Reno Art Works, the Generator and Valley Arts Research Facility, and events like Nada Dada and, yes, Artown.

Forage: A Roaming Gallery is just such an event: a multiple location art collaboration among dozens of local artists, musicians, businesses and nonprofit organizations. This is the fourth year of the event organized primarily by the Holland Project, a nonprofit all-ages arts organization. This year, Forage spans five locations: the Holland Project, Lost City Farm, Idlewild Pool, Hub Coffee and the Nevada Museum of Art. The locations are linked by a bicycle route through the city.

“We call it Forage: A Roaming Gallery or Forage: A Celebration of Bikes, Art, Music and Film,” says Holland Project director Britt Curtis.

And oddly appropriate for an event held in the desert at the height of summer: This year, the event has a nautical theme. (Because art is fantasy, and who hasn’t fantasized about jumping into the ocean during some of the triple digit days this summer?)

The event is so sprawling and multifaceted that what follows is an incomplete picture, but it’s at least a sketch of the general idea.

It starts at the Holland Project, 140 Vesta. St., at 4:15 p.m. on July 20. The building itself will be decked out to look like a ship. Inside will be a coral reef-themed art installation made primarily of wood and acrylic yarn by local artist Kelly Ogilvie. She says that working with the grant-required coral reef theme was creatively inspiring.

“I find it’s much easier to come up with ideas once you have some kind of parameters already laid out, some kind of boundary, or some kind of need to fulfill,” she says.

At Holland, there will also be a Pyramid Lake-inspired sound sculpture, and a nautical knot-tying workshop.

At Lost City Farms, there will be a shipwreck sculpture made by the Generator artists using elements from the similar piece they built for last year’s Burning Man festival. There will also be what Curtis describes as a “last man on the island lemonade stand.”

At Idlewild Pool, 1805 Idlewild Drive, there will be, obviously, a swimming pool—all too important for a nautical themed bicycle art event in the middle of the summer. Photographers Lindsey Hemphill and Dane Haman will be shooting underwater photography. There will be an amateur group of synchronized swimmers, and a Ramones cover band featuring members of the local group the Pelvis Wrestlies. There will also be cardboard boat sculptures designed by local artists.

At Hub Coffee, 727 Riverside Drive, there will be sea shanty stands, run by different local artists, with fake pirate tattoos and cosmic messages in the bottles.

Finally, the tour wraps up on the roof at the Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty St., around 7 p.m. There will be food trucks, bike valet by the Reno Bike Project, a DJ, and a cash bar. Artists Michelle Lassaline and Nate Clark will do a performance piece.

After dark, there’ll be a screening of the film Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, with an original score performed by the Reno Video Game Symphony Orchestra and members of local bands like Spitting Image, Prescription and Actors Killed Lincoln.

So, it’s a big event with a lot of people involved. Be careful not to get lost at sea.