Las Vegas Weekly

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It’s fitting that Wendy Kveck’s final day as director of the Contemporary Arts Center fell on the opening night of Let’s Build a Nation, an exhibit based on the fictional premise that a consulting firm had been “hired” to decide CAC’s future as a nation. Past and present board members attended the event. Paintings commemorated the group’s early leaders. CAC artifacts sat in a display case. It was a reminder of the organization’s deep ties to the community and its myriad changes over the past 20 years. Now it’s time for more changes.

Kveck, whose brief tenure at the nonprofit organization was made possible with federal stimulus money, took a job this month curating county exhibits. The CAC board is mum on what happens next, saying only that it is in a transitional period. The organization has been aggressive in its outreach and partnerships in the past year and recently launched an education program with the school district. Exhibits this year came off almost as a personal letter to the community, delving into our most painful and celebrated issues. At openings, representatives reminded the community that the CAC was there for us, while pleading for continued support. Its next show, Hope You Are Feeling Better, held in conjunction with the Vegas Valley Book Festival, pairs visual artists with UNLV’s MFA creative writing program. After that, it’s a blank. CAC’s November-through-January exhibit fell through, and representatives have yet to announce a replacement show. The group says next year’s programming will include more out-of-town artists, including a show from San Francisco’s SOMArts.