Paintings from the 1970’s on the Comstock – JoAnne Johnson Beck
June 27 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
When: May – July
Reception: May 9, 4-6 pm
Saturday afternoons 2-4 pm during library hours
Where: Silver City Schoolhouse, 385 High Street, Silver City, NV
The Silver City Preservation Society is pleased to present a show of paintings by JoAnne Johnson Beck. The work was created in the early 1970s when Beck lived in Gold Hill and contributed artwork to the Gold Hill News. The work is whimsical and features characters, and landscapes from the Comstock. They appear to be a combination of ink, pencil and watercolor. They reflect the cultural and artistic freedom many people describe from their time in the 1960s and 70s on the Comstock.
Jo Anne was born in Olympia Washington but spent her childhood first in the Mojave Desert and then in Sacramento where she attended Catholic school. Once she was old enough, she moved around a lot and enjoyed many adventures. She lived on Vancouver Island, in Gold Hill, Nevada and Oakland and San Franciso where she an art degree at California College of the Arts. She worked in graphic design and in theater on costumes during her time in the Bay Area. Later she moved to Switzerland and then France. She lives in Montpellier where she is still a painter.
The Silver City Schoolhouse is a historic one-room schoolhouse. It functioned as a school from 1868-1958. It opened during the Gold Rush when several thousand people lived in Silver City. After it closed in 1958 it became the firehouse and community center. The building burned in 2004 and was rebuilt over the next several years, using as much original material as could be salvaged from the fire. The Silver City Volunteer Fire Department got their own firehouse building and today the Schoolhouse functions once again as a community center, next to the beautiful Silver City Park. The building is used for community meetings, town events, parties, art shows, classes, community art projects, coffee houses, lectures, book readings and signings and much more. It also boasts a small but beautiful library.
The Silver City Preservation Society (SCPS), a 501c3 nonprofit was recently formed to manage the Schoolhouse building and develop community programs and art and culture programming. Proceeds from the bar and bake sale benefit the SCPS.
Silver City Arts is a committee of local residents who help produce arts and culture programming in Silver City. Silver City Arts volunteers graciously help with set up, clean up, run the bar and door and contribute magnificent baked goods. We could not do the series without them and are deeply grateful for their support.
