It was the wildest art night in Nevada!
Join us again in October 2008!


Goldwell President, Charles Morgan played host
to a crowd of nearly 100 people,
"the bravest art goers in the state of Nevada."
Read on for his first-person account...

"As I was driving north on US 95 the morning of October 20, 2007, I began to really look forward to what the day would bring. I was on my way to the Red Barn Art Center for its opening event, Albert’s Tarantella, and was in fact transporting the art show for the evening’s festivities. This work consisted of paintings of horror icons (mostly from the classic Universal stable of characters) by Sean Jones.  As my then 5-year old son Sam and I headed north, the weather was calm and sunny. Little did we know what was in store for us as we motored along (not unlike the innocent beginning of many a classic horror film)!

Upon arrival, things were still peaceful weather-wise. Work was in full swing and I joined in by unloading the art and hanging the show. The atmosphere was pretty electric as everyone labored to get all the pieces in place on time. After I had the show up and lit, I helped Rodney Leach do his sound check outside. He did several tunes and got it dialed in pretty well as he sat outside on some hay bales and I walked around the immediate area giving him feedback. As it turned out, I was the only one who would experience Rodney’s performance outside where it was originally planned.

At around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, the wind began to pick up, becoming rather gusty rather quickly. At that point, people were working on the little details of the event and were definitely noticing the moving air. After awhile, it became a topic of discussion as we all wondered how it would affect the evening’s events. It was still sunny and the optimistic opinion was it would calm down by nightfall. We also knew there was nothing we could do at any rate, so we just kept on going with our preparations.

Needless to say, by showtime the wind was howling, barking, whining, bitching, whistling and all in all making itself part of the show that could not and would not be ignored. Cockroach Theater’s production of “The Methuselah Tree” became in my mind probably one of the more unique performances they had ever put on. The wind insisted on providing, shall we say, punctuation throughout the play and on into Threshold Dance Theater’s performance. Indeed, people were blowing into the large space at the Red Barn Art Center (this is not an exaggeration)! Fortunately the door opens inward. Each time the door opened, Sean Jones’ artwork would be hit by the wind as it hung (on wire from the rafters), adding to the overall atmosphere by becoming breezily animated in it’s own right. After a brief intermission during which Rodney Leach’s equipment was brought inside, he performed as people enjoyed hot chili and custom made cupcakes. It was at this time that the wind naturally began dying down.

As an inaugural event attended by close to 100 brave people, Albert’s Tarantella was quite a success. Even with the wind all had a good time and in fact many felt the wind was Goldwell’s founder Albert Szukalski’s way of being present at the party named after him. I mean, who else would care enough to blow back a metal piece of the roof that night that had been lost in a previous windstorm months before? Thanks Albert for that as well as presiding over such a wonderful inaugural blowout!