ONE NIGHT, THREE EXHIBITIONS, FIFTY YEARS AT BARRICK MUSEUM

This week, the Marjorie Barrick Museum celebrates a half-century of existence as any other 50-year-old would—by reaffirming its sense of self and having a big to-do. The UNLV space soon to be known as the Barrick Museum of Art (its fourth name change, by our count) is opening three separate exhibitions in one night, plus a special bonus pick.

The unlikeliest Vegas trend in 2016, besides poke bowls and making your own flip flops, might just be public art.

You probably don’t think about the oil that makes your personal transportation possible whenever you start your car — or pull up to the pump to refuel.

They’re no longer artists-in-residence at UNLV. But their artworks are in residence at UNLV’s Barrick Museum, at least through Sept. 10, in “Five.”

The Barrick Museum does it again. The fresh and zesty Five presents work by five recent UNLV artists-in-residence based in LA, New York and Brooklyn. Co-curated by Aurore Giguet and Alisha Kerlin, Five includes paintings, photographs, installations, sculptures and videos representing a range of contemporary art tendencies—conceptual to concrete.

At Saturday’s opening reception for Five, an exhibit of works by LA- and New York-based artists at UNLV’s Barrick Museum, director Aurore Giguet was experiencing a quiet farewell.

Viewer looks at “Red” at the Ellsworth Kelly show at the Barrick Museum. Viewer considers the 48-by-37-inch print of an angular, six-sided form. Old neurons from geometry class rattle. Neither the sides nor the angles are consistent, so it’s ... an irregular polygon.

Las Vegas artist Justin Favela, known for his large-scale, piñata-inspired works steeped in pop culture, Latino culture, satire and Las Vegas iconography, will discuss his art and recent exhibits March 15 as part of the Barrick Talks series at UNLV's Barrick Museum.

Boom towns, bust towns, ghost towns and billion-dollar faux landmarks. Nothing is like Southern Nevada. Pioneers, showgirls, casino moguls, mobsters, architects and circus acts landing here in the wake of Mormon settlers and railroads have altered the landscape decade by decade, building out a community famously transient and filled with colorful stories. The artifacts left behind—from ginormous marquees to geiger counters—live in museums across the Valley.

The beauty of the Barrick Museum lies not only in its rotating contemporary art exhibits, but also in its educational, interactive art-making events: the ongoing Art Bar, available to anyone who stops in to make works from the ample pile of materials in the lobby, to visitor-made guides of the outside desert garden, to the annual Day of the Dead altar/time capsule, to Visitor Made, an ongoing Third Thursday public art-making experience based on works featured in the current exhibit.

The beauty of the Barrick Museum lies not only in its rotating contemporary art exhibits, but also in its educational, interactive art-making events: the ongoing Art Bar, available to anyone who stops in to make works from the ample pile of materials in the lobby, to visitor-made guides of the outside desert garden, to the annual Day of the Dead altar/time capsule, to Visitor Made, an ongoing Third Thursday public art-making experience based on works featured in the current exhibit.

Following a nine-month hiatus, UNLV's Barrick Lecture Series is back. The first address under UNLV President Len Jessup's watch was delivered Tuesday by writer and CNN host Fareed Zakaria.