UNLV has a history of supporting the visual arts beginning in 1969 with the first art gallery that opened in Archie C. Grant Hall. A second gallery was added in 1981 in the then, newly-constructed Alta Ham Fine Arts Building. In 1987 it was remodeled and enlarged, and the name it now carries, Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, is in honor of the daughter of Thomas Beam, whose generous donation made the expansion possible. The gallery is free to the public and open on a regular basis throughout the year.

The Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery actively supports the university’s Top Tier mission of, “…achievement through education, research, scholarship, [and] creative activities...” The gallery provides a venue for exhibitions that tap into the variety of creative activities in contemporary art and encourages freedom of individual thought, expression, and artistic consciousness. A year-round exhibition schedule offers the work of student and faculty artists, artists from the region and throughout the U.S., and from lands across the globe.

The mission of the Donna Beam Gallery is to stimulate and enrich the cultural vitality of a diverse UNLV community and all who visit the gallery.

The Donna Beam Gallery draws upon recognized as well as up-and-coming artists, critics, and scholars to fulfill programming goals. The focus of the gallery is to support and augment classroom instruction. Our primary purpose is to educate our audience, and also to excite, enlighten, and inspire, and to enrich the art curriculum of the university. In any given year the gallery presents from seven to 15 exhibitions, which can range from one-person shows, group or theme shows, to faculty exhibitions, MFA thesis exhibitions, BFA group shows or juried student exhibitions. The gallery also serves as a teaching gallery for students learning gallery practices.

There are six additional venues on campus under the auspices of the Donna Beam Gallery each offering singular opportunities to experience unique works of art. They are:

• Jessie Metcalf Gallery, Richard Tam Alumni Center, 2nd Floor
• Student Union Art Gallery, 2nd Floor above the Food Court
• Grant Hall Gallery, Archie C. Grant Hall, Rm. #123
• Doc Rando Recital Hall Gallery, Beam Music Center, Recital Hall Lobby
• Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy Gallery, Artemus Ham Concert Hall Lobby
• Virlis and Bernice Fischer Gallery, Judy Bayley Theater Lobb

We wish to acknowledge that we are situated on the traditional homelands of the Nuwuvi, Southern Paiute People. We offer gratitude for the land itself, for those who have stewarded it for generations, and for the opportunity to study, learn, and be in community with this land.