MISSION STATEMENT:

To illustrate that art helps people connect as a community.

In 2015, a local nonprofit, Mesquite Opportunities Regional Fund (MORF) partnered with the Eureka Casino and Resort and a professional facilitator to host two listening sessions of local residents to discuss and describe their vision of Mesquite’s future, resulting in an overarching desire to encourage and enhance cultural and artistic amenities and add projects that help beautify the community.

· The first project was an increased amount of plant material along the bike path from Mesquite Boulevard to Old Mill with several lighted shade structures and benches.

Itis a well-documented fact that artistic communities attract more tourism and therefore revenue for local businesses. Arts increase our quality of life by educating and uniting us as communities. And, in Nevada, Arts and Culture topped both mining ($4B) and education services ($.0.9B) creating more than 53,000 jobs.

· In 2019 the Mesquite Public Arts Commission (MPAC) was established by Councilmen Wursten and Gault with the purpose “to encourage and enhance artistic expression and appreciation and to add value to the community through acquiring, exhibiting and maintaining public art.”

· In July 2021, MPAC again partnered with MORF on a grant from the Nevada Main Street Program that resulted in MPAC selecting Rachelle Knight’s paintings which were transformed into “wraps” on utility boxes along Mesquite and Pioneer Boulevard. The grant also provided for the purchase of banners on streetlight poles depicting seasonal arts events.

Our current goals are to attract pieces of art, sculpture, and murals, that draw you back to examine them, that call to you to contemplate them, and perhaps to make your day a bit brighter because you stopped to look at them.

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PURPOSE:

The City of Mesquite recognizes that art is vitally important to the quality of life of the citizens of the city. The Mesquite Public Arts Commission (MPAC) is intended to encourage and enhance artistic expression and appreciation, and to add value to the community through acquiring, exhibiting and maintaining public art. The MPAC has no authority over, or to provide any oversight regarding matters of private art, unless expressly granted the authority to do so.

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