UNR Art Club’s First Showcase is Hosted in Midtown’s Pangolin Cafe
Reporter Amanda Durand talks with the UNR Art Club President and Pangolin Cafe co-owner to learn more about their collaboration for the Club’s first student showcase.
One wall of the Pangolin Cafe showcases art submitted to the UNR Art Club for their first showcase. Art will displayed through the end of April. Photo by Amanda Durand.
Pangolin Café, located in Midtown Reno, is hosting a showcase of artwork put on by the University of Nevada, Reno Art Club (UNR Art Club) throughout the month of April. The showcase features 14 pieces of various mediums from seven artists who are current students at the university. The Pangolin Café specializes in Turkish delights, English toffee and offer a fine selection of coffee and tees for visitors to enjoy while viewing the showcase.
“We’re thrilled about the opportunity to give young artists a chance to display their artwork and engage with the community,” said co-owner of Pangolin Café, Travis Sandefur. Community involvement is an important part of the café for Sandefur who says he loves interacting with people. “That’s part of the reason why we have a seating area and why we don’t just ship our candy,” Sandefur stated.
The café has hosted several art events in the past, but this is their first collaboration with the university. Art Club President Aiyana Graham is excited about the showcase, as it is one of their first chances to connect with the Reno art community.
The club is about, “Creating a casual space within the UNR community for people to hang out and do art,” Graham stated. Whether you’re looking to get into art as a hobby, as a profession, or even just expose yourself to art, the club is open to all.
Animals are the theme of the showcase, as a nod to the cafe’s namesake, the pangolin. Pangolins are one of the most trafficked mammals in the world according to the World Wildlife Fund, and a side mission of the cafe is pangolin preservation. Therefore, when the question arose of a theme for the show, the answer was clear.
The cafe’s metal logo hangs outside the café in the sunny afternoon sun. Photo by Amanda Durand.
This showcase is the club’s first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Graham, who has been at the university for three years and a member of the art club for just as long, recalled the hardships the club has faced since the onset of the pandemic.
“The club was experiencing a lot of growth just when I joined,” stated Graham. “We were trying to organize a show within UNR, but that was right before COVID hit, so we didn’t get to do anything.”
Since then, the club’s membership numbers have been down, but that hasn’t deterred them. The club has frequent meetings and even hosted an introduction to digital drawing workshop in collaboration with the E.L. Cord Museum School in late March.
“Art as a process and as a personal practice takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and some people are sometimes afraid to pursue that,” Graham said. It’s why the club also focuses on teaching people about art and how to do it.
When it came to the introduction to digital drawing workshops, another key was accessibility. Instead of using a high-end drawing program like Adobe Photoshop which is expensive, the event used Procreate, a popular iPad app that is only $9.99.
Graham hopes that the current showcase at the cafe will introduce the club to more opportunities in the future, whether it be local businesses who want to showcase art or local artists who want to come and host a workshop.
“It gives a lot of opportunities for people to be involved with art more in the community and on campus,” Graham said.
The Pangolin showcase also serves as a fundraiser for the club. Each artist was required to pay a small submission fee for every piece they entered into the show. Eight of the 14 pieces at the cafe are for sale, ranging between $30 and $200. For each piece sold, 10% of revenue goes to the cafe and 10% goes to the club to help fund future events.
Even if none of the pieces sell, the club encourages students and the community to visit the cafe, get some coffee or tea, and enjoy the artwork.
