Marjorie Barrick Museum

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The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art is a museum located on the main campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, established in 1967. The museum was originally instituted as a natural history museum with a focus on the natural history and environment of Nevada and the broader Southwestern United States. In December 2011, the Barrick joined the UNLV College of Fine Arts and became the anchor of the Galleries at UNLV. The six galleries and one museum that make up the Galleries are each entities in their own right linked via a common administration. The Marjorie Barrick Museum, is a well-known venue for engaging exhibitions and events and promotes engagement with the visual arts among a broad community including UNLV students, faculty, and staff; the greater Las Vegas community; and the national and international art community.HistoryThe founding of a natural history museum at the university—then an institution only a decade old, known as Nevada Southern University—began with a collection of specimens from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the Nevada System of Higher Education's graduate research institute. In September 1967, the DRI opened a small museum facility in premises across from the university's grounds, as part of an expansion of DRI's activities into southern Nevada. The museum was created under the direction of archaeologist Richard H. Brooks, assistant research professor at the university and a researcher (later director) of the DRI-affiliated Nevada Archaeological Survey. Its exhibits consisted of DRI's local collection of living desert animal specimens and Native American artifacts.