The Marjorie Barrick Museum is the anchor of the Galleries of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Other campus galleries include the Donna Beam Fine Arts Gallery, Jessie Metcalf Gallery in the Richard Tam Alumni Center, the lobbies of the Artemus Ham Concert Hall, the Judy Bayley Theatre, and the Doc Rando Recital Hall located inside Beam Music Center. The Barrick Museum has seen several transformations over the years, which have lead to its present position within the educational institution.

The Museum was founded in 1969, and it originally focused on natural history with a large collection of Pre-Columbian art, ethnographic and archaeological artifacts. It wasn’t until 1989 that the Museum was named after Marjorie Barrick, a long time university benefactor. Barrick herself had a very involved life: married to real estate developer and part-time casino owner Edward Barrick, she supported education, social programs and art in Southern Nevada. Her substantial philanthropic efforts did not go unnoticed, and she was given the "Woman of the Year" award from Nevada Dance Theater in 1988, the 1987 Governor's Arts Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts, and UNLV awarded her an honorary doctorate in humane letters in 1985. It was not until December 2011 that the Marjorie Barrick Museum was transitioned into the UNLV College of Fine Arts, where it now concentrates on the visual arts and its collection of Pre-Columbian art.

The Donald H. Baepler Xeric Garden greets visitors as they enter the Barrick Museum. Dennis Swartzell originally conceptualized the Garden in the 1980’s at the urging of Dr. Baepler.  It was designed by landscape architect Jack W. Zunino and named in honor of Donald H. Baepler. Intended as an extension of the Natural History Museum, the Garden showcases various types of plants from the four North American deserts, Australia, South America, Mexico and the Mediterranean, and it was the first demonstration garden of its kind in Southern Nevada.

The new Marjorie Barrick Museum showcases contemporary art exhibitions in its newly renovated (2012) space. In addition, the museum is home to the Dr. Michael C. and Mannetta Braunstein Collection of Pre-Columbian art as well as housing the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel 50x50 Collection. View this video to get a broad overview of the pristine galleries at the Barrick Museum.

The UNLV College of Fine Arts also recently partnered with the Las Vegas Art Museum (LVAM) to hold and exhibit the LVAM collection. The collection is shown periodically at the Barrick Museum with plans to exhibit it throughout the community. Specifically, the Barrick Museum houses the nearly 200 objects within this collection. Many of the artists in the collection not only hail from the Southern Nevada region, but they also graduated from UNLV.

The "Art for Art's Sake: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation" exhibit

The "New Again: The Las Vegas Art Museum Collection" exhibit

During the WMA 2014 Annual Meeting on October 5-8, the Museum will be showing PANORAMA: Selections from the Nevada Arts Council’s Artist Fellowship Program. The exhibition is described as a, “… celebration of object-making; and a deliberate demonstration of aesthetic investigations and… a challenge to the boundaries of familiar art forms.“  It is a call to viewers to seriously look at the artworks in the exhibition and respond. Learn more about current exhibitions here.