Art comes to life in Tonopah

Several new works of art installed across the Tonopah area capture vivid images of the past and present of the town and bring them alive.

A 3-D interactive mural now rests on the side of the Tonopah Convention Center.

“The mural makes it appear as though the viewer is looking inside the building but also looking back in time,” said Tracy McCormick, executive director of Tonopah Main Street. “The mural will highlight what the building used to look like when it was the USO Club during World War II in the 1940s.”

McCormick added, “We hired Las Vegas muralist Jamie Vincek to support a Nevada small business owned by a woman.”

Tonopah Main Street commissioned artists from across the state after being awarded a $30,000 grant through the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development’s Nevada Main Street Program.

“The grant also allowed us to commission custom-made metal artwork to be installed on the existing handrails on portions of the sidewalks on Main Street, within the Tonopah Main Street District,” McCormick said. “The artwork will represent Tonopah’s heritage and culture through western ranching by branding the horses and cattle with our local rancher’s branding,”

For that project, Tonopah Main Street hired Twisted Steel out of Fernley to support another Nevada small business.

“Tonopah Main Street volunteers put in well over 100 hours of their time and talent to make this happen,” McCormick said.

McCormick thanked many for their work on the project, including “Stretch Baker, Dennis Eastley, Jeff Galli and Davey Manhire (traffic control) for all their help with the installation.”

The Tonopah project was one of six across the state to receive funding through the Nevada Main Street Program. A total of $126,034 was awarded to six communities across the state in May. Other awards went to Gardnerville, Mesquite, Reno, Wells and Ely.

“All of these projects will help create a sense of place and celebrate unique main street districts in each community,” said Patty Herzog, GOED Director of Rural Economic and Community Development, in a May press release.

Nevada Main Street has awarded 10 grants totaling $375,000 to support downtown revitalization since 2019, according to GOED.

“Nevada Main Street takes a holistic approach to downtown revitalization that supports business creation and retention to support healthy and economically vibrant communities administered by GOED,” a May release from GOED stated. “The program provides a framework for communities to address the full range of issues and challenges facing traditional commercial districts.”