UNLV art director wins achievement award

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 8:47 a.m.

UNLV's art gallery director won a Lifetime Achievement Award in Art on Saturday from the City of Las Vegas Arts Commission.

Jerry Schefcik, director of UNLV's Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery since 1991, received the award in a ceremony Saturday afternoon at the Charleston Heights Arts Center. The commission also honored local artist Sylvester Collier, a UNLV alumnus.

Schefcik, 52, said he saw the award as an "reaffirmation that what I have chosen to do is right."

"What I do is something I love to do and something I am lucky to have as a career," Schefcik said.

Schefcik said he has overseen more than 350 exhibits and contributed to more than 26 publications since he became a curator in 1982. At UNLV, he is responsible for soliciting and raising money for each exhibit and he teaches courses on gallery management at the university, officials said.

Schefcik also served as exhibitions curator for the Nevada Institute of Contemporary Art from 1989 to 2000. His favorite exhibits have been those that feature local artists.

"There's a good art scene here in Las Vegas it's just not that well known," Schefcik said.