St Marys Art Center Inc

Built in 1875, St. Mary’s Art & Retreat Center is the Grand Dame of Virginia City and is a National Historic Landmark. High up in the Virginia Range mountains, perched near old gold and silver mineshafts, in the lost in time mining town of the Comstock Era, is St Mary’s Art Center. Originally a Hospital for the Comstock miners, left empty and abandoned for many years after the Gold Rush declined, only to be saved in the 1964 by Father Meinecke, who had great foresight and a plan.
St Mary’s Hospital was dedicated to the Arts and Culture, by visionary priest, Father Meinecke, and Storey County. The abandoned 4 storey hospital building became a living, vibrant Art Center.

St Marys Art Center supports the local community, national and international artists with 6 art galleries and more than 30 exhibitions per year. Our Resident Artist program sees a minimum of 15 artists yearly who come and live at the Center, engage with public visitors, work on visual or literary projects in their field and teach their creative processes.

We provide 15 Victorian bedrooms, a large open studio space, analogue photographic darkroom and printmaking studio and two kitchens to the general public, for community meetings, art classes, retreats and workshops. Our programming includes free art classes for children from 5-12 years old and for teenagers 12-18 years old, and 2 exhibition spaces for teenagers from regional High Schools, showing their best work in their first professional art space.