Queen of the Reno arts scene, Christine Fey, retires after 20 years

RENO — Christine Fey soaked up the sun while sitting on a bench in Reno’s Bicentennial Park.

For Fey, 64, looking out over the park — filled with sculptures, a giant mouse, colorful mosaics and several abstract pieces — was bittersweet. It was her most recent project completed while working for the city of Reno, and it also was her last.

“It’s like night and day,” said Fey of the city’s arts scene compared to when she started her career with the city nearly 30 years ago.

Fey, who worked as the city’s arts and culture manager for nearly 20 years, retired last months.

Fey started out as an intern in 1989 working on the city’s master plan. She worked her way up to becoming the junior planner and then senior planner before taking on her job as the arts and culture manager in 2000.

Even before filling the new position, she helped to start the Reno Arts Commission, which soon after founded the month-long, citywide arts festival now known as Artown. She was also instrumental in creating the McKinley Arts and Culture Center.

“Where a lot of people would do their job and go home at night, she wouldn’t do that. She would go to the shows, the galleries, she knew all of us,” said Sierra Nevada Ballet artistic director Rosine Bena. “She’s like a good teacher. She loves each and every group like they’re her favorite.”

Under Fey, the city adopted a policy to spend 2 percent of all new project costs on public art. Reno has since amassed 185 pieces of public art, 100 of which are outdoors. Their value is more than $5 million collectively.

“She has really a forward vision to create a rich potting soil for the arts, and she knows how to collaborate with others to grow the arts,” said Nettie Oliverio, member of the Reno Arts Commission. “She’s helped our community become more global.”

In 2000, Fey ventured to Burning Man for the first time, took on the playa name, “Czarina Christina,” and fell in love with the desert exhibition of large scale installations. Two years later, she collaborated with the Nevada Museum of Art and Burning Man organizers to bring the first dose of playa art — the “Plastic Church” — to Reno.

Now, the city is home to a half-dozen permanent Burning Man sculptures, including the recently acquired “Believe” sculpture in City Plaza. Temporarily, the city also is hosting the Playa Art Park — a collection of Burning Man sculptures — which for six months or more are hunkered down in a former motel lot.

“Everyone wants to have a beautiful interesting environment to live in,” said Fey.

Fey also has helped the city establish an arts grant program which grew from a $25,000 program in 1993 to one worth $600,000 at its height in 2009 before the economic downturn. In 2016, the program doled out $445,000.

“Without Christine, the city of Reno’s arts and culture would not be the same. She’s been instrumental in every way,” said Pioneer Center Executive Director Willis Allen. “She is the life blood of arts and culture in Reno.”

Fey had little trepidation about retiring since she knew the city was in good hands, she said.

Last year, she handed over her arts and culture manager position to new blood, but continued working in the city’s parks and recreation department as the resource development and cultural affairs manager.

“Arts is a priority now. It wasn’t even on the radar before,” said Fey. “Now, oh my gosh, it’s so exciting. When we’re going to do a new building, one of the first calls is about public art.”

Fey said she would celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans with her boyfriend after retirement and then set her sights on Burning Man again, where she will act as an arts coordinator. She may head to Italy, maybe even somewhere in the tropics, after that.

She hopes to spend more time with her family, including her grandson, Reno, to whom she’ll likely pass on her love of the arts.

Fey knew from a young age that she loved the arts, but she was not sure how to express it. Her father, a photographer, served in the Air Force, though Fey always knew he was a creative soul at heart.

“My father tried to teach me every kind of art — painting, drawing, photography. He patted me on the head and said, ‘Sweetie, you can be a patron of the arts,’” Fey said, adding that she eventually took an interest in crafts.

While she never could paint or draw, she realizes now — looking over the art on every street corner and in every park — that Reno is her work of art.

“I’ve painted a pretty big canvas,” she said.