Leah Brady
Great Basin College Art Gallery
Northeastern Nevada Featured Artist
Contact leahbee2014@gmail.com
Leah Brady grew up in a family that placed great value on tradition, oral and visual history, and a devotion to the language, art, and culture of her Western Shoshone heritage. She was born in Elko and graduated from Owyhee High School, attended the University of Nevada, Reno, earning her Bachelor’s of Arts degree in education. For 23 years she taught special education in Fallon and Schurz combining core curriculum with art and history education, disciplines close to her hear.
Leah’s mother was a master weaver and taught her family the historic art of creating traditional products. Leah also studied with elders Elaine Christensen, Sylvia Dick, and Minnie Dick, specializing in Western Shoshone twined baskets and cradle boards. She has studied with other renown masters and attend basketweaving seminars in California, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington. Leah tells me she weaves to continue the historic tradition of basket weaving, to teach others to weave and to learn new techniques. She finds inspiration in creating traditional baskets and developing new styles, designs, techniques for contemporary modern baskets. She also weaves baskets with a gourd base, and fashions pins and medallions from craft wire, hemp and Japanese rolled paper.
With 4 other Native American teachers, Ms. Brady co-authored “Celebrating Nevada Indians” teaching curriculum in 1990, which was given to all elementary schools in Nevada. She has hosted over 20 workshops around the State, teaching her native culture and basketwork, and was named Master Weaver by Nevada Folk Arts.
Leah Brady was recognized with a Nevada Commission on Tourism Award for Excellence, for her work in Nevada’s Indian Territory. Leah represented the Great Basin area in Washington DC, for the 2006 Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival – Carriers of Culture. She participated with her sister, Lois Whitney, in the Living Earth Festival at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indians in 2014.
You can enjoy the exhibit of Leah Brady art work on exhibit at the Great Basin College Art Gallery until December 18, 2023. Information and contact follow.
Western Shoshone Arts: living traditions, living culture
Great Basin Art Gallery: Greenhaw Technical Arts Building (GTA)
Great Basin College
1500 College Parkway
Elko, NV 89801
Exhibit up through December 18, 2023
Open Monday- Friday 9am-5pm
The items in the exhibit on loan from the Elko Band Council are collections of handcrafted items of the Newe / Nuwu (Western Shoshone)
The remainder of the items in the exhibit are a combination of items made by Newe / Nuwu (Western Shoshone) and Numa (Paiute) artists, on loan from the private collection of Western Shoshone artist and teacher, Leah Brady.
The Great Basin College is grateful to the Western Shoshone community for entrusting us to share this exhibit with the community, so we may celebrate the living tradition and living culture of the Newe / Nuwu people, whose aboriginal homelands GBC resides on today.
This exhibit is made possible in part by the Humanities Center at Great Basin College and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information about the GBC Art galleries contact Gail Rappa, Humanities Center Coordinator at (775) 327-2146 or email: gail.rappa@gbcnv.edu.