The California Heritage Indigenous Research Project is celebrating the grand opening of the ‘Uba Seo Nisenan Arts and Culture gallery with a reception for the fifth annual Visibility Through Art show, titled “Destruction of the Land, Destruction of the People” from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight at 225 Broad St. in Nevada City.

Visibility Through Art is inspired by the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe’s desire to engage local artists to create artwork that authentically represents the Nisenan and their rich history in Nevada County.

This year artists were asked to center around the theme of “Destruction of the Land, Destruction of the People,” and were invited to consider the impact humans have on the environment and the long-lasting devastation of the gold rush on the Nisenan people.

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“When you pair it all together, just the realization of where we are and what was, what it really shows is the probability of where we are headed again,” Nisenan tribal spokesperson Shelly Covert said of the current art show’s theme.

“There is a core of folks who the environment is in their heart, but when you lay the layer of what happened to the tribe here and the first destruction of the environment, especially the great, huge, huge, huge trees that used to be here, all the animal herds that were actual herds of elk and antelope, the grizzly, the condor, the salmon in such huge numbers,” Covert said. “What happened to the tribe is what happened to all those animals as well. When you lay that over the contemporary conversations that we’re having about the environment right now, it just adds a whole new layer that folks just haven’t really navigated yet. It amplifies the environmental destruction conversation and, of course, conservation and preservation of the environment. But when you get the tribe’s history we can bring the memories of what it was like before that destruction and the thousands of years of the ancient culture, when you bring that layer on top of everything else, it gets so much deeper,” Covert added.

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Each piece in the Visibility Through Art exhibit delves into a topic of importance for the tribe.

People are asked to join and explore some of the conversations and ask questions.

Wine from Nevada City Winery and appetizers from The Ham Stand will be served at the start of the evening.

This is a free event, supported by donations through a GoFundMe: https://bit.ly/36taJfc.

Certain selections of artwork will be available for sale.

The Nevada City Rancheria was one of 48 Rancherias terminated in the 1950s and 1960s by the California Rancheria Termination Acts. Most have been restored. The Nevada City Nisenan Rancheria has not.

To contact Multimedia Reporter Elias Funez email, efunez@theunion.com or call 530-477-4230