From fundraising to ceiling patches, here’s how artist and curator Fawn Douglas cofounded Nuwu Art in downtown Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS—Fawn Douglas (Nuwuvi/Southern Paiute) resisted enrolling in art school after her high school graduation in Las Vegas, as she “never thought art would take me anywhere.” Although she “has always been an artist,” Douglas only shifted her focus to art full-time over the last decade, when she “had a realization that woke up my senses and connected everything I wanted to do, [and] made me wish I had followed my purpose much earlier.”
Since then, Douglas has made vital contributions to the Las Vegas arts sector as an artist, curator, Native American activist, and as the cofounder of the Nuwu Art Gallery + Community Center (known as Nuwu Art, or NAGCC)—a pillar of the community celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.
Douglas was born in Claremore, Oklahoma, but has lived in Las Vegas since she was a child. She earned an AA in Global Studies from the College of Southern Nevada before shifting her focus to art full-time over the last decade. In the midst of operating Nuwu Art, Douglas earned her MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 2022, having previously earned her BA from the university in 2015.
As a student, Douglas began producing work centered on Native American issues, like the mural Free Leonard Peltier (Call for Clemency Mural) (2015). The work, painted on the exterior of a dilapidated trailer on the Snow Mountain Reservation, honors the Native American activist who many believe remains wrongly imprisoned over the shooting of two government agents in 1975. Peltier’s sentence was commuted by Joseph R. Biden this month, in the final minutes of his presidency. Subsequent works have similarly grappled with political and cultural themes tied to Native American communities.
There were squatters, debris, and trash all around when we got here. There was even a tear—not a skylight—on the roof.
During her studies Douglas also sought to hone not just her studio practice but her understanding of the business and administrative side of art. “I always knew that I wanted to open my own space,” she says. Just as the pandemic erupted in 2020, she and her partner, the author and professor A.B. Wilkinson, acquired the Nuwu Art campus in downtown Las Vegas for a modest price after other bidders pulled their offers. The buildings previously housed an Orthodox synagogue, which the couple gradually converted into a 1,400-square-foot white cube, eight artist studios, and programming spaces.
“There were squatters, debris, and trash all around when we got here,” Douglas says. “There was even a tear—not a skylight—on the roof. Over time, we began fixing the buildings and people saw what we were doing and wanted to support us. There was an overwhelmingly positive response from the community, so we kept going.”
In 2020, Douglas and Wilkinson also founded the nonprofit IndigenousAF to “ensure that we had transparency in how we fund our programs—like internships, youth programs, and the funding we receive from merchandise and other fundraisers,” she says. The AF stands for “allies and families, Afrofuturism, arts facilities, and so on.” Funding for the center comes primarily from donations and grants.
Nuwu Art has reached a series of milestones since its founding. In 2023, the space hosted an exhibition by the celebrated local artist Justin Favela, who has exhibited work in major museums like the Denver Art Museum, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum in New York, and others.
“It was incredible to be able to present an artist of his caliber, from the East Side of Las Vegas, in this space,” Douglas says. “It also made us think more about our intentionality and who we want to platform. We want to show the public that there are great artists here in Las Vegas.”
In 2024, Nuwu Art held an exhibition by the local artist Luis Varela-Rico, who has several public art commissions throughout the city like the monumental sculpture Radial Symmetry (2018) in the Las Vegas Arts District. In addition, last year the space collaborated with the local Clark County School District to exhibit the work of Native American youth from the Las Vegas Valley.
Nuwu Art will hold two exhibitions this year, beginning with a solo show by the Las Vegas-based painter Lolita Develay—notably the first African American woman to earn her MFA from UNLV—which opens on January 31 and runs until the spring.
The Nuwu Art studios, where Douglas maintains her own studio, are leased on a rolling basis. “We ask artists to do a questionnaire about their artistic and social justice practice, and ask whether or not they feel comfortable teaching,” Douglas says. “We want people who are very community-minded. We’re building with the people that are here.”
I started to think, ‘What can I do to really build the arts [in Las Vegas], especially when it comes to Native peoples?’
Douglas hopes to reconnect with her studio practice this year, which ranges from painting to sculpture but has been largely eclipsed by her other endeavors in recent years. “I’ve had to be very selective about my art,” she says. “Lately my practice has been geared more specifically toward my culture and working within my own tribe.”
Douglas describes her latest project, Nuwu Um-buh-gah – Southern Paiute Language Learning Flashcard Deck, as a “deck of cards for language retention.” The fifty-four-card deck is inscribed with the Southern Paiute language and culturally relevant images of Native American figures. She is also working on weavings and traditional Paiute necklaces made of flat white shells.
In addition to her aforementioned roles, Douglas serves as an arts commissioner for the City of Las Vegas, primarily working on educational programs that assist local artists, some that are hosted on the Nuwu Art campus. She also works with Meow Wolf as a cultural engagement specialist in Indigenous art.
“Several years ago, I thought about where I could move, or where there would be more art,” she says. “But eventually I started to think, ‘What can I do in my capacity to make this home?’ What can I do to really build the arts here, especially when it comes to Native peoples? Las Vegas is growing and I want to keep supporting the community and think about what we can do in our capacity now that we have this platform.”
