RENO, NV.- The Nevada Museum of Art announces the appointment of JoAnne Northrup as Director of Contemporary Art Initiatives. She spent the remainder of 2011 researching contemporary art and virtual environments on a Fulbright Scholarship in Europe, where she was based at ZKM Center for Art + Media in Karlsruhe, Germany. Northrup’s appointment is critical to the Museum’s strategic growth as it continues to develop its scholarship and research in the unique area of art and environments. In 2008, the Nevada Museum of Art established the Center for Art + Environment (CA+E), an internationally recognized research center that supports the practice, study and awareness of creative interactions between people and their natural, built, and virtual environments. Described by San Francisco Chronicle art critic Kenneth Baker as a curator of “demonstrated acumen and ambition,” Northrup has served as the San