FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2014
CONTACTS:
Franklin Howard (UNLV): (330) 523-8947 howarf1@unlv.nevada.edu
Bethany Khan (The Culinary Union): (702) 387-7088 bkhan@culinaryunion226.org
UNLV TO PREMIERE EXHIBITION ON THE CULINARY UNION IN LAS VEGAS
LAS VEGAS, NV- On Thursday, December 4, 2014, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Public History program will open an exciting student-curated exhibit, “Line in the Sand: The People, Power and Progress of the Culinary Union.” The exhibition will run from December 4, 2014 through April 1, 2015, in the first floor gallery of the UNLV University’s Lied Library. 
This dynamic exhibit explores the tenacious and determined history between the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226 and the city of Las Vegas. Founded in 1935, the Culinary Union is more than 55,000 members strong and one of the most recognizable labor organizations in the country.
Using objects and images on display for the first time, the exhibition showcases the stories of the men and women who have labored behind the neon lights in Downtown Las Vegas and on the world famous Las Vegas Strip as housekeepers, kitchen workers, cooks, food servers, porters, bartenders, and cocktail servers.
“We are pleased to have partnered with UNLV to present the casino workers’ history of Las Vegas,” said Geoconda-Arguello-Kline, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union. “Culinary Union members have been fighting for working families and good jobs for nearly 80 years and this exhibit is a celebration of the people who helped build Las Vegas.”
Through banners, buttons, t-shirts, picket signs, photographs, personal memorabilia, and oral histories from worker-turned-union leaders such as D. Taylor, Hattie Canty, and Geoconda Arguello-Kline, “Line in the Sand” demonstrates the sometimes tense push-and-pull of organizing, worker/casino negotiations, and explores the interconnected development of the Culinary Union and the city.
“To fully understand Las Vegas history, we must look at the ways union activism influenced and was influenced by the exponential growth of the tourism industry,” said Curator Hannah Robinson. Sample artifacts include a t-shirt designed for members who participated in the 1984 strike against 32 casinos that reads, “We struck, we stuck, scabs suck.” The shirt is displayed next to photographs of the event that testify to union solidarity amid discord.
Graduate students in the public history program researched, curated and wrote the exhibition as part of their coursework, under the direction of Dr. Deirdre Clemente, Associate Director of UNLV’s Public History Program. The oral histories were supervised and coordinated by Claytee White, Director of the UNLV Oral History Research Center. The partnership between UNLV and the Culinary Union for this two-year project and the responsibility of going through the Culinary Union’s physical and digital archives was facilitated by Bethany Khan, the Director of Digital Strategy for the Culinary Union.
College of Liberal Arts Dean Chris Hudgins recently acknowledged the importance of this work, saying: “The fruitful relationship between our excellent Department of History and the University Libraries has allowed our students and faculty to document, preserve, and to analyze very significant aspects of the history of Las Vegas from multiple perspectives, many of which would be lost were it not for these wonderful collaborations with the community we serve."
“Line in the Sand” is presented in collaboration with the Culinary Workers Union, the Bartenders Union, UNLV University Libraries, the College of Liberal Arts, the Nevada State Museum, and the Las Vegas New Bureau.
For more information on the UNLV public history program, visit: www.UNLVPublicHistory.com
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