10 OF THE BEST GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS IN LAS VEGAS
Art in Vegas? Yes: contemporary, fine and public, in buildings that can often be as daring as the
artworks, writes Kristen Peterson
Barrick Museum Once a natural history museum, the Barrick Museum on the University of Nevada Las
Vegas campus has changed its focus to art in an attempt to fill the void left when the Las Vegas Art
Museum closed its doors in early 2009. The small staff at Barrick mounts rotating exhibits for the
community while raising funds to become a full time art institution. Shows have ranged from
contemporary paintings and sculpture to a photography exhibit of legendary photographer Ansel
Adams's black-and-white works of American landscapes and architecture, which spans five decades.
Also, stop in at the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, which rotates student exhibits with working
contemporary artists.• 4505 South Maryland Parkway, +1 702 895 3301, barrickmuseum.unlv.edu. Open
Tues, Wed, Fri 10am-6pm, Thurs 10am-8pm, Sat-Sun 10am-2pm, free admission, suggested
contribution: adults $5, senior citizens $2 Neon Museum PR The Neon Museum's outdoor Boneyard
located in the city's Cultural Corridor is not only an international tourist destination, but also a beloved
project and collection for the Las Vegas community. The sign collection goes back to the 1930s and tells
the story of a famous city that erupted in the desert. All that's often left of Vegas's past is the sculptural
metal and neon, arranged in this gravel lot on Las Vegas Boulevard. The guided tours are often given by
employees who are exhibiting artists, and are devoted to the rich narrative of this unique city.• Watch
our video on the Neon Museum• 821 Las Vegas Boulevard North, +1 702 387 6366, neonmuseum.org.
Boneyard tours are available by prior booking only and appointment times are determined by
availability of staff Centerpiece Gallery PR It's unlikely you'll stumble across this white-walled gallery
near the valet at CityCenter's Mandarin Oriental, but it's certainly worth seeking out. Depending on
where you're coming from, you'll pass chunks of CityCenter's $40m art collection, including works by
Maya Lin (a suspended rendition of the Colorado River made from reclaimed silver) and Frank Stella (a
32ft work on canvas from his protractor series) in registration lobbies. Look out for Nancy Rubins's Big
Edge, a large boat bouquet made of more than 200 tethered canoes and aluminium boats, which serves
as the centrepiece for the $9bn campus of hotels. • 3720 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Suite 181, +1 702
739 3314, centerpiecelv.com. Open daily 10am-6pm, free admission Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art
Photograph: Blaine Harrington III/Corbis The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art manages to stir up a lot of
press, and had visitors lining the corridor overlooking the outdoor landscaped pool when it opened in
1998. At the time, art exhibitions on the Strip were unprecedented. When a subsidiary of New York's
Pace Wildenstein took over the gallery, it shocked art-world types by partnering with Boston's Museum
of Fine Art, bringing works by Monet to the heart of Sin City. The gallery has also tapped into the
collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego to mount exhibits, including the current A
Sense of Place: Landscapes from Monet to Hockney.• 3600 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 693 7871,
bellagio.com/gallery. Open Sun, Mon, Tues and Thurs 10am-6pm, Wed, Fri and Sat 10am-7pm. General
admission $15, senior citizens $12, children under 12 free Cosmopolitan's P3 Studio Photograph:
Kidrobot's Chalk It Up Dunny on Flickr/ some rights reserved Public Domain It wasn't too unusual to find
Portland artist MK Guth camped out at the Cosmopolitan hotel's P3 Studio this year with more than
200ft of synthetic blonde hair braided into her own mane. The Rapunzel-style art installation and
performance, which included thoughts and dreams of hotel guests scribbled out on pieces of fabric, is
just part of the creative narrative playing out at the hotel, which has also presented murals by Shepard
Fairey and Kenny Scharf in its parking garage, and rolling digital art in the hotel lobby. You will find the
studio next to the beer-and cocktail-sipping guests shooting pool in the busy P3 Commons.• 3708 Las
Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 698 7000, cosmopolitanlasvegas.com. Open daily, hours vary depending
on the exhibiting artist Contemporary Arts Center Chris Burden's Urban Light installation at the
Contemporary Arts Center, 2008. Photograph: Museum Associates/LACMA Not-for-profit arts groups in
Las Vegas have battled hard for attention in a community built around a 24-hour gaming industry and its
flashy entertainment scene, but if you look hard enough you'll find success stories such as the 21-yearold Contemporary Arts Center and its avant-garde exhibits. Located in the industrial downtown arts
district, the small gallery has brought in a diverse selection of artists and their works for rotating shows,
including SOMArts Cultural Center's touring exhibit of work by Tony Labat, Dale Hoyt and Guillermo
Gómez-Peña who mostly address political and social issues in video and sculptural/conceptual
installations. • 107 East Charleston Boulevard, Suite 120, +1 702 382 3886, lasvegascac.org. Open TuesSat noon-5pm and by appointment, first Friday of the month 6pm-10pm, free admission Trifecta Gallery
Todd & Bryan's Bed (& Breakfast) at the Trifecta Gallery. Photograph: courtesy of Trifecta Gallery PR Set
in the Arts Factory, the Trifecta Gallery has been one of few downtown galleries to survive, financially, in
the arts district, maintaining solid exhibits focused on contemporary representational paintings and
illustrations. The large three-room space in the old industrial brick building is where locals go to buy and
experience works by, in the main, emerging artists, and to enjoy creative art openings such as the
pancake breakfast that accompany high-end flapjack sculptures by Todd VonBastiaans and Bryan
McCarthy. • 107 East Charleston Boulevard, +1 702 366 7001, trifectagallery.com. Open Mon-Fri 11am5pm, Sat-Sun 11am-3pm, and the first Friday of every month 11am-10pm, free admission Lou Ruvo
Center The Cleveland Clinic, Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Photograph: Alamy Frank Gehry's
titanium-panelled structures that encase the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health are cultural destinations
of their own, but inside the complex in downtown's developing Symphony Park is a rotating art
collection of works by some of Gehry's big-name artist friends. Pre-scheduled tours of the building give
visitors a chance to see (and buy) works, and among the permanent collection is James Rosenquist's
Cervello Spazio Cosmico, a 10ft-by-20ft vertical painting, commissioned by the casino mogul and art
collector Steve Wynn• 888 West Bonneville Avenue, +1 702 263 9797, keepmemoryalive.org Big Springs
Gallery PR Inside this 180-acre attraction focused on interactive exhibits about sustainability and the
history of the desert environment is The Origen gallery. A quiet, dimly lit, meditative and contemporary
space, the gallery features work by mainly local and regional artists – established and emerging – who
create pieces influenced by the desert environment and the glitter city plopped into it. Exhibits range
from a show of multimedia contemporary works responding to desert colours influenced by intense
natural or manmade lighting to fine art black-and-white photography of Cliff Segerblom: modern
landscapes of the American West, Hoover Dam and the Las Vegas skyline as it appeared in the 1970s.•
333. South Valley View Boulevard, +1 702 822 7700, springspreserve.org/attractions/origen. Open daily
10am-6pm, adult ticket $18.95, includes admission to gardens, trails, Desert Living Center and the
Origen Experience Clark County Government Center Photograph: Picturenet/Corbis In an area where
city galleries and museums are scarce, curators often rely on exhibits in public spaces to reach visitors.
The circular Clark County Government Center, designed to reflect the desert's natural beauty in form
and materials, includes a cavernous rotunda where locals find themselves strolling through large-scale
installations by artists who have worked and studied in Las Vegas. Justin Favela's cardboard
appropriations of CityCenter artworks may have been quizzical to the incidental observer, but was a
favourite among locals amused by the somewhat satirical cardboard recreation of a $40m art
collection.• 500 South Grand Central Parkway +1 702 455 000, clarkcountynv.gov/art-at-governmentcenter. Open Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, free admission • Kristen Peterson is a staff writer and art reporter at
Las Vegas Weekly