The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, a largely open-air museum that holds an enormous assortment of historic neon signage and Las Vegas-related artwork, design and architectural ephemera, is embarking on a $45m enlargement and relocation that goals to boost the customer expertise and make extra room for its eclectic holdings.
The museum, which was based as a non-profit in 1996 and opened to the general public in 2012, will transfer from its present 2.27-acre campus on Fremont Avenue to an area within the Arts District, the place it’s scheduled to open in 2027. The long-planned Las Vegas Museum of Artwork plans to open close by the next 12 months.
It will likely be sited in two separate areas: on the ninth and rooftop flooring of a parking storage and a 35,000 sq. ft area close by. The 60,000 sq. ft. rooftop will home the museum’s assortment of salvaged neon signage, recognized affectionately because the “neon boneyard”, whereas the 47,000 sq. ft ninth ground shall be an enclosed exhibition area.
Aaron Berger, the museum’s director, tells The Artwork Newspaper the museum acquired greater than 200,000 guests final 12 months, and was compelled to reject over 30,000 as a consequence of restricted capability.
“We’re at a really pivotal level, which is why we’re redefining what our mission is after which constructing accordingly,” he says. “Las Vegas has a set that rivals different main cities, however the distinction is you can take pleasure in ours with a cigarette and a martini as a result of they’re all in casinos. Nonetheless, nobody goes to the Palms particularly to see a Damien Hirst. There’s no actual appreciation for these works within the context of artwork historical past.”
Guests tour the Neon Museum’s outside show of salvaged neon signage Courtesy of The Neon Museum, Las Vegas
The museum at present shows simply 35% of its neon signal assortment, which spans round 500 indicators relationship again to the Nineteen Thirties. That doesn’t embody its in depth archive and positive artwork assortment, which very hardly ever surfaces from storage. This nonetheless little-known a part of the gathering contains round 10,000 images and postcards, classic ephemera like menus and matchbooks, oral histories and up to date artwork.
Many of the signal assortment is held in pricey off-site services, and organisers envision that the longer term museum may have an open-storage part, permitting it to make works accessible even when there isn’t any exhibition plan. “One of many largest complaints we obtain is that individuals can’t see the issues we’re defending,” Berger says. “We are going to at all times proceed to just accept items to guarantee that we’re preserving historical past, so the storage part is important. These items clearly can’t educate from a closet.”
In its newest rounds of acquisitions, the museum accessioned a number of items from the not too long ago closed Mirage, which was well-known for its “volcano present”, a show the place hearth spewed from two “volcanos” inside a lagoon-like pool. A marketing campaign was beforehand launched urging the museum to save lots of the beloved volcanos, and, though that was not possible, it did purchase the igniters, in addition to the neon-lettered archway that framed the doorway of the on line casino.
A centrepiece of the Neon Museum is La Concha, a 1961 constructing designed for a defunct motel on the Las Vegas Strip by the Modernist architect Paul R. Williams, one of many first Black architects licensed to work within the Western US. Within the mid-2000s, the constructing was moved and repurposed because the Neon Museum’s customer centre. The museum has assembled a steering committee to supervise its subsequent transfer, together with Karen E. Hudson, Williams’s granddaughter and biographer, and Fred Doumani, the developer who owned La Concha and donated the constructing to the museum.
La Concha, the 1961 constructing designed by Paul R. Williams that at present serves because the Neon Museum’s customer centre Courtesy of The Neon Museum, Las Vegas
Due to the transient nature of Las Vegas structure, the museum has additionally launched a reminiscence preservation initiative known as Report and Gather Historic Experiences in Las Vegas (Rachel). The undertaking, which generally lives inside La Concha, features as a video sales space the place guests can document their tales about Las Vegas. Sooner or later, organisers hope “Rachel” shall be a roving initiative; it was not too long ago put in contained in the Tropicana, one other historic on line casino that’s set to be demolished subsequent month.
The museum held an artist-in-residency programme between 2016 and 2022 that was partly funded by the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts and commenced as one of many few artist residencies nationwide to help artists working with neon. The programme was placed on maintain amid administrative adjustments, however ought to return below the incoming director of collections and exhibitions. Past an honorarium and stipends, artists acquired curatorial help, conferences with authorities officers, nature excursions, help from neon producers, and entry to the gathering and archives.
“The programme wasn’t nearly lecturers,” Berger says. “We needed artists to depart with the flavour of Las Vegas—with an understanding of this one-of-a-kind, circus city that we’re, and a greater understanding of points going through town like homelessness, drug and playing habit.”
