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Las Vegas moves closer to getting first art museum

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An art museum for the Las Vegas came one step closer to reality as the city recommitted to the project, extending an agreement into 2019 with the group behind the museum.

Las Vegas City Council has contributed $2m in funding to the Art Museum at Symphony Park, plus the land it is to be built on east of the Smith Center for the Performing Arts. As part of the extension, the council set a fundraising goal of twice the $3.5m total the city has committed to the project.

Katie O’Neill, board chairwoman for the Art Museum at Symphony Park, told the Las Vegas Review Journal that Las Vegas is the largest metropolitan area in the US without an art museum.

“We lack a basic amenity that all of our peers have,” O’Neill said.

To push the project forward, the Symphony Park museum is merging with the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno to create a state-wide organisation.

David Walker, executive director of the Nevada Museum of Art, said that the new board would be made up of members of both organisations.

For the new facility in Las Vegas, he envisions a museum over four levels with 3,250sqm of exhibition space. Walker also wants it to have a restaurant, shop and a theatre. In addition to raising funds to build the museum, he is also hoping the fundraising campaign generates money to build the museum’s endowment as well as gifts of art.

The museum is just one of a range of projects in development at the 24-hectare Symphony Park in downtown Las Vegas. Apartments and a hotel are expected to join the Smith Center, the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the Discovery Children’s Museum.

Las Vegas inches closer to getting its first art museum

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Sam McCaffrey

Journalist. Likes immersive entertainment experiences, museums, zoos and the odd go on a Waltzer.

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