This year marks the final one that the Las Vegas Art Museum will be housed in its current facility at 9600 W. Sahara Ave.
The museum's new building at 121 E. Sunset Road will provide about 100,000 square feet of space, which allows roughly 30,000 square feet of space for exhibits. That's the size of the entire facility in Summerlin.
Right now, the museum has about 7,000 square feet of exhibit space, too little to have overlapping exhibits. So, there are weeks when the gallery is closed.
The move will allow it to expand its outreach programs and help achieve its next goal -- being perceived internationally as a museum of merit.
"We're really missing the boat," said Libby Lumpkin, executive director of the museum. "We're ranked at the top of the list as a tourist destination, but we're ranked at the very bottom as a cultural destination."
She was citing an October 2007 evaluation done by CNN and Travel and Leisure Magazine.
Lumpkin said the current location has three disadvantages -- it's perceived as a Summerlin museum and not a city one, there was no room to expand the facility, and it's far removed from a market it eagerly wants to tap -- tourists.
The museum's new home is a skip away by comparison, on the south side of McCarran International Airport. It is easily accessible from the Las Vegas Beltway and Interstate 15. Public transportation drops riders off near the site.
The new building also will feature a large lecture hall/event center, library and conservation laboratory. It also will have 7,000 square feet devoted just to education programs. Seven galleries will allow the museum to stagger installations of exhibits so it will not have to resort to being dark.
JMA Architecture Studios of Las Vegas and San Diego are designing the remodel project on the facility, which was formerly the All-American SportsPark.
Private sources will provide most of the funds for the new building. The financial campaign is now gearing up, but no goal has been announced. The art museum is not commenting on the cost of the new facility.
"I'll (soon) have my cup out, asking for money," Lumpkin joked.
With nearly 40 million visitors coming to the Strip each year, general attendance is expected to increase from 12,000 annually to approximately 100,000 annually. On the local side, the number of children reached through the museum's education programs is expected to increase from 5,500 to roughly 30,000 by the second year of operation, the museum's Web site stated.
Beate Kirmse, gallery director of the Contemporary Arts Collective, 231 W. Charleston Blvd., Suite 110, said Lumpkin has focused the museum's mission on making it an internationally recognized one.
"To become internationally renowned, the museum needs to have its own collection," Kirmse said.
She said the new space would make other art institutions more apt to lend artwork for exhibitions to be curated by the Las Vegas Art Museum and would attract notable traveling exhibitions and collectors.
The Las Vegas Art Museum was founded in 1950 as the Las Vegas Art League. In 1966, the group secured space within historic Lorenzi Park, 3333 W. Washington Ave.. In 1997, the Art League was renamed the Las Vegas Art Museum and relocated to its current site, the 30,000-square-foot space next to Sahara West Library. The new space is on a lease agreement.
"With all this, I think Libby is creating a tremendous momentum for the contemporary arts community in Las Vegas, and I am not sure if the community really recognizes this impact for their own future she is creating here," Kirmse said.
The Summerlin museum's final exhibit before the move is scheduled to be Las Vegas Collects Contemporary, showing pieces on loan from various Las Vegans who have extensive collections. That exhibit, opening May 22, will involve about three dozen pieces.
Lumpkin said the Summerlin facility will likely go dark in December. The first exhibit at the new home is expected to open about September 2009.
The first exhibition at the new facility will feature artists who "presently are extremely influential on younger artists. Some will be creating complex sculptural installations ... (They) represent the newest group of canonical artists. It should be a very exciting and informative exhibition," Lumpkin said.
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