LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

View FIle photoAurore Giguet adds wool to a display at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History on the UNLV Campus, 4505 Maryland Parkway. According to View reader and Clark County Parks and Recreation Culture Supervisor Diane Bush, a museum is defined by its maintenance of a "permanent collection," something that an art gallery does not have. F. Andrew Taylor/ViewEvonne Raptis of Las Vegas says McCarran International Airport?s sign needs to be beautified to match Las Vegas? glitter. F. Andrew Taylor/ViewEvonne Raptis of Las Vegas says McCarran International Airport?s sign needs to be beautified to match Las Vegas? glitter. Advertisement

NOT EVERYTHING IN MUSEUM ARTICLE IS A MUSEUM

Thanks for the article on Museums ("National Museum Month: A date with discovery," Southeast View Neighborhood Newspaper, April 29).

Las Vegans definately need to be constantly reminded of their existence.

Unfortunately, I can't help but feel you have added to the dumbing down of America by including places that are not museums in your list:

The Pinball Hall of Fame (a great place!), The Auto Collection at the Imperial Palace (another of my favorite places!), The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art (a wonderful gallery, but not a museum), and the Origen Experience (?).

It would have been nice to educate readers in what the difference between a Museum and an Art Gallery is. A few years ago I had an issue with a local gallery owner who called his gallery a museum, just to be included in the magazine and newspaper listings under "museums" even though it did not have a permanent collection (that is what makes a museum ... it has to have a permanent collection).

Also, your list should have been alphabetical. To put the Pinball Hall of Fame before the Las Vegas Art Museum is just plain insulting to anyone who takes their art museums seriously. Some people out there do. Others, like me, just want to see Las Vegans catch up with the rest of the West Coast sophisti-cats.

Diane Bush

Las Vegas

Culture Supervisor of Clark County Parks and Recreation

MCCARRAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT'S SIGN IS UGLY

"We're so proud of our airport," responded Evonne Raptis of Las Vegas to a View question asking readers to "Give Us a Piece of Your Mind," in early April.

Referring to the McCarran International Airport sign located at the corner of Paradise Road and Tropicana Avenue, Raptis continued, "They should pretty it up. That's a great corner and it's hard to see. It should be lit up better. They brag about McCarran being so big and that corner is pitiful. Even the Motel 6 has a better sign.

"Every time we drive past that corner my husband sighs, 'I know, you want a new sign,' (and) all I think is living in Las Vegas, with all the glitter and all the light, that that corner could be so beautiful."