Venetian art called both education, entertainment

Monday, May 14, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

The Guggenheim Museum and the Venetian resort are betting that Las Vegas and its millions of visitors are ready for the cultural experience that a major art gallery delivers.

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority wrapped up National Tourism Week Friday with a salute to the arts and a preview of coming attractions from the Guggenheim's deputy director of special projects.

"Las Vegas is really ready for art," said Laurie Beckelman. "People want to learn and they want to be entertained and they can get an education and entertainment when they visit an art gallery."

Beckelman said Guggenheim officials are confident the galleries will thrive in Las Vegas, particularly after chairman Thomas Krens paid a visit to the relatively small Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art at the Bellagio hotel-casino.

Beckelman said Krens watched as hundreds of people -- adults and children -- made their way around the gallery with audio guides in hand to learn about the classical art they were seeing.

"The educational component is very important," Beckelman said. "We expect to work with the local schools to help develop an appreciation for the arts."

Officials with the Venetian hotel-casino also are hoping the presence of a big-name gallery will translate into more visits from tourists who appreciate the visual arts.

The hotel-casino is investing $30 million to open two galleries on the 3,036-room property. The Venetian is bearing the entire expense of building the galleries.

Beckelman, whose presentation followed performances by two dancers with the Nevada Ballet Theatre and an ensemble from the Las Vegas Philharmonic, showed slides of some of Guggenheim's galleries from around the world and some of the works that will be exhibited when gallery doors are opened Sept. 16.

The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, which will be operated jointly by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, Russia, will be in a 7,660-square-foot hall designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. That gallery will be located off the hotel's porte-cochere at the front entrance of the Venetian.

The first exhibition at the Guggenheim Hermitage will be "Masterpieces and Master Collectors: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings from the Hermitage and Guggenheim Museums." Paintings by Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Vincent van Gogh will be displayed.

The second gallery, to be known as the Guggenheim Las Vegas, will be managed by the Guggenheim Foundation. The 63,700-square-foot facility, also designed by Koolhaas, will be located off the main casino floor, near the hotel elevators. One side of the gallery will have access to the outside and a massive door will enable the delivery of large art pieces for display.

The first exhibition at that gallery will be "The Art of the Motorcycle," which debuted in 1998 and has drawn record crowds in New York, Chicago and Bilbao, Spain. The show is a display of about 200 pieces of motorcycle memorabilia, including advertising and sales brochures, posters and many of the vehicles themselves.

Some of the details of the galleries haven't been finalized, but Venetian officials say the exhibits are expected to be open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Admission prices haven't been set, but officials expect them to be around $15 for each gallery with a discount planned for Nevada residents.

Gallery pieces will be rotated. The smaller Guggenheim Hermitage will have pieces changed every six months or so as paintings on loan become available. The larger Guggenheim Las Vegas' displays will be in place for longer periods.

Each Venetian museum will have a small retail gift shop near its entrance, Guggenheim officials say. The museum has no current plans to open additional retail outlets in Las Vegas.

National Tourism Week, an event that in Las Vegas included a classic car rally, a 50-couple wedding ceremony and a celebration among recreational vehicle enthusiasts, is an annual event for the industry that generated more than $541 billion nationwide last year.

The Travel Industry Association said tourism is ranked among the top three employers in 29 states.

The Nevada Commission on Tourism announced last week that the state attracted an estimated 49.5 million visitors in 2000, an increase of 2.2 million over the previous year.

Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, who chairs the Nevada Commission on Tourism, said cultural and artistic productions give visitors more reasons to come to the state.

"Nevada is home to theater productions, ballet, choral and dance groups, grand opera, symphony concerts, art galleries that display some of the world's most famous works and much more," Hunt said. "Las Vegas is blossoming as a premier location for the performing arts."