Bellagio postpones fall art exhibition

Kimberley McGee

Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 | 8:32 a.m.

The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art's fall exhibition has been postponed indefinitely due in part to the recent events in New York and Washington.

The "Alexander Calder: The Art of Invention" exhibition was to be held from Oct. 6-Feb. 3. Bellagio will reopen the gallery in January with a yet-to-be announced exhibit.

The decision to close the gallery until after the first of the year was in response to the recent drop in Las Vegas tourism, MGM MIRAGE Public Relations Manager Wendie Mosca said Thursday. The decision was made mutually between the hotel and Calder Foundation.

"With business in Las Vegas being down there's no benefit to the (Calder) foundation," Mosca said. "With the way things are now, operating costs will not be met."

Proceeds from every exhibit at the gallery are given to the exhibitor's art foundation of choice. In this case the Calder Foundation would have received profits from this exhibit. Since the city's occupancy rate dropped significantly following the terrorist attacks, Bellagio decided to "close down and regroup," Mosca said.

But while room occupancy dropped to the mid-60 percent range the weekend following the Sept. 11 attacks, the rates are steadily climbing, said Rob Powers, vice president of communications for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

"We're encouraged by what we've been seeing," he said.

Still, logistical concerns prevented Bellagio from hosting another exhibit in place of the Calder show.

"With this one being postponed, the time frame to (install) another exhibit isn't that good," Mosca said.

Bellagio's Calder exhibit was to have featured swirling sculptured mobiles, toys and household objects designed by Calder from 1926-1976.

Calder is renowned as the creator of carefully constructed large-scale mobiles and abstract constructions called stabiles.

His brightly colored steel sculptures and hanging metal mobiles fill blank, sterile spaces in lobbies and museums worldwide, such as the quivering, spinning mobile ".125" at JFK Airport in New York, "Flamingo" in downtown Chicago on Dearborn Street, and the traveling stabile "Eagle, " which will be displayed at the Seattle Art Museum in October.