Smithsonian links with Southern Nevada museums

Dan Kulin

Friday, Oct. 4, 2002 | 3:45 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: Oct. 5, 2002

Three Las Vegas area museums are now affiliated with the prestigious Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., making it easier to bring Smithsonian treasures to the area.

Local museum officials said items from the Smithsonian could be on long-term loan in Southern Nevada within a year.

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Las Vegas Art Museum and Clark County Museum, formerly the County Heritage Museum, are all part of the Smithsonian Affiliations Program. So is the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation, which has broken ground on a museum at the Southern Nevada Science Center on the campus of the Desert Research Institute.

"We see it as an opportunity to affiliate with the best recognized name in the museum community," said Mark Ryzdynski, administrator of the Clark County Museum.

Ryzdynski said it could take six months to a year to bring some of the Smithsonian's Southern Nevada items to the county museum. But in addition to increased access to Smithsonian artifacts, Ryzdynski said the affiliation gives him access to the Smithsonian's museum specialists.

Marilyn Gillespie, director of the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, said hopefully the affiliation will help bring some dinosaur fossils from Washington to Las Vegas. Polar items and rocks and minerals are also on the Natural History Museum'ss wish list, she said.

The Smithsonian can only exhibit about 20 percent of what it has, she said, and so the affiliations program helps bring more of the Smithsonian collection to the public.

Gillespie said it could be a year before those items make their way to the privately-funded museum.

Art museum Director Marianne Lorenz said, "It is possible for museums to receive long-term loans from Smithsonian or other museums without the affiliation, but the affiliation makes it easier.

"It facilitates the process, greases the wheels."

The art museum probably won't display items received through the affiliation program until 2004, she said, But museum members are already taking advantage of another perk of the affiliation.

Lorenz said affiliates can offer an affiliation Smithsonian membership, for which the members will receive the highly-regarded Smithsonian magazine.

The Smithsonian Affiliations Program began in 1996. A Smithsonian affiliation costs a museum $2,500 annually.