Print
E-mail
Share
digg
Newsvine
Facebook
Stumble
Technorati
reddit
Fark
twitterMuseum pieces to fill masterpiece architecture of Ruvo Center
Proceeds from rotating exhibitions of contemporary art to be funneled back into patient care, research
Leila Navidi
Frank Gehry’s design for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health is taking shape in downtown Las Vegas. Many of the architect’s friends are artists, and some have agreed to offer works for display and sale at the center for its fundraising.
Saturday, July 18, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Libby Lumpkin, center, who has been hired to amass and curate the rotating art exhibit at the brain center, chats with Maureen Peckman, left, chief operating officer of Keep Memory Alive, the center's fundraising arm, and Larry Ruvo, the center's founder. Lumpkin was executive director of the Las Vegas Art Museum.
Sun Archives
- Why Ruvo's a sight to see -- right now (7-10-2009)
- Ruvo’s mission is bold, driven by love (2-17-09)
- Ruvo’s dream becomes real (2-17-09)
- Gehry's design elevates awareness of Alzheimer's disease, research (2-17-09)
- In Cleveland, patients are priority (2-17-09)
- Aiming to revolutionize dementia research (1-7-2009)
- Brain institute thinking big (12-24-3008)
- Six-figure donation to be used to fight brain diseased (1-28-2008)
- With Lumpkin's exit, museum must be 'creative' to survive, interim director says (12-5-2008)
- Chief who set new course for LVAM is out, suddenly (12-3-2008)
- Museum gift shop will be missed, but it’s gone for good reasons (12-3-2008)
Sun Coverage
Lou Ruvo Brain Institute
The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health has hired Libby Lumpkin, former executive director of the Las Vegas Art Museum, to amass and curate a rotating art exhibition.
The art will be displayed at the center, and visitors will pay admission to view the work, which will also be for sale, said Larry Ruvo, who founded the center in honor of his father. Proceeds of admissions and sales will be funneled back into the institution and its clinical care and medical research.
The program adds to the high-end credentials of the clinic being built in downtown’s Symphony Park: building by Frank Gehry, acoustics by Yasuhisa Toyota, food by Wolfgang Puck and now, museum-quality works by some of the top names in contemporary art.
Neither Lumpkin nor Ruvo would say which artists will be represented in the collection, but Lumpkin did say many are friends of Gehry’s and that they are among the most “outstanding contemporary masters living today.”
Work by some of the artists has appeared in two Las Vegas Art Museum exhibits, “Southern California Minimalism” and “Las Vegas Collects.” Among the artists included in those exhibitions were James Turrell, John McCracken, Larry Bell, Craig Kauffman, Ron Davis, Peter Alexander, Robert Irwin, Ed Ruscha, David Hockney and Donald Judd.
Ruvo came up with the idea after several artists expressed interest in having their works in the building. The art program is designed to get people through the doors and give them an opportunity to learn about brain diseases.
“Now there’s an added reason to come inside and not just take pictures outside,” Ruvo said.
Lumpkin, an art historian who curated Steve Wynn’s collection at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, helped bring cutting-edge contemporary art to the Las Vegas Art Museum before resigning because of budget tightening. The museum closed three months later.
Lumpkin began working for the Ruvo Center this month and has been asking artists to participate in the program. Works by Gehry will also be on display and for sale at the center.
Gehry is known as an architect who pals around with artists, rather than other architects. Many of those relationships were established in Venice, Calif., during the 1960s and ’70s.
In 2005 Gehry curated an exhibit, “The Artists of Venice Beach 1962-1978,” at the Weisman Art Museum, a building in Minneapolis that he designed. The exhibit featured the work of 16 artists whose work influenced his early career.
Lumpkin said the artists’ response has been positive: “They’ll say, ‘My mother has Parkinsons, my father has Alzheimer’s. I want to do something.’
“Also, this building and this center are personally important to Frank Gehry.”
Gehry is associated with the Hereditary Disease Foundation, which seeks a cure for Huntington’s disease and other genetic illnesses.
Lumpkin’s expertise in contemporary art and the complexities of art installation, and her relationships with artists, will enable the center to obtain works by quality artists, Ruvo said. Frank Gehry’s name, building and relationships with artists are also key: “It’s very exciting to be leveraging Frank’s friends and resources. He has an amazing group of artist friends.”
Ruvo said that he is impressed with what “Frank did with Jeff Koons in Bilbao,” referring to Koons’ enormous floral puppy installed outside the museum, and that he would love to see a Koons at the Ruvo Center.
Other health institutions have incorporated fine art into the patient and public areas of their buildings, including the Cleveland Clinic, which has more than 3,500 works of contemporary and modern art in its collection, which hangs in the institute. Cleveland Clinic has a healing through art program.
The Nevada Cancer Institute also has a permanent contemporary art collection on display in public areas and in patient rooms.
Using art to better understand brain diseases is being studied by the New York University School of Medicine in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art through its Meet Me at MoMA program. The program, launched in 2006, welcomes patients in early and middle stages of Alzheimer’s into the museum for tours and to engage in dialogue.
Though some institutes have art in their collections that is auctioned off, the Ruvo art program is unique in that the main purpose of the art program is to raise money for the institution. The activities center and convention hall at the Ruvo Center is also designed to raise money. The space will be used for conventions and private party rentals.
Lumpkin says she’s pleased to be associated with the project: “You can hate art. You can hate art museums, but nobody can argue the need for the cure for these diseases.”
Discussion: 13 comments so far…
Post a comment
- Most Read
- Discussed
- Most E-mailed
- Corrections officer with Metro killed in U.S. 95 crash
- The pull of a drug, a push to the brink
- System fails to catch contractor’s family tie with county
- Where to watch UFC 106
- UNLV and Southern Illinois will be guarded tonight
- Was there an ulterior motive in parking the stripper-mobile?
- Reid clears major health care hurdle, daunting weeks ahead
- Harry Reid’s hopes hitched to health care reform bill
- Notebook: The Shark and LJ circle
- Politicians waste no time spinning latest jobless numbers
Blogs
Culture and Entertainment
UFC 106 walk-in music: Griffin changes his tune, secures win over Ortiz
The Kats Report
For props, Lewis Black needs only his manic delivery and torrid material (7 Comments)
Elsewhere
Sands China raises $2.5 billion in Hong Kong IPO (2 Comments)
Marquardt v. Sonnen scheduled for UFC 109
Bloggity, Bloggity, Bloggity
Will a fourth consecutive title by Jimmie Johnson be good or bad for NASCAR? (4 Comments)
Top Chef: Las Vegas
The Jet Stream: And then there were four
Top Chef Episode 12: On keeping it simple
- Live chat
- Tuesday, noon PST
- Chat with Krista Creelman
- Problem Gambling Center executive director Krista Creelman will answer questions about gambling addiction from Las Vegas Sun readers from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. ... Submit question
Calendar »
- 23 Mon
- 24 Tue
- 25 Wed
- 26 Thu
- 27 Fri
-
The Automatic Tour at The Square Apple
The Square Apple
-
Football specials at Diablo's
Diablos Cantina
-
Rhumbar presents Pink Sugar Mondays
The Mirage Hotel and Casino
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
Ok wait a minute. Isn't this the same individual who was at the helm when the Las Vegas Art Museum sank to the bottom of the ocean? And wasn't she the same one who only a couple of months before stormed out of a board meeting when someone wanted to talk about the budget? Now we've heard every excuse in the world why that museum closed. What makes anyone think that people are going to pay money to look at art Downtown when they wouldn't support the museum??? Furthermore, if there was a fortune in local funding floating around to assemble collections that people want to see why do we not have a proper art museum? Let's see - most affluent suburb of Las Vegas can't support a museum but a medical center in beleaguered Downtown can. Um yeah. This really is absurdity taken to a degree that even outdoes Las Vegas.
First let me say good morning... Secondly it is unbelievable that we can start the morning with such a negative comment above. The Ruvo institute is already becoming one of Las Vegas' most iconic architectural wonders and the addition of the art collection will only enhance the redevelopment of Downtown Las Vegas. As a native of Las Vegas I am proud to witness what is happening Downtown. This is just the beginning of a wonderful artistic and cultural renaissance.
We welcome this POSITIVE and FABULOUS development...
The following comments are meant in sardonic humor:
This nightmare architecture is an example of what excesses can be created with computer-aided design.
I hope that none of the construction workers on this warped architectural distortion have accidents from vertigo.
I also pray to God that the architect Frank Gehry, whose birth name is Ephraim Owen Goldberg, will never suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
Seriously: First time I drove through that area, coming past the Clark County Government Center, I thought there'd been a terrible construction failure, and recall hoping that no one had been hurt.
Nice photograph, good hire.
My wife and I have been watching the arts scene for a while and wonder how from month to month there can be so many contradictory developments and comments. Renaissance means rebirth essentially. It's a little difficult to see a cultural renaissance in a city that never had culture to begin with. Get off your high horse and have some common sense. The facts are plain. The museum was allowed to collapse by a lack of local support and funding coupled with poor leadership. As members we might just as well have thrown our money in the garbage. Who, then, I ask is going to support this new endeavor and what makes this so different? As a medical facility, the center is an extraordinary achievement for Las Vegas and Mr. Ruvo's amazing and ongoing support of Alzheimer's research is really one of the most outstanding things anyone in our community has ever done. I question, however, this notion that somehow contemporary art is going draw crowds. It hasn't and it generally doesn't - period. And, Lumpkin's involvement is baffling to say the least considering the museum debacle. I would like someone to intelligently explain why this is going to work when the museum failed. I call on Kristen Peterson to write a piece that looks at this idea from a practical standpoint based on the arts scene's history, not simply a puff piece. When no one comes or significant revenue isn't produced from this exercise what will be the excuse then? Do you actually think about anything Paco or do you simply faint on the sofa in a romantic fit every time you read the word art?? Since I ruined your morning I thought I should do the same for your evening.
When I listened to NPR and heard the things that Lumpkin and (her husband) Dave Hickey were saying about the Las Vegas arts scene, right after the museum closed, it's hard to think that she's doing anything other than cashing a paycheck.
Well.
Numb to the tragicomedy that is our art scene these days, so no comment on the story. But I have to say this read, from start to finish, is the most fun I've had all day. Such passion fills a girl with optimism.
I just keep it positive because my cup is always half full... : ) Be part of the positive change in Las Vegas or just do us a favor... Leave... : )
Kudos to the iron workers putting that puzzle together. It looks horrible, reminds me of the world trade center. I guess to idea is to stimulate the mind but it brings back painful memories.
Positive change comes from critical thinking and analysis not just bobbing your head up and down and grinning like a plastic dashboard decoration. Once anyone who has a brain has left for places where people actually give a damn you might not be such a cockeyed optimist. It's people like my wife and myself who put thousands of dollars into the local art scene only to see them wasted or dismissed with ingratitude. What has been your contribution beyond an overflowing cup of gushing praise and snotty high-school retorts? It's a pity that this blank canvas of an urban development experiment has been splattered with idiots like Paco who seem to think that change is somehow affected by never questioning anything or offering intelligent criticism and then gently suggesting that those who do get out of town.
If calling me an idiot empowers you and makes you feel good inside by all means please do so. But in the end it is about the community working together for a common good to bring positive change.
bbrummel, a couple of comments. First Paco has given years of time and commitment to actually effecting some change, and helping further the arts in Las Vegas. He really is someone who always puts his money and time where his mouth is.
Second, please don't let someone (one person) make you feel as though your time, and money were unappreciated and a waste of time.
If you are someone who is or was passionate about the arts, and by your many comments it seems that you feel strongly about this.
Let's all put our energy together, to BOTH question what has gone wrong, and what needs to be done, as well as have some optimism for the future. When we can come together to collectively work on this together we will be able to do great things.
Being divided isn't going to create anything exciting and new. If you are not interested in moving somewhere else, then lets figure out why you have such contempt for the arts, or Libby, or whoever it is, and move forward. Maybe we can introduce people to you that are actually giving all of their free time to making the future of Las Vegas better than it is now.
I'm not the most eloquent writer, however all I can hear from you, is that you have been burned by people in the arts, and for that I apoligize. There are other people who have given ALL of their time, their own money, and spirit to giving the city culture. I'm frustrated every single day when I look at the money that I have spent, only to have very few people care. My life savings, my time, and energy have all been given to this cause.
I believe in what we have here, it just needs people like you, to use all of that passion and aggression to help the ones that are really doing something!!