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StumbleSUN EDITORIAL:
Filling a big void
Las Vegas should become more proactive in establishing an art museum
Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 | 2:08 a.m.
No one disagrees that reading and math are of paramount importance to a child’s education, but a well-rounded academic menu also includes the arts.
One of the best ways to foster art education is for students to have access to art museums. That is where children can get an up-close look at the subject matter, expressions and techniques used by artists to capture an image, real or imagined.
It is unfortunate, though, that Clark County residents of all ages don’t have the same access to art that is available elsewhere.
As reported Tuesday by Kristen Peterson in the Las Vegas Sun, Las Vegas is one of the few metropolitan areas its size without an art museum.
Local residents used to have more options, but nothing has filled the void left by the closures of the Las Vegas Art Museum on Feb. 28 and the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum at the Venetian last year.
That surely has to change.
As Southern Nevadans struggle to work out of a deep recession, they should be thinking about the type of community they would like to live in going forward. One trait shared by the greatest cities in America is that they all have art museums. There is no reason Las Vegas shouldn’t be on that list.
The Clark County School District, functioning on a bare-bones budget, is faced with the added indignity of trying to find ways to compensate for the lack of art museums in the valley to promote art education. It shouldn’t have to be that way.
Locally elected officials should use their influence to help drum up financial support for a permanent art museum that is flexible enough to feature both local artists and rotating exhibits from elsewhere, including classic works of art.
Our schools are filled with artistically talented youngsters whose full potential can be realized with greater exposure to the world of art. That task becomes much more difficult the longer the valley goes without an art museum.
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Get it all. It's free. Build a new city hall and a mob museum.. Throw in an art museum while we are at it. Money is free, just ask Obama and Reid.
"Filling a big void?" I can tell you where's there is a big void. The big void right in the taxpayer's pockets...
Let's get back to the basics.
Personnally I would go to an art museum and see a picture of them dogs playing poker
And that would be the only picture they would need. A real classic...
there is a little art museum in pensacola that does it the right way.
they have exhibits that are replaced every 2 or 3 weeks so the place stays fresh and they always throw in a "pop-art" exhibit.
they've done "history through lunchboxes" and "history through cereal advertising".
oddball stuff, but it's fun and takes some of the "arrogance" out of the arts.
On mans art is another mans trash. When you have art museums, symphonies, ballets, and the like we are getting one segment of societies idea of what is the arts. The rich and intellecuals idea of art and culture. All subsidized by the rest of us. Time for the "arts" to pay for itself or die.
The arts make for a well rounded person is just propaganda nonsense. Culture as defined by the intellectuals is just another way in their warped minds to let the rest of us know how "superior" they are. Legends in their own minds and the real people who do the dirty work and make the world go round pick up the tab. So much of what intellecuals call art is just garbage or obscene junk. Pictures of plates full of excrement or a person urinating are not art. One of the hottest artists in the last few years takes pictures of pictures and sells them for big bucks. The "arts" = intellecual snake oil.
Ever wonder why most artists and their works are only famous and reveared after the artist is dead? The intellecuals get to make up stories about why the shading in the painting is such or the brush strokes signify this or the story behind the subject is thus & yada yada yada. If the artist were still alive he would probably say he painted the picture because was starving and needed money and nothing in the painting symbolized anything, contradicting the "experts".