Don’t cry for our culture, Las Vegas

Monday, Aug. 23, 2010 | 6:34 p.m.

The city’s cultural corridor says goodbye to two of its institutions.

News that the Lied Discovery Children's Museum will leave the cultural corridor for the Smith Center didn't surprise anyone who's followed the center's courtship.

But paired with the recent closing of the Reed Whipple Cultural Center to the public, it raises questions about the health of the corridor.

"I'm sorry to see the Children's Museum go," says Marilyn Gillespie, director of the Natural History Museum and president of the Cultural Corridor Coalition. "But it's certainly not the end of the Cultural Corridor. We're still the highest concentration of cultural institutions."

Those include the Neon Museum, which is in the middle of a renovation of its Boneyard; the Mormon Fort; Cashman Center; the Las Vegas Library; and the Natural History Museum, which recently expanded.

"There are so many advantages to this site," Gillespie says. "We're just seconds off the freeway and have a recognizable address on Las Vegas Boulevard."

And improvements are planned, including banners by artist Marty Kreloff and a pedestrian bridge over the boulevard. Says Gillespie, "Our hope is that we'll be able to entice another cultural institution looking for a home."

— Originally published in Las Vegas Weekly

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By Brian_Paco_Alvarez (Brian Paco Alvarez)

Aug. 23, 2010

8:22 p.m.

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As long as Marilyn Gillespie, the longest serving Executive Director of any museum in Nevada stays the Cultural Corridor will continue to thrive... Besides the Mormon Fort has been there for 155 years!
By LasVegasRocks

Aug. 25, 2010

1:54 p.m.

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I'm thinking that most major American cities would cringe thinking that the Cultural Corridor Coalition has "the highest concentration of cultural institutions."

These are embarrassingly small numbers of cultural institutions for a county embracing 2.5 million residents, and certainly not something to boast about. Even the addition of the PAC will only bring Las Vegas and Clark County a small measure of culture specifically designed for residents.