DISTANCE: 7 miles (11km) to the 18b Arts District and back
TIME: Around 4 hours (allow extra time if you are also doing breakfast, dinner and a show)
START/END: The Venetian/ Bellagio or Wynn Las Vegas
Points to note: Reservations are advisable for breakfast at Bouchon and must be made far in advance for dinner at Picasso should you choose to eat there. Guided tours for the Neon Museum are available by prior booking only. This tour is best done by car or taxi.
In 1998, when billionaire developer Steve Wynn announced that he would display works from his world-class art collection in his elegant new hotel, the Bellagio (click here or click here), and charge admission to see them, other casino owners scoffed. The displays, though, were an immediate hit and because they were open only to hotel guests, they attracted the wealthiest clientele on the Strip. Today, the thoroughfare has no fewer than three major art museums, and galleries and artists’ studios have proliferated throughout the city.
Mural dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson, Fremont Street
Getty Images
We suggest starting with an early breakfast at the Bouchon, see 1, in the Venetian 1 [map] (3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-414-6200; www.venetian.com; for more information, click here). This will set you up nicely for a stroll through the Grand Canal Shoppes (Sun–Thu 10am–11pm, Fri–Sat 10am– midnight), the Venetian’s shopping mall, with its trompe-l’oeil sky fresco, detailed building facades, singing gondoliers, strolling vendors and street performers, which all seems worlds apart from the Las Vegas glitz outside.
The Regis Galerie (tel: 702-414-3637; www.regisgalerie.com), which will be of special interest to art connoisseurs, carries Fabergé eggs, tabletop bronze sculptures, gemstone globes, giclées (high-quality reproductions of artwork) and more. Other galleries in the Grand Canal Shoppes include Peter Lik’s, the Lumas, and the Wyland Signature Gallery.
The Neon Museum
AP/Press Association Images
Neon Museum
The next stop is a few miles away from the Strip toward Old Town and Fremont Street. The outdoor Boneyard of the Neon Museum (770 Las Vegas Boulevard North; tel: 702-387-6366; www.neonmuseum.org), located in the city’s Cultural Corridor, is not only an international tourist destination, but also a beloved project and collection for the Las Vegas community. The collection of electronic artwork goes back to the 1930s and tells the unique story of this famous city that blossomed in the desert. All that’s often left of Vegas’s past is the sculptural metal and neon, arranged in this gravel lot on Las Vegas Boulevard. Guided tours are available by prior booking only and appointment times are determined by availability of staff.
Barrick Museum
Once a natural history museum, the Barrick Museum (4505 South Maryland Parkway; tel: 702-895-3301; Mon–Wed, Fri 9am–5pm, Thu 9am–8pm, Sat noon–5pm; free), on the University of Nevada’s Las Vegas campus, has now changed its focus to art in an attempt to fill the void left when the Las Vegas Art Museum closed its doors in 2009. The staff at Barrick provide and maintain interesting exhibitions for the whole community to enjoy, while raising funds for the museum’s development at the same time. Shows have ranged from contemporary paintings and sculpture, to a photography exhibition documenting legendary photographer Ansel Adams’s black-and-white works of American landscapes and architecture, covering a period of 50 years.
Barrick Art Museum
Alamy
18b Arts District
By now it should be early afternoon. If you’re hungry, the Origin India (see 2) is just around the corner from the Barrick Museum. After a bite to eat, it is time to explore the other side of the Las Vegas arts scene, at the 18b Arts District. (Readjust your schedule if you are fortunate enough to be in town for the district’s First Friday festivities – see below.)
The 18b Arts District got its name when the city declared this run-down 18-block area between the Strip and Downtown to be its official art studio zone. Still dominated by car repair shops and used furniture stores, it doesn’t look like much unless you know which doors to peek behind – except during the monthly event, First Friday, which sees all the studios in the district throw open their doors for receptions and other local artists display their work in the streets. Not surprisingly, it has become a major celebration, attracting as many as 15,000 visitors between 5 and 11pm.
Fiori di Como
Shutterstock
Arts Factory
At other times of the month, highlights of the arts district include the Arts Factory 2 [map] (101–7 East Charleston Boulevard; tel: 702-383-3133; www.theartsfactory.com; opening hours vary, call or visit website for details). The de facto center of this creative melting pot, this old brick warehouse with its exterior mural commemorating the city’s gay and lesbian community appears abandoned until you enter through the black westside door and go upstairs. Here, you’ll find around 15 small studios that share space with a graphic arts firm and an architect.
S2 Art Group
Another highlight of this area is the S2 Art Group 3 [map] (1 East Charleston Boulevard; tel: 702-868-7880; opening hours vary, call or visit website for details). The former lithographer for Norman Rockwell, Jack Solomon, moved his studio in 1991 from New York to Las Vegas. Jack passed away in 2012, aged 83, and several artists now use his former flatbed presses, and you can often watch them at work in this storefront space next to the Arts Factory.
Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art
Getty Images
Other commercial galleries
Also in the 18b Arts District, Dust Gallery 4 [map] (1221 South Main Street; tel: 702-880-3878; Wed–Sat noon–5pm) represents local and national painters and sculptors; and the large Godt-Cleary Arts 5 [map] (1217 South Main Street; tel: 702-452-2000; Tue–Sat 10am–6pm) exhibits works by big-name New York artists, both past and contemporary.
Not too far away, and worth a look if you are keen on art by living artists, is the Contemporary Arts Collective 6 [map] (231 West Charleston Boulevard; tel: 702-382-3886; www.lasvegascac.org). One of Las Vegas’s oldest galleries, it is a non-profit co-operative showcasing contemporary sculpture, painting and mixed-media work by many of the city’s top artists. Formerly part of the Arts Factory, the collective now occupies the ground floor of the new Holsum Lofts, an historic building that was originally a bread factory.
At this point, we suggest returning to your hotel or the Strip by retracing the route to cool off, rest up, and get dressed for dinner.
Bellagio Gallery
Whenever the subject of art in Las Vegas comes up, somebody is sure to mention the Bellagio 7 [map] (3595 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-693-7871; www.bellagioresort.com; for more information, click here or click here), about three blocks south of the Venetian and across the street. Former owner Steve Wynn took most of his art collection with him when he sold the Bellagio, and today the hotel’s Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art (Sun–Thu 10am–6pm, Fri–Sat 10am–9pm) displays temporary exhibits that are curated by major Southwestern universities.
Recent exhibitions have included photography by Ansel Adams and ceramics by Pablo Picasso. Call the hotel or visit the website for details of current shows. Even if it does not appeal to you, a visit to the Bellagio is certainly worthwhile, if only to see Fiori di Como, the spectacular 2,000-sq-ft (186-sq-meter) field of colorful blown glass flowers that is American glass artist Dale Chihuly’s crowning achievement, which spans the lobby ceiling.
Evening options
Suggestions for dinner include staying at the Bellagio for a meal at the Picasso, see 3, if you have reservations, or heading down the Strip to Wynn Las Vegas, for a less formal meal at Wynn Buffet, see 4, and – if you are in the mood for further activities and culture – art and a show at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel.
Steve Wynn’s Picasso
The show Le Rêve was named after Steve Wynn’s favorite Picasso painting, a blue-period portrait of the painter’s 21-year-old mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter. Wynn had also originally planned to use the title as the name for his new hotel. He had bought the Picasso in 1997 for a whopping $48.4 million. Nine years later, a Las Vegas legend started when he agreed to sell it to another collector for $139 million – the highest price ever paid for a painting. The story goes that a day after Wynn signed the contract, but before the sale was completed, he was showing the painting to guests, including television journalist Barbara Walters and screenwriter Nora Ephron, at a cocktail party in his penthouse. Wynn, who claims to lack peripheral vision because of a medical condition, gestured at the painting – and poked a 6-in (15cm) tear in it with his elbow. Wynn’s comment, according to Ephron, was: “Oh, shit, look what I’ve done. Thank God it was me.” Lloyds of London, insurer of the painting, settled with Wynn for an undisclosed amount in April 2007, and he has since announced that he does intend to get the painting restored.
Jeff Koons’ Popeye at the Wynn
Wynn
Wynn Las Vegas
For the latter option, taxi down the Strip to the towering Wynn Las Vegas 8 [map] (3131 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-770-7000; www.wynnlasvegas.com; for more information, click here), home to Steve Wynn’s art collection. After the sale of the Bellagio, Wynn eventually moved the bulk of the paintings he had originally exhibited there to his new hotel, where he tried to charge an even steeper entrance fee. Because of sluggish ticket sales, he closed the exhibit in 2006 and hung many of the paintings, including works by Turner, Van Gogh, Vermeer, Gauguin, Matisse, and Warhol, around the common areas of the hotel, where you gaze upon them while you wait for Le Rêve to start.
Le Reve
Tomasz Rossa/Wynn
Le Rêve
A blatant attempt to beat the Cirque du Soleil Company (for more information, click here or click here) at its own game, Le Rêve (French for “The Dream”) was conceived by Cirque’s former creative director, Franco Dragone. Using multi-level pools of water instead of a stage, the theater-in-the-round production (tel: 702-770-9966; shows start at 7pm and 9.30pm) features acrobatics, swimmers, live music, birds and special effects (such as rain, snow, and fire). It mesmerizes audiences with scenes that are by turns whimsical, surreal, and nightmarish.
Food and Drink
1 Bouchon
Venetian Hotel, 3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-414-6200; www.venetian.com; Mon–Thu 7am–1pm, Fri–Sun 7am–2pm and 5–10pm daily; $$$
This French bistro at the top of the Venezia Tower, with an alfresco dining area surrounded by gardens as well as an indoor picture-window area, is ranked by many food critics as one of the finest casual gourmet restaurants in America. Diners can savor bistro classics including Poulet Rôti (roast chicken) and fruits de mer (seafood) but breakfast here is much more affordable, and the ambience is the same. Breakfast items range from a basket of French pastries to an elaborate version of baked eggs Florentine over wilted spinach with jambon au poivre (peppered ham) and boulangère potatoes simmered in beef-onion stock. Besides the usual breakfast juices and beverages, you can order fresh strawberry milk or an espresso martini.
2 Origin India
4480 Paradise Road; tel: 702-734-6342; www.originindiarestaurant.com; daily 11.30am–10.30pm; $
This no-frills authentic Indian eatery is just around the corner from the Barrick Museum and serves up some dynamite low-budget lunchtime specials. Trust me when I say quality, authentic Indian food is often hard to come by in the US; this is a rare find.
3 Picasso
Bellagio Hotel, 3595 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 866-259-7111; daily 5.30pm–9pm, closed Tue; $$$$
This elegant French-Mediterranean restaurant, designed as a tribute to Pablo Picasso by his son Claude, is decorated with original Picasso paintings valued at $50 million, making the $100-plus price of a four-course prix-fixe meal or a five-course chef’s dégustation menu seem like a bargain. (Just remember that many Las Vegas visitors lose far greater sums at the casino tables in less time than it takes to dine here.) Menus change seasonally. A typical meal might include poached oysters garnished with caviar; shrimp with roasted pears; breast of pheasant with morel mushrooms; and the dessert of the day. A bonus is the fabulous view of the lake in front of the hotel, where hundreds of fountains dance to music every half-hour during the afternoon and every 15 minutes after dark.
4 Wynn Buffet
Wynn Las Vegas, 3131 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-770-3340; daily 8am–10pm; $$–$$$
Another good bet – and somewhat more affordable than the Picasso – is the chic buffet at the Wynn Las Vegas. Filled with flowers and white wicker, the decor alone is enough to set this dining room apart from other gourmet all-you-can-eat venues on the Strip. The amazing array of foods includes 17 active cooking stations offering everything from thick steaks to sushi and Alaskan king crab legs to down-home country-fried chicken.