Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/787116
FIVE YEARS A RAVE Five years ago in March, Las Vegas welcomed The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. Home to the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Nevada Ballet Theatre, and dedicated Broadway and Cabaret Jazz program, the Art Deco-style masterpiece is still going strong. In fact, it welcomed its 2 millionth patron in December, thanks to its fantastic lineup of traveling Broadway shows, visiting orchestras, and more 361 Symphony Park Ave., 702-749-2000; thesmithcenter.org into the virtual eye of a hurricane, and even earn a paycheck working in the ecofriendly Green Village. The 28-year-old institution moved to its 58,000-square-foot digs in Symphony Park in 2012. 360 Promenade Place, Downtown; 702-382-3445; discoverykidslv.org MARJORIE BARRICK MUSEUM OF ART The Marjorie Barrick Museum, part of the University of Las Vegas's College of Fine Arts, houses a fantastic collection of pre-Columbian art and cultural objects from the American Southwest and Mesoamerica, as well as contemporary art from artists associated with the Las Vegas valley. The museum also hosts rotating exhibitions of contemporary works. 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy, 702-895- 3381; unlv.edu/barrickmuseum THE MOB MUSEUM Located in the former federal courthouse and post office that hosted such proceedings as the 1950 Kefauver Hearings on Organized Crime, this $42 million museum opened on February 14, 2012—the 83rd anniversary of Chicago's infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929. The team behind Washington, DC's International Spy Museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland created this space, highlighting one-of-a-kind artifacts and weapons donated by old Las Vegas families, plus the actual bullet-ridden wall from 1929. INSIDER TIP: Sign up for email notifications for the museum's lecture series, including appearances from real former mobsters, their family members, and the law enforcement agents who kept order in mobbed-up times. 300 Stewart Ave., 702-229-2734; themobmuseum.org NATIONAL ATOMIC TESTING MUSEUM This surprising and engaging institution—a Smithsonian affiliate— tracks the development of the Unites States nuclear program from the Manhattan Project through today, particularly topical since much of its testing was done around Las Vegas. Don't miss the simulator that allows you to experience bomb testing as Vegas residents used to—from an "outdoor" seat looking out onto the action. 7 55 E. Flamingo Road, 702-794-5151; nationalatomictestingmuseum.org THE NEON MUSEUM The so-called neon boneyard has housed more than 80 relics of Vegas's neon sign history since it first opened in 1996. Fronting it all is the beautifully restored La Concha, an iconic midcentury hotel moved here to serve as the quirky cultural site's visitors center. INSIDER TIP: For extra drama, reserve a night tour, when the neon signs are all lit up from below for show. 770 Las Vegas Blvd. N., 702-387- 6366; neonmuseum.org SPRINGS PRESERVE This 180-acre, $250 million Mojave Desert preserve, three miles west of the Strip, takes visitors through galleries, botanical gardens, and a living collection full of Gila monsters, foxes, and that other kind of Vegas nightlife—nocturnal critters like recluse spiders, sidewinders, and black widows. The best biological resource in southern Nevada, it's also one of the state's oldest archaeological treasures: Nomadic Native American tribes lived at the Springs 12,000 years ago. 333 S. Valley View Blvd., 702-822- 7700; springspreserve.org VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 89