Casinos may host satellite museums

CARSON CITY -- Steve Wynn proved high-priced art mixes well with Nevada gambling casinos.

Now the state wants to piggyback on that success.

With attendance slumping at the state museum at Lorenzi Park in Las Vegas, a plan is being developed for satellite museums in Southern Nevada, including some in the gambling palaces on the Strip.

"One thing we're looking at is leaving Lorenzi in place but taking our statewide exhibits and placing them around Clark County in satellite facilities that we probably won't even own," Dale Erquiaga, director of the state Department of Museums, Libraries and Arts, said.

"Casinos have already recognized that culture provides an added attraction to their destination," he said. "The Luxor has an Egyptian museum. The Mandalay Bay has a coin museum. The Rio ran 'The Treasures of Russia' very successfully and the Bellagio has a fine art gallery.

"The industry has figured out that arts and artifacts broaden the experience of their tourists."

The state has warehouses of thousands of items it has no place to display. With the right settings, there could be exhibits on old guns and other weapons, the history of gambling or mining, Western folklore and even detailing the birth and development of atomic and nuclear testing.

The state's world-class collection of 250,000 species of butterflies and moths might be a natural for the Mirage with its tropical atmosphere.

"We can provide a full range of exhibits," Erquiaga said. "What we lack is money and additional staff time. I'm looking for a partnership."

Erquiaga wants a traveling exhibit in place in the next year. And he says he will have help from First Lady Dema Guinn, who has promised to hold a fund-raising event at the mansion.

While the focus is on Southern Nevada, Erquiaga said an experiment has started in Reno with the Nevada Historical Society setting up a small display at the Gold Run Casino, owned by Circus Circus. "This will give us a good test to see if they stop there and then visit the facility."

"The cultural tourism market is just beginning to be understood by the Nevada tourism industry," Erquiaga said. "Cultural tourists tend to be richer, tend to be higher educated, spend more money and stay longer.

"Europeans are fascinated by the Native American culture. Easterners are fascinated by the Old West. Las Vegas has an Old West history."

Expansion would not just be in casinos. Erquiaga has visions of neighborhood museums. "What about a developer like the Howard Hughes Corp. in Summerlin assisting us with a facility for a children's natural history museum in their neighborhood?" he asked.

He has had some discussions with the Howard Hughes Corp., and intends to approach casinos and others who might join in the venture, he said.

And there will probably be more mobile units to transport exhibits into the communities and to the schools. Public buildings are an ideal location for displays, he said.

"If I'm standing in line at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles), wouldn't my experience be slightly better if I learned something about Nevada history while I was doing it?" he said. "If I go to the Sawyer Building and I'm a new Las Vegas resident, as most people are, wouldn't they like to know who Sawyer was? That's a prime building to do a display about the Civil Rights Commission and the contributions of Gov. (Grant) Sawyer.

"I want Nevada history to be so accessible that you literally stumble across it and you ask questions," Erquiaga said. "Our job is to provide an educational experience, whether for residents or tourists."

Fewer residents are getting the experience from the state's museum at Lorenzi Park. Attendance fell from 50,000 in 1997 to 24,000 last year. Gray Line tours no longer stop at the site, and fewer school classes visit the museum.

"I don't know why families in Las Vegas don't visit Lorenzi," Erquiaga said. "I don't know if it's the location or the advertising." While it is just off the freeway, visitors must drive through neighborhoods to find the museum.

A survey has been approved by the museum's board of directors to find the reasons for the lagging count.

Erquiaga's satellite exhibit approach comes after a proposal to move the Lorenzi Park museum to Boulder City at the site of the railroad museum was nixed in the 1999 Legislature.

"We can't be building more multimillion dollar facilities," Erquiaga said. "There isn't that type of money. I would not ask the Legislature to do that until we have made the fullest use of the collections."

Satellite museums could generate interest by residents or tourists to visit Lorenzi Park to learn more about Nevada history, Erquiaga said.

To help in the mission, Erquiaga has hired Doug Mishler as the new administrator of the Division of Museums and History. Mishler, who replaces the retiring Scott Miller, was Southern Nevada coordinator for the Nevada Humanities Committee and has taught history at Western Washington University and the University of Nevada, Reno.

It will be Mishler's job to "bring the exhibits to life," Erquiaga said. "I don't think you want to come to Las Vegas, which is the most exciting city in the country and see boring, static displays. I think you want to see things that entertain you and educate you at the same time.

Mishler, 48, has been an active participant in living history events, portraying P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford. He has been a consultant to Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

"I have always felt it was imperative for those who interpret the past to share their knowledge with the widest possible audience," Mishler said.

As part of the expansion, Erquiaga is meeting this week with the RAFI Fielden Partners, which has agreed to design free of charge the depot and ticket center at the railroad museum in Boulder City. The Legislature gave the agency enough money to build the station and refurbish the trains, which Erquiaga hopes to have running by 2001.

The trains pass by a golf course site owned by MGM Grand and stops at the Railroad Pass Casino, owned by Circus Circus. "They would be natural partners for us" in locating historic displays, Erquiaga said.

"I've given us a year to redefine ourselves and our new programs and prove they are creditable," he said.

Erquiaga expects criticism of his plan. He's sure he will be accused of crass commercialism by some. "Many people in the museum world believe their jobs is first and foremost curation and preservation."

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