The Neon Museum Oct. 28th celebrated the 10th anniversary of its location on Las Vegas Boulevard in Downtown Las Vegas with the announcement of four new initiatives.
The celebration, held at Siegfried & Roy’s private estate, Jungle Palace, featured news about the initiatives funded with the help of community partners.
“The Neon Museum is humbled by the generosity of so many,” said Executive Director Aaron Berger in a statement. “Each of these significant contributions allows the museum to expand in new directions from sharing the stories of Native peoples to those of the multitudes of crew members working behind the curtain to expanding our collections and repairing and restoring more of our city’s history.”
The initiatives are:
Designer Todd VonBastiaans, owner of the gallery Atomic Todd and Alios, a lighting company, will provide funding to restore the Lido de Paris sign. The Lido was one of the first topless shows on the Vegas Strip and helped to create the classic image of the Las Vegas showgirl.
The sign, currently in the museum’s Neon Boneyard, will be refurbished, relit, and relocated closer to the Stardust Hotel sign, where the Lido de Paris show was brought to from Paris in 1958 and ran until 1991. The sign will be restored and relit in February 2023.
The San Manuel Gaming and Hospitality Authority is providing a grant to refurbish and re-illuminate its Palms Casino Resort sign currently in the Neon Museum’s collection. When completed, the sign will be installed in the Neon Boneyard enabling the museum to tell the history of Tribal gaming in Las Vegas. The Palms Casino Resort is the first resort to be fully owned and operated by a Native American Tribe in Las Vegas.
In conjunction with the refurbishment, The Neon Museum will create and install an educational panel outlining the history of Native Americans in Las Vegas prior to the city’s founding in 1905, and Tribal life today.
YESCO, a custom sign, lighting, and billboard company in Las Vegas and the official founding partner of The Neon Museum, is providing a fund for the conservation, repair, and improvement of signs in the Neon Boneyard. The fund can be used independently or as a match with donor dollars allowing for more restoration initiatives.
When The Neon Museum was first established, approximately one-third of the museum’s collection (more than 180 signs) were loaned by YESCO and remain in the collection today.
The Barbara Molasky Acquisition Fund, named after the museum’s founding president and seeded by the Molasky family, will allow The Neon Museum to compete with collectors to purchase signage and ephemera from closing properties. The fund also will enable the purchase of works that enhance the museum’s fine art collection.
