Las Vegas (Monday, September 28th) – The Las Vegas Museum of Art today gathered friends and supporters for a preview of LVMA: Grand Central Galleries, its first home and headquarters in Downtown Las Vegas, located at 355 Promenade Place, just off S. Grand Central Pkwy. Scheduled to open in April 2027, the 15,000-square-foot LVMA: Grand Central Galleries will present an engaging schedule of exhibitions and programs while construction proceeds on the Museum’s flagship building, which will rise nearby on South City Parkway. LVMA: Grand Central Galleries will continue to serve as a permanent, dynamic, and complementary second space after the 2029 grand opening of the Museum’s signature building in Symphony Park, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kéré.
The exhibition program of LVMA: Grand Central Galleries, organized by the Museum in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), will open with A Shared Light: Monet, Impressionism, and the American Landscape, organized by Shannon Vittoria, Associate Curator, American Art, LACMA, and David Bardeen, Assistant Curator, European Painting and Sculpture, LACMA. Featuring nearly 60 works by artists including Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, John Singer Sargent, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and James McNeill Whistler, the exhibition will trace the far-reaching impact of Monet's artistic vision, particularly across the American West.
In addition to offering space for exhibitions and public programs, LVMA: Grand Central Galleries, designed by LGA Architecture, will also provide a retail storefront and offices for Museum staff. It will include two primary public spaces: a 2,616-square-foot, climate-controlled gallery for art in all media, and a specially designed, 3,800-square-foot space to facilitate ambitious installations and experimental and video art.
As fundraising proceeds toward the Museum’s $200 million campaign goal, with more than half secured to date, LVMA: Grand Central Galleries presents the first naming opportunity for the new institution.
Joining Museum Board Members Dr. Gard Jameson, Perry Rogers, Roger Thomas, Gillian Wynn, Kevyn Wynn, and Executive Director Heather Harmon at the event were Mayor Shelley Berkley, Ward 5 Councilwoman Shondra Summers-Armstrong, Cedric Crear, and Congresswoman Susie Lee.
Mayor Shelley Berkley said, “Today, we take another step forward in creating a major new cultural resource for the residents of Las Vegas and for the millions of visitors who travel to our city. Together, the visionary founders of the Las Vegas Museum of Art and their partners, including the city of Las Vegas, are building the art museum we have long wanted and hoped for, and it starts here, with LVMA: Grand Central Galleries.”
Shondra Summers-Armstrong said, “We’re very proud of the vibrancy of Ward 5, a community that encompasses some of Las Vegas’s most historic and culturally significant areas. I’m delighted to have been part of the celebration today for LVMA: Grand Central Galleries, which will add a wonderful new platform bringing creativity and educational opportunity to everyone in our city.”
Heather Harmon said, “This milestone for LVMA: Grand Central Galleries testifies to our mission of bringing unparalleled art and programs to the Las Vegas public. As we work toward opening the Museum’s magnificent flagship home, designed by Francis Kéré, LVMA: Grand Central Galleries will provide space for adventurous exhibitions, educational programs, and artistic experimentation. We’re immensely grateful to the City of Las Vegas and our generous donors for enabling us to make an immediate contribution here in Downtown.”
Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, said, “The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s partnership with the future Las Vegas Museum of Art is built on the premise that culture should be as widely available as possible to the people of our two great cities. We congratulate the Museum and its leadership team on launching LVMA: Grand Central Galleries, which signals a major step forward in providing a space for the public in Las Vegas to see and enjoy great art.”
The opening exhibition, A Shared Light, will survey artistic exchange, transatlantic networks, and evolving tensions between nature and modernity, exploring dialogues between Monet and his French contemporaries—including Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and Paul Cézanne—as well as American artists such as John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Childe Hassam, and the painters who adapted Impressionist aesthetics into distinctly regional expressions, from the harbors of New England to the luminous coastlines of California. The exhibition examines the impact of Monet’s work from his creative exchanges with fellow French painters to the American artists who studied and worked at Giverny, and ultimately to those who brought Impressionism across the Atlantic, adapting its principles to the diverse and rapidly changing landscapes of the United States.
LVMA: Grand Central Galleries will host educational programs including drop-in, instructor-led art classes for students of all ages (from K–12 to university) and a bookstore that will present author meet-and-greets, creative workshops, and pop-up experiences, in addition to offering gifts and merchandise. Visitors will also be able to view a display of architectural renderings, models, and multimedia content about the Museum’s future home.
An independent institution, the Las Vegas Museum of Art will benefit from several strategic partnerships, most notably with LACMA, to bring leading exhibitions to more than 2.4 million Las Vegas residents and the more than 40 million visitors who travel to the destination each year. Last year, the exhibition Family Album, organized by LACMA, became the Museum’s first public program and inaugurated the new Las Vegas Civic Center Gallery.
About The Las Vegas Museum of Art
The Las Vegas Museum of Art (LVMA) is an independent, non-profit institution founded through an exceptional public-private partnership to serve its city’s more than 2.4 million year-round residents, as well as the millions of visitors who travel to Las Vegas each year. To further its mission, LVMA benefits from strategic partnerships, most notably with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Scheduled to open in 2029, the Museum's 60,000-square-foot flagship building is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kéré. This signature building will serve as a vibrant cultural anchor in Symphony Park, neighboring the city's downtown arts district.
In the lead-up to the inaugurations of its Kéré building, the Museum will open LVMA: Grand Central Galleries in April 2027. Located in Downtown Las Vegas, this 15,000-square-foot standalone space will serve LVMA as a permanent second location: a multi-use exhibition and media gallery offering public programming and educational initiatives.
LVMA is led by Executive Director Heather Harmon and governed by a Board of Trustees that includes Kevyn Wynn, Gillian Wynn, Dana Lee, Roger Thomas, Gard Jameson, Perry Rogers, and Michael Govan. The late Elaine Wynn was Chair Emerita.
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