Quick Hits: Two New Art Installations Debut in Las Vegas

Photo Credit: Vox Solid Communications

Two new art installations joined the works on the Las Vegas Strip this week.

First up, the Neon Museum teamed up with Fashion Show to bring the iconic Red Barn neon sign to the shopping center’s newly renovated plaza. This marks the first time the historic signs from the Neon Museum collection found a home on the Las Vegas Strip. After several months, the Red Barn sign will be replaced with a different restored sign from the Neon Museum’s collection.

The Red Barn opened in the late 1950s as an antique store at 1317 Tropicana Ave. and was converted into a bar in the early 1960s. By 1969, it had evolved into one of the first openly gay bars in Las Vegas. Featuring drag shows, such as the popular “RB Follies,” the Red Barn provided a place for the gay community to socialize. The Red Barn also published the “RB Bag,” one of the earliest gay magazines in Southern Nevada. The bar closed in March 1988, and its restored iconic martini glass sign is now a part of the Neon Museum’s collection.

The Venetian teamed up with Culture Corps to bring a new art installation by Anne Patterson to the resort’s Waterfall Atrium. The one-of-a-kind art installation is a composition of the interactions of 32 miles of satin ribbon, suspended from the atrium’s 55-foot ceiling. Inspired by the sky, the installation consists of approximately 3,500 strategically placed, vertically hanging strands of ribbon of 15 varying shades from blue to plum to Navajo turquoise and emerald.

Anne Patterson began her career designing sets and visual accompaniments for orchestras. Her first major art installation, Graced With Light — The Ribbon Project, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, was installed in 2013.