Explore Visual Art
Galleries
The lobbies of the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall and the Judy Bayley Theatre both serve as galleries; you’re welcome to enjoy the artwork any time you attend a performance.
In the Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy Gallery (Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall)
The works of Rita Deanin Abbey are on exhibit in the Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy Gallery in the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall. Inducted into the UNLV College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame in April of 2024, Abbey was hailed as "the most important artist in southern Nevada" by arts leader Patrick Gaffney. Raised in New Jersey by immigrant parents, Abbey studied art at Goddard College in Vermont, the Art Students League, and the Hans Hoffman School of Art before earning her MFA from the University of New Mexico. Of her work, she said, "My approach to making art is predominantly intuitional rather than analytical. ... I am more interested in the search and discovery aspects of making art than in repeating what I have done and already seem to know."
In the Virlis & Bernice Fischer Gallery (Judy Bayley Theatre)
A selection of work that highlights a variety of interpretations of the natural world (super-realistic, somewhat abstract, romantic, representational, or other-worldly) is showing in the Fischer Gallery in the Judy Bayley Theatre. Thanks to Joseph Raffael, Wulf Barsch, Chad Brown, Ray Jacobsen, and John Hogan for sharing their talent. All the works are from the Donna Beam Gallery Collection.
The Flashlight
Perhaps one of the most iconic pieces of public art in the Las Vegas valley, The Flashlight was installed in between the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall and the Judy Bayley Theatre in 1981. It was designed by prolific, well-known public artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen. The Flashlight is 38 feet, 6 inches high and 10 feet, 6 inches in diameter. Oldenburg was inspired by ushers' use of flashlights to guide patrons to their seats, and The Flashlight is pointed down, but not because of concerns about the flight paths from what is now Harry Reid International Airport. Instead, the artists thought a light shining into the sky was "clichéd and reminiscent of authoritarian spectacle." The switch on the side of The Flashlight was inspired by the mountains around the Las Vegas Valley.