The Neon Museum Receives Conservation Grants for Sign Collection

According to a report from KTNV Las Vegas, The Neon Museum, a non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying, and exhibiting iconic Las Vegas signs for educational and cultural enrichment, receives grants to preserve its collection in the Neon Boneyard.

The Neon Museum campus includes the outdoor exhibition space known as the Neon Boneyard, a visitors’ center, and the Neon Boneyard North Gallery, which houses additional rescued signs and is available for weddings, special events, photoshoots, and educational programs.

To address challenges the museum faces, it conducted a Collections Assessment Plan in 2018, funded in part by the Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS). The plan guided the museum in creating a long-term conservation treatment plan reflecting best practices for collections management and upkeep of all objects in the museum’s permanent collection.

The project is funded in part by a $5,000 grant from the Modernism and Recent Past Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and a $5,000 grant from the City of Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission through the Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial. Together, the donations will help fund a conservator to study the collection and research the optimal methods to stabilize and preserve it.

The museum has contracted the Architectural Resources Group, which has 40 years of historic preservation expertise to spearhead this study.

“We are excited to receive these grants from the National Trust and The City Of Las Vegas,” says Rob McCoy, president and chief executive officer, The Neon Museum. “The preservation of the collection is crucial to the future of the museum.”