Las Vegas and neon go together like Imelda Marcos and shoes, and Liberace and bling. So we’re happy to report the opening of The Neon Museum, a shrine to the blazing beauties of old Las Vegas that were once called “liquid fire.” In the museum’s two-acre outdoor exhibition space, called the Neon Boneyard, you can feast your eyes upon 150 signs that date from the 1930s. Heavy hitters—the Stardust, the Moulin Rouge, the Flamingo—rest in peace among a host of other less-famous signs that tell a story both of Sin City’s particular visual culture and a national modern art form. The visitors center is housed in the lobby of the historic La Concha Motel, that 1961 Space Age beauty designed by acclaimed architect Paul Revere Williams. The lobby of the motel, which originally stood on Las Vegas Boulevard South, was saved from demolition in 2005 and moved in 2006 to the museum site. Two of its original signs—the mosaic lobby sign and a section of the main roadside sign—were restored and illuminated as part of the museum’s ongoing efforts to preserve a wonder of science, art and advertisement. 702-387-NEON, http://www.neonmuseum.org. —Laura Wexler
