As Las Vegas's population and economy exploded over the past two decades, cultural and financial elite here sought to convince the rest of the world that the city known for Elvis impersonators and neon lights wasn't a cultural wasteland.
But many of those efforts are unraveling.
1. Last year, the Las Vegas Art Museum shut its doors as donations dwindled.
2. Tentative plans for a contemporary art museum downtown were scrapped.
3. A sculpture park that has cost the city around $700,000 sits empty, awaiting funds from a private group for its completion.
4. The final blow came from the announcement that David Hickey and Libby Lumpkin, an academic couple who propelled the city's artistic ambitions, are leaving Las Vegas.
I personally saw Las Vegas in the 1960's and 1970's through the eyes of a telephone company auditor on business trips rather than as a vacationer in town to visit casinos and attend live shows.
The closest thing to culture were a few oil paintings for sale at the Sahara.
The things that strike first time visitors to Las Vegas, as mentioned in the article, are Elvis impersonators and neon lights.
Nothing seems to have changed.
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A picture of my cave
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