The Las Vegas Museum of Art has been chosen as Nevada's participant in “50 for 50,” a Smithsonian-led program that will place works from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in one institution in every state and Puerto Rico. The Hirshhorn and Art Bridges Foundation announced the full group of 51 museums July 9.
Loans will run for three to five years and be placed between 2026 and 2029. Participating museums do not pay to join the program. Rather than send the same package to every city, the organizers allowed each institution to request works that connect with its own collection and audience.
The July announcement did not identify which artwork or artworks will come to Las Vegas or when Nevada's loan will arrive. Across the program, museums requested more than 200 works that are currently in storage from a Hirshhorn collection of more than 13,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs and installations.
The available pool includes work by artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Willem de Kooning and Arthur Jafa. The first group of loans is expected to reach host museums by December.
The geographic sweep is broad, but the program is designed to favor local fit. Thirty percent of the selected institutions serve communities with populations of 150,000 or fewer, according to the announcement, and one in five is connected to a college or university.
For Southern Nevada, the next meaningful update will be the specific work selected, installation timing and public-access details. Until those are released, the Las Vegas museum's selection guarantees a place in the program but not a particular artist or opening date.