Museums host many family-friendly activities

Who says Las Vegas has no culture? Behind the slot machines, ultralounges and buffets, there are more than a dozen significant museums covering everything from dinosaurs to modern art. Here's a sampling of the family-friendly museums in Las Vegas (and surrounding area):

THE ATOMIC TESTING MUSEUM

755 E. Flamingo Road

794-5161

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday

Admission: Adults, $12; seniors, military, students and children 7-17, $9; children 6 and younger admitted for free

This Smithsonian Institution affiliate emphasizes the Silver State's contribution to the fine art of breaking stuff. Its permanent displays highlight nuclear-research and -testing activities at the Nevada Test Site from the 1950s through the 2000s. To understand the raw power of the nuclear blasts that rattled the desert north of Las Vegas half a century ago, duck into the Silo Room for a brief movie. The wooden benches shake and rumble, and wind and sound blasts show the audience what a detonation looked and felt like to observers watching from five miles away. The museum's Harry Reid Exhibit Hall features a regular rotation of Smithsonian artifacts and photo exhibitions, and its distinguished lecturer series has brought in speakers including Sergei Kruschev, son of Cold War-era Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev, and U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.).

BELLAGIO GALLERY OF FINE ART

3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South

693-7871

Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday

Admission: General, $17; students, $12; seniors, $14; Nevada residents, $14

Steve Wynn built this space inside Bellagio in 1998 partly to house his growing art collection. Wynn sold his company and all its hotel holdings to MGM Grand in 2000, yielding today's MGM Mirage gaming giant. The new parent company has kept Bellagio's art gallery open, with a rotating series of exhibits. Through October, the gallery is mounting "American Modernism," a display of more than 30 of the most significant works from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' collection. Georgia O'Keeffe, Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley and Arshile Gorky are among the artists featured.

BOULDER CITY/HOOVER DAM MUSEUM

1305 Arizona St., Boulder City

294-1988

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday

Admission: Adults, $2; seniors and children, $1

It generated Southern Nevada's first major population boom, and today, Hoover Dam remains one of the world's engineering marvels and a clarion call to tourists from around the world. This museum, on the first floor of the Boulder Dam Hotel, offers an interactive gallery with re-creations of workmen and their families sharing stories of the dam's construction. Photographs and artifacts add layers to the storytelling. And while you're checking out the museum, give the rest of the hotel a gander, too. Built in 1933 to house government officials and the dam's construction managers, it's on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to the museum, it has boutiques, gift shops, a restaurant and 21 guest rooms.

GUGGENHEIM HERMITAGE

3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South

414-2440

Hours: 9:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. daily; last ticket sold at 7 p.m.

Admission: Adults, $15; seniors and Nevada residents, $12

Some of the international Guggenheim Foundation's most important works have made their way through this space, designed by world-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas, inside The Venetian. Following the 2003 closure of the adjacent Guggenheim Las Vegas, this site lost about two-thirds of its exhibit space, but it still manages to mount comprehensive exhibitions of masters both modern (Robert Mapplethorpe) and Old World (Titian). Through April 27, visitors can see "Modern Masters from the Guggenheim Collection," with works from Joan Miro, Piet Mondrian, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Vasily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall and Paul Klee, among many others.

LAS VEGAS ART MUSEUM

9600 W. Sahara Ave.

360-8000

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday; docent tours Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Admission: Adults, $6; seniors, $5; students, $3; free for children younger than 12

Long before Steve Wynn opened Bellagio's Gallery of Fine Art and launched the city's first high-profile flirtation with high culture, this museum was mounting exhibitions of major artists including Salvador Dali and Marc Chagall. It's currently showing an installation of a vinyl wall design by British artist Paul Morrison, along with a selection of Morrison's paintings and prints. The museum's ongoing 702 Series features solo exhibitions from artists who were born or raised here, who launched their careers here or who live and work here now. Museum officials plan to begin remodeling a 100,000-square-foot industrial building at 121 E. Sunset Road later this year, with a move from its current location in the Sahara West Library's west wing scheduled for September 2009.

Las Vegas Natural History Museum

900 Las Vegas Blvd. North

384-3466

Hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily

Cost: Adults, $8; seniors, military and students, $7; children 3-11, $4; children 2 and under, free.

Kids dig dinosaurs, and at this museum, they can dig for dinosaurs as well. The museum's Young Scientist Center lets kids burrow for fossils, study animal tracks and watch a paleontology lab in action. The Prehistoric Life Gallery features a 35-foot tyrannosaurus rex replica that lowers its head and roars when people walk by. If your kids are more interested in today's flora and fauna, the Marine Life Gallery houses live sharks, stingrays and eels. Also resident inside the museum are Burmese pythons, tarantulas, scorpions and lizards. Other galleries concentrate on Nevada wildlife and African plants and animals. On Saturdays and Sundays, the museum offers its weekend science program for families, through which kids and their parents explore nature through scientific investigative methods.

LAS VEGAS SPRINGS PRESERVE

333 S. Valley View Blvd.

258-3205

Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m daily

Admission: $6.95-$18.95

The Springs Preserve isn't merely a botanical garden and green-living center. It's also a love letter to Southern Nevada's history, climate and topography. Exhibits include representations of an early Las Vegas land auction and the train ride that shuttled the area's first 20th century settlers between California and Utah. Visitors also can experience a controlled flash flood, and a movie narrated by Martin Sheen gives a quick rundown of the Las Vegas Valley's tectonic and geographical origins. The preserve's expansive gift shop, housed beneath a Wolfgang Puck cafe, features items ranging from cookbooks and miniature herb gardens to gourmet foods and outdoor gear.

LIBERACE MUSEUM

1775 E. Tropicana Ave.

798-5595

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 12-4 p.m. Sunday

Admission: Adults $12.50; seniors and students, $8.50; members and children younger than 10, free; "A Musical Tribute to Liberace," with Wes Winters, is $17.50

The unassuming stucco-and-brick strip mall that houses some of Liberace's belongings belies the classical pianist's outsized stage persona. The Liberace Museum takes up two buildings -- one dedicated to Liberace's cars and pianos, and a second containing his costumes and jewelry. Among the must-see items: A 1962 Phantom V Landau Rolls Royce, covered in etched mirrors, that appeared onstage with Liberace at the Las Vegas Hilton; a black opal ring with 321 diamonds that the government of Australia gave the musician; and the "King Neptune" outfit, a 200-pound costume designed for Liberace's appearance at the 1984 World Fair in New Orleans. Liberace impersonator Wes Winters appears at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday in the museum's 100-seat showroom.

LIED DISCOVERY CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

833 Las Vegas Blvd. North

382-5437

Hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday

Admission: Adults, $8; children, $7

Mining soft-sculpture boulders, playing a laser harp and jumping into a hurricane are all on the to-do list at this museum, which has 22,000 square feet of exhibit space inside the Las Vegas Library. The museum hosts children's birthday parties, with themes such as "Slime Time," where kids study the properties of green ooze, and "Bubblemania," where they learn what makes bubbles round. It also has a series of temporary exhibits. Up now is "Cool Moves: The Artistry of Motion," which contains 14 interactive stations that let kids change a tornado's direction or make patterns in water. Upcoming exhibits include "Torn from Home: My Life as a Refugee," which will offer a child's perspective on fleeing home during crisis, and a re-creation of Clifford The Big Red Dog's home and surroundings on the fictional Birdwell Island.

MADAME TUSSAUDS LAS VEGAS

3377 Las Vegas Blvd. South

862-7800

Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Admission: Adults, $24; seniors and students, $18; children, $14

So where are all these stars you read about in Norm!'s column? Maybe you keep missing them inside local nightclubs and restaurants, but there's one place on the Strip where you're guaranteed to get a gander of at least a few luminaries. OK, they're made of wax, but it's tough to tell in the photos you'll show your friends. At Madame Tussauds inside The Venetian, you can crouch down next to Tiger Woods on a putting green. Or stand beside Capt. Jack Sparrow of "Pirates of the Caribbean" in the hull of the Black Pearl. An "American Idol" set, complete with replicas of show personalities Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest, features a karaoke machine and "critiques" from the judges.

NEON MUSEUM

821 Las Vegas Blvd. North

387-6366

Hours: Neon Boneyard is viewable by appointment only. Restored signs in front of Neonopolis at the Fremont Street Experience are accessible to the public 24 hours a day. See the signs at the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

Admission: Free at Neonopolis; $3 for adults, $2 for children 6-12; free for kids younger than 6 at the fort

This preservationist center has saved and restored some of Las Vegas' most-storied electric signs, including the former Hacienda's "horse and rider" sign and Aladdin's Lamp, from the original Aladdin. Those two signs are on display at the Fremont Street Experience, but the Neon Museum has many more in its Neon Boneyard. The famed La Concha Motel lobby recently took up residence at the Neon Museum and will serve as the centerpiece of a new complex. The museum also has an agreement with the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park to house signs in the fort's visitors center until the museum has more space.

NEVADA STATE MUSEUM

700 Twin Lakes Drive

486-5205

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily

Admission: Adults $4; seniors, $3; children younger than 17, free

This eclectic collection of items spans the Silver State's natural history, its pioneer past and its native animal life. Its building, which overlooks the ponds at Lorenzi Park in central Las Vegas, contains specimens of bighorn sheep, as well as skeletons of a wooly mammoth and sloths. A bat cave is especially popular with kids, says director David Millman. The museum also displays an inscribed watch Al Capone gave to a local casino operator, and the door to Bugsy Siegel's hotel suite is here as well. Its index of Las Vegas newspapers dates back to the town's 1905 founding, and is popular with authors, scholars, genealogists and schoolchildren, Millman says. The museum is planning a 2009 move to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, where its space will more than double to about 74,000 square feet.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4512.