I’ve known that this art gallery existed for a while now, but this was my first time going. As a Las Vegas resident, I got a locals discount and purchased an admission ticket for US$15.00 (the non-discounted ticket price is US$19.00).
The gallery was a lot smaller than I expected, and it took me less than an hour to see everything, even with reading every plaque. It was a very calming and peaceful experience, though, which I found very pleasant—there were not many other patrons in the museum, and the room was humidity-controlled, which felt refreshing relative to the dry Las Vegas air.
Until summer of this year, the collection on display is called “American Duet: Jazz & Abstract Art.” Some artists are apparently able to see colors in music, and the gallery showcased some pieces of abstract art that were inspired by and sourced from jazz music.
One thing that I noticed from these exhibits that I liked is how three-dimensional the art was. Other art museums tend to have a lot of prints or paintings on flat canvas, but this collection at the Bellagio had a lot of pieces with enough depth and layers that I was able to manipulate the angle at which I viewed the piece, combined with different light trajectories, to see a lot more from the art than what you’d be able to gather from just a head-on view of a print.
Here are some photographs I took throughout the gallery:
Last week, a new seasonal installation went live at the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens inside MGM Resorts’ Bellagio Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. I was there last month to enjoy their “Lunar New Year 2025: Year of the Snake” display; I headed back over again to check out their new spring arrangement called “The Birds and the B’s.”
I had some free time this evening, so I decided to go check out Arte Museum Las Vegas at CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.
My ticket was US$45.00, which included admission to the museum and a drink at the Arte Café experience. That was after a US$10.00 locals’ discount for being a Las Vegas resident; those without a Nevada identification would need to pay US$55.00 for the same access.
To put it simply, the Arte Museum was a light show experience with a combination of visuals, sounds, and scents. There were a bunch of different rooms, and although not many of them were literally interactive per se, it was interactive in the sense that you could immerse yourself into the exhibits and feel fully surrounded by the varying kinds of stimulation.
The first room was called “Waterfall Infinite.”
The second area was called “Flower.” This had a few subsections: “Rose,” “Roses – Vincent van Gogh,” and “Camellia Underwater.”
Next was “Whale,” a dancing whale surrounded by the waves of the sea. I’m not sure if this was an intentional part of this room or if it was just a coincidence, but I believe even the walls were shaking and vibrating in this room in synchronization with the crashing waves.
Down the hall and through an aisle in the corner was “Star: Raindrops,” a collection of color-changing paper lanterns of different sizes hung at different heights.
Outside of “Star” was “Giant Camellia,” another flower display, but all my photos of it somehow unfortunately came out blurry, so that is unpictured here. Next to “Giant Camellia” was “Live Sketchbook: Light Safari,” an interactive exhibit where you could draw and scan animals to make them appear on the screen.
The path led up to the upper floor where I entered “Starry Beach.”
The room I spent the most time in was “Garden,” a large space with screens or mirrors on all the walls, floors, and central structures. “Garden” had three different displays on rotation: “Threads of Connection,” “Beach Aurora,” and “Light of Las Vegas.”
As the series of museum exhibits neared the end, it was time to take a short break at the café. As part of my extended access ticket, I was able to order a free drink, so I selected the seasonal lavender milk tea. I enjoyed my drink at a special table with a projector overhead that detected and followed my drink cup around with a label containing my name.
The final display was “Jungle: Glow.”
They turned the exit of the museum into an exhibit as well—it was called “Sunset” and showed the transition of colors throughout sundown as you descended the stairs.
Each of the major rooms had a special scent tied to it to make patrons’ experience more immersive. Not many museums take advantage of all your senses like Arte Museum does, and that was one of my favorite aspects of this museum. After descending “Sunset” and making it into the gift shop, I was pleased to find that the scents used in the rooms were actually for sale, so that if there was one you particularly liked, you could bring it home with you.
I think US$55.00 for a non-locals ticket for the full experience is very pricey. I obviously don’t know what their finances look like, so maybe there are enough visitors that the steep pricepoint is justifiable, but compared to other museums I’ve been to, US$55.00 seems pretty high. I went on a weekday two hours before closing time and spent an hour and a half going through everything, and it was relatively empty and peaceful.
If you want this kind of experience, then a show at the Sphere may be something to also consider and research—even though it won’t have the scents and the movement-based interactivity and immersion, the light show aspect will be comparable.
With that being said, I had a good time at Arte Museum. I think the photographs I shared here don’t really do it justice, because they’re all zoomed out as far as my camera would let me go; in-person, the displays tower over you and truly make you feel surrounded.
As a side note, if you end up visiting, make sure to actually experience the exhibits in full. The animations and light shows are on a cycle and they have a beginning and end; I saw a lot of people casually walking through the exhibits without seeing the whole thing, so if you want maximum value out of your ticket, make sure you stick around until you’ve watched the full loop for each room.
I’ve been spending some time around the central Strip over the past few days because one of my friends is in town for a work conference; in her free time, we checked out some attractions that were conveniently in the area, one of which was the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens inside MGM Resorts’ Bellagio Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.
The current set on display is called “Lunar New Year 2025: Year of the Snake.” It’s usually very popular and congested, but it calms down and gets pretty empty overnight; here are some photos I took of the installation at approximately 3 AM:
I’ve been living in Las Vegas for almost five years now, since 2018 (this excludes the couple years I spent road tripping across the United States and living out of hotel rooms), but there are still a lot of iconic things in the city that I haven’t experienced. Up until yesterday, one of those things was taking a ride on the High Roller Ferris wheel at Caesars Entertainment’s LINQ Hotel + Experience on the Las Vegas Strip.
One of my friends is in town for a work conference near the central Strip, and while we were going for a walk around the LINQ Promenade together after picking up her admission credentials, the entrance to High Roller caught our attention. There was no wait and the box office was nearly empty, so we made an impulse decision to go for a ride around the wheel.
The wheel constantly spins at a very slow rate and you enter your pod while it still in motion, sort of like how you mount a bench on a ski lift. Because of how few people there were on a Tuesday late afternoon, my friend and I were able to get our own private pod without needing to share with any other parties.
I used to live in high-rise condos on the Las Vegas Strip, so as we ascended in altitude, I got waves of nostalgia looking out onto the city.
A little after ten minutes into our climb, we were high enough that we passed the elevation at which I lived in my old condos.
My friend took some photos of me in the pod. Here is me being confused why she is holding the camera up so high…
… and here is me looking like I somehow just now finally noticed that they put the Sphere there.
About 15 minutes into our ride, we reached the summit of 550 feet (~168 meters). From the top, I was able to get some great 360° views and captured some nice photographs of the sunset.
Soon after, we began our descent, and after about half an hour, our loop was over.
Going into the ride, I assumed that I would only end up liking it a moderate amount because of how desensitized I am to the view after living in high-rise condos, staying in rooms on upper floors of Strip hotels, and riding in aircraft over Las Vegas. However, surprisingly, I enjoyed High Roller a lot more than I expected.
I imagine a big part of it was attributed to the fact that we were able to get a fun, private experience in our own personal pod. There was amazing lighting due to the pod being fully surrounded by large glass windows and the setting sun shining in, so my friend had a great time taking glowing selfies. I was also able to roam around freely taking a lot of photographs of the view without feeling like I was distracting or detracting from others’ experience.
Apparently High Roller has flexible pricing depending on demand and time of day, with adult tickets starting at US$29 each and sometimes being eligible for discounts if you purchase ahead of time. My friend and I ended up paying US$33 each at the box office, which isn’t exactly cheap, but also wasn’t too bad in my opinion.
I recently realized that, for some reason, I never posted photographs from my tour. Considering that I haven’t been doing much for the past few weeks and haven’t had anything particularly notable to blog about, I figured now would be a good time to share these pictures to fill in the lull.
The only sports I ever really watch are combat sports, so it was nice being able to get a behind-the-scenes look at a traditional ball sport stadium.
My main takeaway from the tour was that sports stadiums like this basically have the same premise as commercial planes, in that there a lot of “economy” seats where people are crammed together in a small space, but then there are extremely expensive, luxurious, over-the-top “first class” sections for people who are superfans and want to spend a ton of money. I got to check out the private viewing rooms, lounges, and clubs, and they seemed like pretty nice environments from which to enjoy some American football.
This tour didn’t convert me into a football fan, but it did make me realize that, as long as I’m not squished in a regular seat, I wouldn’t mind checking out a game sometime.
