Silver State Sights - Goldwell Open Air Museum

RHYOLITE, Nev. (KOLO) - Those who have traveled throughout the state of Nevada always make a point to recommend it.

“The Goldwell open air museum is a great stop when you’re making your way from Reno to Vegas,” said Tracie Barnthouse of Travel Nevada. “There’s about 7 sculptures on 8 acres of land.”

“It’s a wild art exhibition with some avant-garde pieces of art.”

Located just a few miles from Beatty and directly adjacent to the ghost town of Rhyolite, the Goldwell open air museum has been a big hit on social media in recent years, and often brings out visitors from the big cities.

“It’s the polar opposite obviously to Los Angeles,” said Daisy Guizar during her 2021 visit. “But with the pandemic people really want to get outside and explore places like this.”

The one-of-a-kind museum features seven sculptures, most noticeably a ghostly life-size version of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the last supper.

The sculptress were created by a group of well-known Belgian artists, and it was only created outside of Rhyolite, because death valley wasn’t an option given its national park status.

Back in 2017 during the first interview ever recorded for Silver State Sights, Richard Stephens explained the history of the museum.

“The Last Supper was 1984. So was the ghost rider structure,” he said. “Venus of Nevada was 1992. She’s supposed to be giant computer pixels.”

The open-air museum of course can be visited anytime, and the visitor center is open Wednesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.

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