Libby Lumpkin leaves Las Vegas Art Museum

Libby Lumpkin’s unexpected resignation as director of the Las Vegas Art Museum has dealt a shocking blow to the arts community. In three short years, Lumpkin turned a relatively conservative, if not provincial, institution into a vital contemporary art museum.

Her leadership, enthusiasm and intellectual exuberance has been an inspiration to the community; her faith that a world-class city needs a world-class art museum has raised the bar for what we want from an arts institution and what we want for our city.

It is disheartening that a museum and a community so desperate for expansion will lose one of its greatest champions. One can only hope that someone a fraction of her caliber will pick up the gauntlet now at our feet.