Starting in September, the Clark County Museum will host exhibits that explore the community’s grief and healing process since the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on Oct. 1, 2017.
A retrospective called “5 Years Later: Remembering 1 October & Becoming Vegas Stronger” will feature letters, posters, signs, and other items from the museum’s 22,000-piece 1 October collection in the Clark County Museum’s exhibit hall at 1830 S. Boulder Highway from Sept. 23 through Jan. 30. The public is invited to attend a free opening night reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23. Local musician and 1 October survivor Pat Dalton Amico will perform his songs, “Forever Family” and “58 Angels,” at the start of the reception. Attendees will be able to take tours of the exhibit with the museum’s curator and visit the new storage area where all of its 1 October collection is stored. The Clark County Museum also will host a companion exhibit from Wednesday, Sept. 28, through Thursday, Oct. 13 in the Rotunda Gallery located on the first floor of the Clark County Government Center in downtown Las Vegas at 500 S. Grand Central Parkway.
“It’s important for us to honor the lives lost and forever changed because of 1 October,” said Clark County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson. “Our community can be proud of how we responded to the darkness of that day and remember the outpouring of love and support we received from each other and from across the country and around the world. It’s also important to recognize the strength and resiliency that we continue to demonstrate as a community in response to the tragedy with every passing year.”
The exhibit at the Government Center will include banners and other items from the museum’s collection as well as The Art of Healing Mural and Angels of Love exhibit created in remembrance of the first anniversary of 1 October. The Art of Healing Mural was created by local artists and students at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts high school. The mural contains nine large panels with teddy bear images representing the 58 lives lost on 1 October and condolence messages the public was invited to write the first year it was on display. The Angels of Love exhibit, created by a California-based nonprofit organization, contains stain-glass angels in remembrance of those who perished and the hundreds who were injured, as well as memorabilia dedicated to first responders who sprang into action to help victims. It has remained on display in the Government Center since it was given to the County in 2018. The Government Center’s daily hours are Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Rotunda will be open on Saturday, Oct. 1 until noon following the 7:30 a.m. Sunrise Remembrance ceremony in the Government Center’s outdoor amphitheater.
Both exhibits will have displays highlighting the progress of Clark County’s 1 October Memorial Committee. The Clark County Commission established the committee to gather input from the public to a permanent memorial that remembers those who perished in the attack, honors survivors, first responders and all those affected by the incident, and celebrates the resiliency and compassion of our community.
“We welcome everyone to participate in the memorial development process that is under way whether you live in Las Vegas or California or another state or country,” said Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick. “This project is near and dear to many hearts. We want to develop a memorial that will honor the lives that were lost and the lives that will never be the same. We also want to pay tribute to our community’s resiliency in response to the devastating act of evil that occurred.”
A Call for Creative Expressions is open through Monday, Oct. 31, that invites the public to share ideas for the memorial or any form of creativity made in response to the tragedy. From the earliest days following the 1 October attack, people have used creativity in a multitude of ways to express love, hope, sorrow and support. The committee’s goal is to capture as many forms of those expressions as possible to help shape the eventual memorial project that gets built. All types of expressions are welcome including drawings, photos, poems, songs, and other artwork. Submissions can be made via the committee’s website at ClarkCountyNV.gov/1OctoberMemorial and through this mobile app: https://apps.vdomobile.com/m/1octobermemorial/. Individual artists interested in contributing to the creation of the memorial also are invited to share their resumes or portfolios. Design teams selected to develop concepts for a memorial will be asked to review all Creative Expressions submissions to inform their proposals. Submissions received so far can be seen in the committee’s online gallery at https://tinyurl.com/38snr674. The process for developing a memorial project is expected to result in a formal recommendation to the County Commission in the summer of 2023.
The Clark County Museum launched a significant effort following the 1 October shooting to collect, catalogue and preserve memorial items left at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and other sites near the festival venue to help tell the story of how our community responded. The collection includes many of the white wooden crosses that were part of The Crosses for Losses” display that was set up at the Welcome sign by Illinois carpenter Greg Zanis. Some of the crosses have been given to family members at their request. Museum volunteers spent 18 months and hundreds of hours cataloging artifacts. Every item was photographed and can be viewed on the museum’s website pages at www.ClarkCountyNV.gov/museum. The museum offers appointments so family members of victims and others can view specific items in the collection. The museum also is collecting stories behind memorial items to be included in its efforts to preserve the memory of our community’s reaction to the 1 October tragedy. A form is posted on the museum’s website for anyone interested in sharing their story about what they left at one of the memorial sites. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children and seniors. The phone number is (702) 455-7955.
A calendar of community-related 1 October remembrance events scheduled during September and October is available on the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center’s website at www.vegasstrongrc.org.
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