Goldwell Open Air Museum

About Goldwell Open Air Museum

The Goldwell Open Air Museum is an outdoor sculpture park near the ghost town of Rhyolite in the U.S. state of Nevada. The 7.8-acre (3.2 ha) site is located at the northern end of the Amargosa Valley, about 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Las Vegas, and about 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Beatty off State Route 374. About 5 miles (8.0 km) further west is Death Valley National Park. In addition to the museum, the site includes the Red Barn Art Center, a 2,250-square-foot (209 m2) multi-purpose studio and exhibition space used by artists-in-residence and other artists. Near the art center are the ruins of a jail and other buildings of the historic mining town of Bullfrog.

The nonprofit museum was organized in 2000 after the death of Albert Szukalski, the Belgian artist who created the site's first sculptures in 1984 near the abandoned railway station in Rhyolite. The sculpture, The Last Supper, consists of ghostly life-sized forms arranged as in the painting The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Szukalski molded his shapes by draping plaster-soaked burlap over live models until the plaster dried enough to stand on its own. In the same year, using the same techniques, Szukalski also created Ghost Rider, a plaster figure preparing to mount a bicycle.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Founded
2000

More museums in Beatty →Best museums in Nevada →

Photos of Goldwell Open Air Museum

Follow on Instagram
  1. Goldwell Open Air Museum, Nevada01NevadaFinetooth · CC BY-SA 3.0
  2. Rhyolite Sculpture02Rhyolite SculptureHank Miller · CC BY-SA 3.0
  3. Lady Desert The Venus of Nevada by Dr.Hugo Heyrman in Goldwell Open Air Museum03Lady Desert The Venus of Nevada by Dr.Hugo Heyrman in Goldwell Open Air MuseumMmloveless · CC BY-SA 4.0
  4. Ghost Rider by Charles Albert Szukalski in Goldwell Open Air Museum04Ghost Rider by Charles Albert Szukalski in Goldwell Open Air MuseumMmloveless · CC BY-SA 4.0
  5. Tribute to Shorty Harris by Fred Bervoets in Goldwell Open Air Museum05Tribute to Shorty Harris by Fred Bervoets in Goldwell Open Air MuseumMmloveless · CC BY-SA 4.0
  6. Detail of Locomotive - Goldwell Open Air Museum - Death Valley - California - USA06Detail of Locomotive - Goldwell Open Air Museum - Death Valley - California - USAAdam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0

Shared by photographers under free licenses on Wikimedia Commons. Tap a photo to see it full size there.

Visitor reviews

No one has reviewed Goldwell Open Air Museum yet. If you've been, tell other visitors what stood out and when you went. Anyone who has visited can write one, with or without their name, and we read each review before it appears.

No reviews yet. Been here? Be the first to share your visit.

Visited Goldwell Open Air Museum? Write a review

No account needed. We read every review before it appears.

Nearby museums

Make a day of it. 4 more museums are within 30 miles of Goldwell Open Air Museum; the closest, Beatty Museum, is about 4.2 miles away.