Nevada tourism panel OKs $150K to support Seven Magic Mountains display

Over 200 people from around the country attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Seven Magic Mountains art project, Monday, May 9, 2016, near Jean Dry Lake, Nevada. The project is the work of Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone. "It's a very magical site," said Rondinone."I wanted to introduce something artificial in a natural environment." Benjamin Hager/Las Vegas Review-Journal

Over 200 people from around the country attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Seven Magic Mountains art project, Monday, May 9, 2016, near Jean Dry Lake, Nevada. The project is the work of Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone. "It's a very magical site," said Rondinone."I wanted to introduce something artificial in a natural environment." Benjamin Hager/Las Vegas Review-Journal

Calling the “Seven Magic Mountains” public art display south of Las Vegas “an incredible boost to tourism,” the Nevada Commission on Tourism voted unanimously Wednesday to spend an additional $150,000 to support it.

The sculpture — seven 30-foot columns of fluorescently painted stacked boulders in the Jean Dry Lake bed just east of Interstate 15, created by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone — opened in May and is scheduled to stay on Bureau of Land Management land through May 2018.

Supporters of the project have raised $3.15 million of the $3.5 million in estimated production costs, and the Nevada Museum of Art, one of the project’s producers, asked the commission to help minimize the $350,000 funding shortfall.

The Commission on Tourism, which also oversees museums, history, culture and Nevada Indian affairs on the state’s behalf, already contributed $100,000 to the project prior to its opening.

Representatives of the Nevada Museum of Art told commissioners Wednesday that it did not anticipate an additional $450,000 in safety improvements for the installation.

Museum executive director and CEO David Walker and communications director Amanda Horn told commissioners Clark County asked project developers to build a left-turn lane on the old southbound Las Vegas Highway toward the parking area for “Seven Magic Mountains,” a project costing more than $400,000.

Museum officials convinced the commission to approve funding when they updated members on how much publicity the art has generated worldwide.

Hall said the project has generated $6.5 million in publicity since it opened, mostly through worldwide media coverage. “Seven Magic Mountains” has been featured by the New York Times, CBS Morning News, CNN, USA Today, the Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Slate, Elle, ArtNews and the inflight magazine of Qantas Airlines.

Hall said more than 565 news stories have appeared in publications and on broadcasts in 20 countries. Museum officials calculated that more than 5 million people have seen stories in national television broadcasts, 1.7 million on local TV and in more than 151 million online news mentions.

The #7magicmountains and #SevenMagicMountains hashtags have received more than 200 mentions a month, and the project’s Instagram account has more than 500,000 “likes,” with 3,500 on Facebook.

Rondinone recently debuted “Miami Mountain,” a single column of boulders, at a Florida art exhibition. The Nevada piece has been prominently mentioned in that opening.

“I have to admit, I was skeptical over whether this would be successful,” Commissioner Ryan Sheltra said.

But he said the return on investment for the project has been more successful than some of the commission’s traditional advertising and media buys.

The $150,000 sponsorship will come from the state commission’s $11.3 million advertising budget, which normally goes toward small television and online media buys in key feeder markets surrounding Nevada. The state’s rural counties and outdoor activities get most of the attention in media advertising, and the Lake Tahoe region’s skiing and winter sports are promoted in the winter months.

Rondinone is expected to return to the Jean site in May for a one-year-anniversary celebration. A date for that hasn’t been set.

In other business Wednesday, the commission approved $504,230 in tourism grants to several rural Nevada entities. Among the recipients: The Pahrump Valley Museum and Historical Society, a first-time applicant to the grant program. It was awarded $2,500 to create a seven- to 10-minute video about the museum that will be shown on Public Broadcasting Service channels in Clark and Washoe counties as well as in Southern California and in the Sacramento area.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correctly identify Amanda Horn and the accurate number of likes on Facebook.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.