State museum’s new director eager to tackle projects

“We have to move,” says Millman, 55, referring to the museum’s pending relocation to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve at 333 S. Valley View Blvd. “There are three major tasks all at once: We’re building a new museum, moving this museum into that one and we’re constructing new exhibits for the new museum.”

Millman says that like other cities that have a variety of cultural activities, he would like to see the museum “help form a community feeling” in Las Vegas.

“The long-range goal is to make the museum part of the community. To really help Las Vegas become a mature city,” he says.

Millman, who graduated with an undergraduate degree in history from the University of California, Los Angeles and received his master’s from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, moved to Las Vegas in 1975 and began his career as a researcher with the Nevada Historical Society. The historical society would later merge with the Nevada State Museum in the early 1980s.

In 1985, Millman became the curator of collections at the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society.

“I was curator of the history collections for a long time, getting to be involved with the history of the area, not just the resort corridor,” says Millman.

“There is so much more to Southern Nevada than just that,” he adds. “It was wonderful to get beyond that and meet the old-timers.”

The majority of the museum’s collections have been donated by people who like to have the “satisfaction of knowing” that the items will be cared for and viewed by others.

“They will belong to everyone,” Millman says.

Some of the donations made to the museum include photography collections by Cliff Segerblom, aerial pictures by longtime photographer Jay Florian Mitchell, and a donated collection from John Cahlan and his wife, Florence Lee Jones, both former editors and reporters for the Review-Journal.

“They were history buffs and donated decades of Nevada historical materials,” says Millman.

The museum’s new facility, scheduled to open in early 2009, will have more space for permanent and temporary galleries. The permanent galleries already designed will cover history, natural history, geology and anthropology.

“We’re not limited to Southern Nevada,” Millman says. “What we try to do is to do the whole state as much as we could so kids and adults can learn.”

Millman’s plans for the temporary galleries are “to bring shows in from out of town and to turn them over to local artists.”

Other features will include a gift shop, coffee shop, banquet area and classrooms.

“Our mission is really about education,” says Millman, who adds that the museum will also offer “lots of programming.”

“I know the institution as well as anybody could know it,” says Millman. “It is a real interesting and exciting time in its history.”

“Its going to be a challenge,” adds Millman. “The staff and I are looking forward to it. It’s a lot of work, but we’re trying to make it fun.”

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