After curating an exhibit here with work by New York artists (which he was also in), Yo Fukui donated one of his own sculptures to UNLV’s Barrick Museum. The sculpture, handed over in 2012, was the first piece to land at the Barrick following its transition to an art, rather than a natural history, museum.

For six years an impressive exhibit of works by contemporary Japanese artists has been touring the globe, landing in cities in Germany, Spain, India and Vietnam, with stints in South American and Eastern European countries.

When we think of art collectors, our minds probably reflect images of snooty high society types on the Upper West Side debating the suggestive dichotomies of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Dorothy and Herbert Vogel feel like a breath of fresh air in that respect.

Between 1962 and 2008, Dorothy and Herb Vogel, the librarian and the postal worker, amassed an art collection now valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. So why is the Minimalist, Post-Minimalist and Conceptual Art they collected sometimes heaped among the most unlovable art styles of the last half-century?

Because Las Vegans are reluctant to visit cultural offerings in their backyard, they’ve likely missed Barrick’s new role as an art institution.

When the Barrick Museum shed its natural history element to function solely as an art museum, we were so giddy over its partnership with the closed Las Vegas Art Museum that we failed to dig further up its sleeve. So, naturally, when Barrick announced its film series last month, we fell to the ground in praise of the art gods.

The villagers are at the gates, their torches in the air. They’re calling for change, a revolution of sorts. But with no establishment, no leader and no institutions to tear down, there’s nothing to overthrow. It’s a cause without a sense of order: Occupy Arts Las Vegas.

A second look at the revived LVAM collection in the newly reopened Marjorie Barrick Museum reveals new intrigues and pleasures.

The Las Vegas Art Museum has a new home at UNLV. Thank you, Steve Wynn. That is what I was thinking as I walked through the Marjorie Barrick Museum on the UNLV campus Tuesday night. It was a paid affair, as most things are when it comes to art and art museums, but the Las Vegans in attendance didn’t mind at all. In fact, they all were thrilled that the previously closed — because of the economy — art museum had found a home at UNLV.

So there it was. Amid the single-serving shrimp cocktails, bite-sized quiche, wine, hugs, polite conversations, photo-ops, artists, writers, gallerists and well-heeled art collectors, lived the one single truth: We’ve been given another chance.

UNLV celebrates its new partnership with the Las Vegas Art Museum by featuring the collection in four campus locations: Barrick Museum, Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, and the entrance halls of Judy Bayley Theatre and Artemus Ham Hall.

During the Las Vegas Art Museum’s final years, one problem nagged its programming: no permanent collection on display. Much of this, of course, was due to the vast but limited space at its Sahara West Library home, a situation that also forced the museum to close while switching out exhibits.