In conjunction with the one-year anniversary of the 1 October shooting, Clark County and the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center are hosting an exhibit of portraits of the 58 victims who lost their lives in the attack. The portraits were painted by artists from across the United States and around the world.
The exhibit, called 'The Las Vegas Portraits Project,' will be located in the Rotunda Gallery on the first floor of the Clark County Government Center, 500 S. Grand Central Parkway in downtown Las Vegas. It will be displayed Sept. 17 - Oct. 19. Crosses that were put up at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign to memorialize those who died also will be displayed.
Artists and cousins Ellen Abramo of Pennsylvania and Kortney Struempf of Georgia organized the Las Vegas Portraits Project in the days after 1 October to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the shooting. As part of the effort they created a Facebook page seeking volunteer artists willing to illustrate a portrait of each person who died. The County also will host a public reception at the Government Center at 6 p.m. on Oct. 4, for participating artists and families to attend. Once the exhibit is over, the portraits will be given to family members.
Each artist selected for the Las Vegas project chose his or her portrait subject from images and biographical information that appeared in published news stories about the victims following the 1 October attack. Some of the participating artists live outside the United States in Canada and as far away as Greece and Peru. Many artists involved in the Las Vegas Portraits Project have made contact with family members of the victims during the process of creating the artwork. Abramo and Struempf participated in a similar project organized to honor the 49 victims killed in the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in 2016.
More information at www.ClarkCountyNV.gov.
