Attracted to art: Volunteer combines passion, performance at Neon Museum

Jeff Belcher wasn’t even done with his first tour of the Neon Museum when he asked how he could become a tour guide, too.

“I was just taken with everything here,” he said. “There are so many amazing pieces here, and now that I’m a guide, I get to see other people moved by them, too.”

The Neon Museum, 770 Las Vegas Blvd. North, has always relied on a few dedicated volunteer docents to help with tours and other events.

“Our tours are our biggest offering, and we offer them daily and nightly,” said Cynthia Behr Warso, senior education and engagement manager for the museum. “I’m very concerned with the content and the delivery and getting the right people to do these amazing interactive tours.”

When Belcher was trained, he shadowed several experienced guides to learn the content and nuances of the tour from multiple sources.

“There are subtle differences in emphasis and the delivery,” he said. “There is a bit of an art to giving the tour.”

Behr Warso agreed, noting that volunteers aren’t just parroting information.

“It’s a performance, and the guides have to really bring it,” she said.

Volunteer Beverly Saperstein stands out for her enthusiasm and knowledge.

“I like to volunteer and tell people all about the signs,” she said. “There’s so much artistry and history involved in the signs. The museum really is a treasure, and I love to show it off.”

Saperstein also was a tour guide at the Liberace Museum and still gives tours of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave., and the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, 888 W. Bonneville Ave.

“We have one of the signs from the Liberace Museum on display at the Neon Museum,” she said. “It’s nice to have that connection to one of these beautiful signs.”

Saperstein had a hard time picking a favorite, but she did single out an old gas station sign that reads, “Free Aspirin & Tender Sympathy.”

“I like to explain to people how much free aspirin they gave out and why you’d want tender sympathy on the way out of town,” she said. “That was at a gas station about where the Monte Carlo is now.”

The museum offers 10 to 20 tours each day. The tour schedule changes throughout the year; during the summer there are fewer because of the heat.

“Most of our tours are covered by paid staff, but we have a core of about 35 really great volunteers,” Behr Warso said. “They do a great service for us when they can do a tour.”

Belcher is the director of nursing/surgical services at Centennial Hills Hospital, but when he was younger he spent some time trying to learn the art of making neon signs. He’d forgotten that until he was at the Neon Museum. Visiting didn’t just spark memories, it proved to be a turning point.

“I had moved here a few years earlier and before I visited the museum I was actually thinking of moving away, because I hadn’t connected to the town,” Belcher said. “The Neon Museum was on my list of things to see, and when I took the tour, I fell in love with it. Visiting the museum was what made Las Vegas feel like home.”

Visit neonmuseum.org or call 702-387-6366.

To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.