4/29/2022
Discovering The Smith Center
When visitors now enter The Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall, they will pass through the Betty Engelstad Grand Lobby.
These naming rights honor a deeply generous donation from the Engelstad Foundation of $10 million to The Smith Center, a nonprofit organization.
The foundation provided this as a matching gift for the Campaign to Sustain The Smith Center, an initiative to grow the center’s endowment fund and secure its future as a community resource for decades to come.
“Our Smith Center family is humbled and grateful for the Engelstad Foundation’s incredible generosity, which will help our center provide access to the arts for many generations of Southern Nevadans,” says Myron Martin, Smith Center president and CEO. “In the coming years, this support will allow The Smith Center to continue its important work of shaping the arts with world-class performances, community outreach and all-new works.”
Created in 2002 by Las Vegas residents Ralph and Betty Engelstad, the Engelstad Foundation offers a long legacy of charitable giving in Nevada and other states, with a strong focus on education, health care and childhood issues.
The Engelstad family also remains known and respected for helping to shape Las Vegas as a city, including Ralph opening the Imperial Palace (now The LINQ) in 1979, one of the largest privately owned hotels in the world at the time.
“The Smith Center has evolved into a vital and cultural staple for our community,” said Kris Engelstad, trustee of the Engelstad Foundation. “It’s a place that brings us together. I would encourage anyone out there with the means to support The Smith Center to do so. This is a place we want to see thrive for generations to come.”
The Smith Center welcomes guests to raise a glass to the sign showcasing the lobby’s new name.
LEARN MORE
To learn more about the Campaign to Sustain The Smith Center, CLICK HERE.