Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
He pauses and takes a deep breath before getting a little emotional — Roger Thomas knows it’s coming.
“I get choked up every time,” the renowned interior designer acknowledges.
This moment has been more than 50 years in the making for the man whose keen eye for sophisticated opulence helped actualize Steve Wynn’s lavish vision for watershed properties such as Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas.
But it goes back even further than that for Thomas, back to when was 8 years old and his parents took him to his very first art museum, then known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.
“It changed my life,” he remembers. “If I had not gone to that museum at 8 and decided to dedicate my life to art and design, what I was able to accomplish with Steven and Elaine Wynn might never have happened.
“My parents had the wherewithal, the ability to take their children to a museum in San Francisco,” he continues. “Most Las Vegas children never have that opportunity, have never had that opportunity.”
All that’s about to change: In the fall of 2029, the long-gestating Las Vegas Museum of Art is finally scheduled to open, thanks in no small part to Thomas’ efforts, which date to the mid-’70s.
He pauses and takes a deep breath before getting a little emotional — Roger Thomas knows it’s coming.
“I get choked up every time,” the renowned interior designer acknowledges.
This moment has been more than 50 years in the making for the man whose keen eye for sophisticated opulence helped actualize Steve Wynn’s lavish vision for watershed properties such as Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas.
But it goes back even further than that for Thomas, back to when was 8 years old and his parents took him to his very first art museum, then known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.
“It changed my life,” he remembers. “If I had not gone to that museum at 8 and decided to dedicate my life to art and design, what I was able to accomplish with Steven and Elaine Wynn might never have happened.
“My parents had the wherewithal, the ability to take their children to a museum in San Francisco,” he continues. “Most Las Vegas children never have that opportunity, have never had that opportunity.”
All that’s about to change: In the fall of 2029, the long-gestating Las Vegas Museum of Art is finally scheduled to open, thanks in no small part to Thomas’ efforts, which date to the mid-’70s.
