Opening to the public
October 2026
Beatty, NV
Whitney Lynn’s Atomic Open House turns the architecture of nuclear spectacle into a roadside attraction, using a deceptive trompe-l’oeil façade to expose the uneasy gaps between what we see and how we are positioned to look.
Whitney Lynn, Atomic Open House (concept rendering). Courtesy the artist and Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum.
Atomic Open House is a free public artwork and roadside attraction by artist Whitney Lynn, located in Beatty, Nevada, approximately 117 miles northwest of Las Vegas, near U.S. Route 95 and the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) (formerly the Nevada Test Site, or NTS). The installation reinterprets two architectural elements associated with atmospheric nuclear testing at the NTS in the 1950s: the Apple-2 house, a wood-frame Colonial-style home built to observe how a typical American house might withstand a nuclear explosion, and VIP viewing benches where military and government officials, the press, and other invited observers watched detonations from close range. The above-ground tests were extensively photographed and televised, making nuclear destruction visible through familiar forms of domestic life and transforming a once-secret military program into a carefully managed public spectacle. In nearby Las Vegas, that spectacle became atomic tourism, with casinos and businesses hosting bomb detonation watch parties, and promoting atomic-themed cocktails, beauty pageants, and other attractions.
Drawing on archival research, local stories, and site visits, Lynn recreates versions of the structures outside the Site’s gates. Atomic Open House consists of a 33-foot-wide by 22-foot-tall façade modeled on the Apple-2 House and a set of viewing benches positioned at the precise vantage point needed to produce the illusion. From the intended position, the facade appears deceptively three-dimensional, like a Hollywood backlot set; from other angles, its flat construction and supporting armature become visible. In a community where many residents still remember the tests and their impacts, Atomic Open House uses the slippage between reality and perception to invite reflection on land use, environmental risk, and the ways architecture, media, and entertainment have shaped public perceptions of nuclear arms development and military presence in the American West.
“Having grown up on military bases, I have spent years examining the unstable boundary between military and civilian landscapes, and how architecture, images, and familiar stories make systems of power appear ordinary. My work disrupts that familiarity by shifting perspective.”
Whitney Lynn
$65,000 remaining to fully realize the project
Atomic Open House will be Lynn’s largest public artwork to date—a site-specific installation that invites visitors to reflect on the overlaps between military and civilian life. Developed over the past three years through Black Cube’s Artist Fellowship, the project demonstrates the Fellowship’s commitment to supporting emerging and mid-career artists as they expand their practices across new scales, materials, communities, and places.
To realize Atomic Open House at its full potential, Whitney Lynn and the Black Cube team are working to close a $65,000 funding gap by the end of the year. These funds will enable our nonprofit to finish fabrication, cover site-related expenses, present free seasonal programming, and produce a print catalog. Your support will help bring to life a memorable artwork that encourages curiosity and dialogue around topics deeply embedded in American national identity and power.
As of September 14, 2026
Of the remaining $65,000 needed:
We are excited to offer the following donation tiers (named after fauna in Nye County) and associated gifts. All recognition gifts will be sent and/or scheduled by the end of 2026, with the exception of the print catalog (publishing Spring 2027). Thank you for your support!
Acknowledgment on the Atomic Open House website, plus:
Acknowledgment on the Atomic Open House website, plus:
Acknowledgment on the Atomic Open House website, plus:
Acknowledgments on the Atomic Open House website and in the print exhibition catalog, plus:
Acknowledgments on the Atomic Open House website and in the print exhibition catalog, plus:
Acknowledgments on the Atomic Open House website and in the print exhibition catalog, plus:
Black Cube is a tax-deductible, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All our programming is free and open to the public, which wouldn’t be possible without our generous supporters. All tax-deductible donations to Atomic Open House support our mission to produce ambitious art in the public realm, including this project in Beatty, Nevada. Help us to create access to art outside of museum walls by making a gift today.
We are grateful to all who have supported our project so far: VIA Art Fund, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the David & Laura Merage Foundation, the University of Washington, and the Ruth Foundation for the Arts.
Atomic Open House is actively in production. In early June 2026, the artist visited our fabricators in Las Vegas. Here’s a peek behind the scenes:
Atomic Open House will be installed and open to the public in October 2026. The artwork will remain free and open to the public, outdoors from sunrise to sunset.
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Yes! Black Cube is a tax-deductible, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We will provide a donation acknowledgement letter for gifts $100+. Please contact us at hello@blackcube.art to request a letter for gifts under this amount.
Atomic Open House will be installed in Beatty, Nevada, one block from the intersection of U.S. Route 95 and the town’s main street. Approximately 18 miles west of Yucca Mountain and the western edge of the Nevada National Security Site, the site places the work within a living community and along a well-traveled road between Las Vegas and Death Valley National Park.
Beatty’s history is layered. The region is part of the ancestral homelands of Indigenous peoples, including Western Shoshone and Northern Paiute communities, and has been shaped by mining, railroads, tourism, and employment associated with the Nevada National Security Site. The town continues to serve residents, workers, and travelers exploring the surrounding desert, including visitors headed to Death Valley, bird watchers, and mountain bikers.
The area is also part of the Amargosa River watershed. The Amargosa River begins near Pahute Mesa within the NNSS, flows through Beatty, and continues through Nevada and California toward Death Valley. Much of the river flows underground through the desert, sustaining springs, wetlands, wildlife, and human communities along its course. Its largely hidden presence complicates the familiar image of the desert as barren or vacant: what is not immediately visible may be integral to the life of a place.
Locating Atomic Open House in Beatty brings the artwork into conversation with the town’s relationship to atomic testing, tourism, military land use, and the surrounding ecology.
Atomic Open House creates an accessible entry point into the history and continuing consequences of decades of nuclear testing in Nevada. Through a contemporary artwork that takes the form of a roadside attraction, stage set, and optical illusion, the project examines how architecture, images, and carefully constructed viewing experiences helped make nuclear weapons development appear familiar, manageable, and even entertaining.
By making spectatorship part of the artwork, Atomic Open House connects the viewer’s perspective to questions of military power, land, and public memory. The project does not reconstruct the Nevada Test Site or offer a single interpretation of its history. Instead, it recreates a relationship among a prop house, a viewing structure, and a spectator. Presented within the context of a living community, the work asks what nuclear testing made visible, what it concealed, and how its effects continue to impact communities, ecosystems, Indigenous homelands, and public memory.
Today, the NNSS and historic structures like the Apple-2 house and viewing benches are largely inaccessible, with public tours (canceled through 2026) prohibiting cameras and recording devices. Although the United States has observed a moratorium on explosive nuclear testing since 1992, the NNSS remains active in nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship. The nearby proposal to develop Yucca Mountain as a repository for high-level radioactive waste also remains unresolved. Situated near these sites, Atomic Open House offers visitors a place to pause, look closely, and consider how the region’s nuclear history continues to shape the present and future.
Atomic Open House will be installed in October 2026. The artwork will be free and open to the public, outdoors from sunrise to sunset.
Black Cube is responsible for the maintenance of Atomic Open House. Our team and local collaborators will conduct regular condition reports on the artwork, assessing its integrity and general upkeep. We kindly ask that visitors adhere to “Leave No Trace” principles, including packing out all trash, respecting communities and wildlife, and minimizing impacts to the land and to the artwork. Please direct any questions or concerns around the artwork’s state to hello@blackcube.art.
Funds raised beyond our stated goal will go toward expanding the scope of Atomic Open House, potentially through additional free public programming and events, and/or extending the tenure of the artwork. The Black Cube team will share an update with all donors on how any surplus is used, maintaining transparency about where your contributions went.
