Sunday, February 26, 2012
Arts community demanding spotlight in Las Vegas
The Associated Press: It's a desert oasis that hangs its priciest paintings on casino walls, where neon signs are a point of a pride and themed-hotels pay tribute to architecture's golden eras. Still, Las Vegas' cultural offerings have long taken a back seat to the glamour and crudity of its most notorious vices. People come here to party, the stereotype goes, not broaden their artistic horizons.
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3 comments:
This seems a wonderful idea. Although I love the crazy energy Las Vegas brings with the casinos and shops, I do wish it had a stronger artistic something to it. There is no doubt that the magic and thrill shows are one of a kind. However, the Broadway or theatre shows I have seen there are seriously lacking. I heard a rumor that no Vegas casino show is allowed to exceed 90 minutes which would completely make sense as to why the shows are severely more sucky than when they are seen on tour or on Broadway. This new theater seems like the perfect solution!!!
As a Vegas resident, I have such mixed feelings about this. I'm obviously very excited for National Tours to be coming through and for the great boost that the arts is getting in town. What bothers me, though, is that it takes all these fancy new facilities and things for people to pay attention to the arts in this town. My dad has run the concert hall and performing arts center at UNLV for years and has brought in some of the groups that will be performing at the Smith Center, amongst other world-renowned classical artists and Broadway stars. And yet the house is not usually full for those shows. Now that this fancy center is opening, people are paying attention. That's dumb. It goes to such that even though the Smith Center is about promoting the arts, part of the reason it's already popular is because its flashy and fancy, just like the 9-foot shoe and all of the other art galleries and installations and the Cosmopolitan and City Center. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for the new wave of arts and arts awareness happening in town. It's great for people to be taking part in this type of culture. I'm just frustrated because people have ignored that culture in the past and some of them are only paying attention to it now because it's the new, fancy, cool thing to do.
While not everyone comes to Vegas to focus on every minute detail that goes into the art and architecture, they do come to be entertained and expect to be blown away by how realistic their surroundings can be when the audience puts themselves in a place to be enveloped in a show. Yes, Vegas is known for its vices. But it's also known for its extravagance, and I feel like this new arts center will definitely help add to that idea. I also think that it'll allow the people who already come to Vegas to party to also be exposed to more performance-based entertainment.
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