Show Vegas bets on culture again Reed Johnson Los Angeles Times i Within 90 days this city founded on taking risk-taking is supposed to break ground on one of its biggest cultural gambles to date the million Smith Center for forthe forthe forthe the Performing Arts The ground-breaking ground is taking place at a challenging time for Las Vegas' Vegas biggest cultural institutions which have been buffeted by the recession Most notably the Las Vegas Art Museum closed last month The museums museum's closing and cutbacks elsewhere have raised questions about whether a city that in recent years has tried to cultivate a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan image can sustain a high-arts high presence and fill the seats at its fancy new cultural center Previously Las Vegas attempted to lure out-of- out towners away from the slot machines and showgirls by offering name brand-name artworks at splashy venues such as the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum atthe at att the Venetian Resort now closed and casino magnate Steve Wynns Wynn's Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art By contrast said Myron Martin the Smith Centers Center's president the vast majority of patrons at atthe atthe atthe the new performance hall downtown probably wont won't be tourists but southern Nevada residents Its important for people like me who live here and raised my fan family ly and call Las Vegas home to make a distinction between the 1 kinds of things that have been opened in commercial settings and the kinds of things that were we're trying to do to make this a more livable city he said I 1 think weve we've reached critical mass that our citizens demand a better quality of life The Art Museum had existed for nearly six decades in various incarnations Libby Lumpkin who stepped down last December as executive director in the face of drastic staff and budget cutbacks said it just seemed like a no- no brainer in the late that high culture could attract tourists while also serving one of the country's growing fastest-growing local populations But in retrospect I have been doubting the wisdom of my thinking said Lumpkin who previously had worked for Wynn as asa asa asa a curator and editor at the Bellagio Gallery I think maybe now Las Vegas is going to be what its it's going to be a cowboy town with witha a libertarian streak Nevada is being hammered not only by down nearly 12 percent in January from the previous year but by some of the highest mortgage-foreclosure mortgage rates in the country Casinos are struggling with debt acquired during the era o of f booming real estate markets Many hotels drastically have lowered their room r rates tes and are offering more discount promotions cross-promotions with restaurants and casino shows to attract customers The N Nevada vada Ballet and the Philharmonic are in better shape than the m museum seum although the former recently had to cut nine dancers due to the recession and the Philharmonic cut its staff and reduced its board following an administrative up shake-up last year The two institutions will be anchor tenants of the Smith th Center when it opens downtown in early 2012 Were cautiously optimistic said Jeri Crawford who will become the Philharmonics Philharmonic's president in May The Philharmonic which has no endowment a 17 million budget and 1000 subscribers will be trying to add subscribers and roughly double its number of concerts to 20 a season by the time it switches from its current home at atthe atthe atthe the University of Nevada Las Vegas to the Smith Centers Center's principal 2050 seat multipurpose hall The center designed by David M. M Schwarz Architects also will house housea a seat cabaret theater and a seat flexible box black-box space The entire complex is being financed in large measure with million in gifts from the locally based Donald W. W Reynolds Foundation named for the late media entrepreneur plus million in public pubic funding largely derived from a 2 percent car rental taX tag Patrick Duffy the closed museums museum's board president vowed that the facility which watched its budget drop from a high of about 27 million to would reopen although he couldn't specify when Are we going to hell hellin hellin hellin in a I 1 dont don't think so he said Veve Weve really only put it in dormancy Weve We've put it in cryogenics Duffy said museum officials had held discussions about a number of potential new venues for the museum including and the Community College of Southern Nevada Under Lumpkins Lumpkin's direction the museum focused on contemporary art with a number of well- well received exhibitions including one by her husband art critic Dave Hickey Lumpkin said that because its galleries were relatively small the museum had no choice but to go dark between the removal of one exhibition and the installation of a anew a. a new one Sometimes she and her staff drove tourists back to their hotels if they'd wandered over only to find the museum closed between shows The museum shared part of a modern building with a public library branch about a mile 16 trip round-trip from the Strip an expensive cab ride for less car-less tourists Despite attempts to raise capital the museum had been unable to establish an endowment About 97 percent of its budget came from private money augmented by a small amount from the Nevada Arts Council It failed because of the economy lets let's be clear on that Lumpkin said It was wasa a struggle throughout and it suffered some setbacks but we were steadily growing The problems facing Las Vegas' Vegas cultural institutions are hardly unique Numerous museums theater and dance companies and other fine arts organizations across the country including the Getty in Los Angeles and New Yorks York's Metropolitan Museum of Art have suffered from declining ticket sales shrinking endowments staff reductions and steep drop- drop offs in donated money in recent months Beth Barbre Nevada Ballets Ballet's executive director said the recession had caused a budget shortfall for her company tied to falling revenue from ticket sales contributions and tuition to the company's dance academy That led to the decision in March to let nine dancers go Barbre said that the regions region's cultural profile would be boosted by the opening of the Smith Center which would certainly be a destination like the Lincoln Center As a young still growing metropolis the Las Vegas region has had less r time tim than older East Coast and Midwestern cities to establish an enduring cultural infrastructure The new consensus among arts advocates here seems seems to tobe tobe tobe be that maintaining quality cultural institutions should be an effort primarily by and for locals not tourists There is at least one example of how the multinational companies that operate on the Strip u have nave formed creative creative l partnerships with local arts groups Under its Global Citizenship service Montreal-based Montreal Cirque du Soleil has joined with Nevada Ballet to sponsor a dance choreography showcase that allows dancers designers and technicians from the two companies to collaborate Both performances of last years year's dance showcase at Cirques Cirque's seat 1400 theater on the Strip sold out at 20 a ticket a very low price by Vegas standards Another showcase is being planned Im really sad that theres there's artists leaving town because they cant can't afford to live there arts organizations are closing the ballet is having trouble said Karen Gay director of Global Citizenship for Cirques Cirque's Las Vegas and California operations Nonetheless Gay said I believe in the arts scene in Las Vegas By gosh if we dont don't do it shame on us |