Performing Arts Center Planned For Las Vegas

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Mar 24th 2009 at 10:02AM

The Las Vegas Art Museum may have closed but that's not the end of culture in Las Vegas. As the LA Times reports, Las Vegas is planning a $475-million performing arts center. The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is a cultural venue designed more for the locals than for tourists. It will offer the city's residents the benefits of a cosmopolitan city venue downtown. It is possible though that a thriving cultural center could be attractive to tourists who are interested in more of Las Vegas than the Strip. Las Vegas has seen tourism rates drop dramatically over the past year and the local real estate market has also floundered.

The Nevada Ballet and the Philharmonic, which are both still doing well but have made some cuts, will join the Smith Center when it opens in 2012. The center will have a both a 300-seat cabaret theater and a 200-seat flexible black-box space. The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is giving $150 million to the project and it has also received $170 million in public funding, much of which was generated by a two percent car rental tax.

The city is also planning a mob museum but that is planned to be more of a tourist draw.

Tags: arts, culture, las vegas, LasVegas