Public art fills the valley with unique designs

On the Strip, there are sphinxes, an erupting volcano, dancing fountains, a giant lion and a tribute to ancient Rome.

Off the Strip, you have -- well, a lot of one-story buildings that evoke Malvina Reynolds' song about being made of ticky tacky and all looking just the same.

"Most of the architecture is fast-food architecture," says Michael Ogilvie, whose job with the city of Las Vegas includes overseeing a growing public art program. "It's built fast and built cheap.

"We are conditioned not to expect beauty in the environment that's around us. When you're driving around a city that doesn't have any beauty integrated into its structure, it's depressing."

But don't be sad. As another folk singer once said, the times, well, they are a-changin'.

The biggest project under way involves four 45-foot paintbrushes that will be installed on Charleston Boulevard as gateways into the downtown Arts District. The Dennis Oppenheim designed sculptures will form arches and are expected to be done in early 2010.

"What will arch is light," says Ogilvie, explaining that each paintbrush will shoot a beam of light skyward. "It will intersect at a certain point in the sky."

There's more coming. Under construction are eight Regional Transportation Commission bus stop shelters that will have art displays. A pedestrian bridge over Las Vegas Boulevard near Cashman Field is expected this year and will be decorated with "Vegas Arabesque," a David Griggs sculpture paying tribute to Vegas' colorful icons.

Indeed, there's art all across the valley if you take the time to see it. Casino Center sidewalks near Charleston have been given a makeover by Atomic Industries (artistic benches are coming soon). Clark County is beautifying utility boxes through a program called "ZAP!" -- for examples, go to East Desert Inn and McLeod Drive and walk around a bit.

There are the desert tortoise statues in the Spaghetti Bowl, the historic neon signs dotting the Fremont Street Experience, and murals on walls and in parks all over town.

For more examples, go to www.lvarts commission.com.

Henderson is at the beginning of its public art efforts, says Annette Mullins, cultural supervisor with the 2-year-old Cultural Arts and Tourism Department. There's a tile piece in the Whitney Ranch Recreation Center, a sculpture and three murals on Water Street downtown, and art that's part of private developments.

"We are a relatively new department. We are putting together a master plan that does include public art as one of our initiatives," she says.

"Art's so important overall. Public art is visually pleasing, it brings so much more to the community. It's that awareness that art is important to our society."

Southern Nevada cities and Clark County also have space available for artists. North Las Vegas is expecting to have more soon -- a park, a "multigenerational center" and a planned new city hall will have display space for artists.

"We see a high need," says Michael Henley, North Las Vegas' parks and recreation director. "We have a lot of talented people at the grass-roots level, and we want to give them a place to grow and show.

"Civic spaces ... are visited by a broad base of citizenry. They really attract the lower-echelon artists and students who are just getting their feet wet. It's really the only display space they have where they'll be seen by a lot of people."

Contact Alan Choate at 702-229-6435 or e-mail him at achoate@reviewjournal.com.