Artist Jerry Misko was one of the original tenants, opening a studio near such rebel ventures as a gay cowboy bar and swingers club. We threw great events, parties, art shows. In , area shop owners organized to launch the 18b Las Vegas Arts District development board. Four years later, Cindy Funkhouser, Julie Brewer and Naomi Arin launched a monthly arts festival called First Friday, during which galleries stayed open later on the first Friday of each month.
The event has remained an Arts District fixture , now drawing thousands at a time. But along with boom comes bust. Some merchants failed after the economic crash, while others barely hung on. Like a lot of others who came before him, Trees is reinventing himself in the Arts District. He chose a site on Casino Center Boulevard, moving into a building that was constructed in the s.
Still, people asked him the same question: Why the Arts District? Why not Summerlin or the Strip, places to attract the right kind of clientele. Trees waved them away. But people want reality. I look at the Arts District and think, this is what the original Main Street in Vegas must have felt like.
Many nights at his eatery, he makes the rounds to meet his diners. So, where are you guys going tonight? And they had better not say the Strip. One of his neighbors is Larry Reha, owner of the Makeshift Union hair salon, who had taken residence a year earlier. His business partner thought he was crazy, moving into a building with dirt floors and busted-up walls, ceiling and plumbing. But Reha liked the high ceilings, not to mention the six months of free rent.
Still, he was the only business on the block when Trees arrived, and he welcomed him like a fellow island stowaway. He began to urge Trees to open his restaurant for lunch and not only dinner. The two have become odd-couple collaborators. Abby Stroot is perhaps the perfect face for the emergent grassroots spirit of the Arts District — real, down-to-earth, a transplanted professional seamstress from Wichita whose pickup still bears its Kansas license plates.
Her Pincushion shop does alterations and custom orders for casino shows such as Cirque du Soleil and community theater companies. She also uses her shop to provide a space for creatives such as herself, offering classes and a place to hang out. On a recent weekday, the newest president of the 18b Arts District board toured the neighborhood that has embraced her professionally and personally.
In June, Kortney Olson chose an attention-getting way to open her Grrrl Clothing store — she set a world record for the fastest time to crush three watermelons between her thighs, finishing in 7. The message: Women can do amazing things. Her shop will empower customers through motivational speakers, jiujitsu classes and breastfeeding seminars. Other newcomers are equally impressed. For months, Darren Lee Cole walked every block of the Arts District scouting locations for an ambitious plan to bring more live theater to the area.
Rents are rising, parking is becoming an issue, and more sophisticated newcomers have criticized older tenants for not engaging in enough social media to promote the area. How are those people going to survive? Longtime landlord Miller put it more bluntly.
Former Arts District board director Marc Abelman supports a Business Improvement District to ensure artists will always have a home in the area. Chef Trees believes the definition of the Arts District is changing. Cooking is art. Stand-up comedy is art.
Theater is art. The film, directed and produced by Shannon, Dray and co-produced by Tami Yaron, debuts next month Follow our friend dtlv for all the news and happenings in Downtown Las Vegas. What did you think? There was an error rating this post! Sign up for newsletter Get the latest hot news off the strip Email Required. There is a mistake in the form! Try again later? Lucky you -- you get to hear it with warts and all. Though we're kinda new at this podcasting thing well, most of us , we're not new at this Vegas art thing.
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