SIN CITY has a plethora of cultural offerings for the tourists who flock to its neon glow. From Broadway shows and Art galleries to world-renowned restaurants and stunning architecture, the Strip is thought of as the singular reason why Las Vegas is considered to be the Entertainment Capital of the World.

But beyond the neon is a subculture largely unseen by outsiders, lying in wait for those who seek the city’s heart. Bars, boutiques, concert venues, fine dining establishments and spaces for art abound off the Strip, and they’re geared toward Las Vegas residents.

Mayor Oscar Goodman’s Downtown redevelopment project, previously called Union Park and now re-named Symphony Park, will push the boundaries of Las Vegas culture. The project’s anchor, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, is expected to transform the way the world views Las Vegas—stretching outsiders’ Strip-centric view into one that recognizes Las Vegas in its entirety as an important cultural center.

In the Beginning
Las Vegas has grown by leaps and bounds since casinos were built in the barren valley. A city with ever-changing population demographics and a short memory, Las Vegas’ cultural image is one of continuous transformation. With constant evolution came an inability for the city to plant strong historical and cultural roots.

Jeffrey Koep, dean of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas’ College of Fine Arts, moved to Las Vegas in 1989. He has seen the city re-imagine itself over and over again, and is also able to pinpoint the differences between Las Vegas and other cities with cultural significance.

“Twenty years ago, although we were the entertainment capital of the world in ’89, we did not have the base of people who actually lived here to support such things as professional theater,” Koep said. “If you draw a circle around Las Vegas, you don’t have a lot of cities. You’re almost in competition with Los Angeles. L.A. people come here because of the Strip, not necessarily because of the cultural offerings, because they have those in L.A.”

Though Las Vegas still lacks surrounding metropolises to draw from, its population base has exploded in the last 20 years. According to census reports, the Las Vegas metropolitan area grew from 852,737 residents in 1990 to 1,836,333 in 2007. The explosion of growth has contributed to the expansion of cultural offerings in recent years, both on the Strip and off.

“I moved here from New York City, had an aisle seat at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, had a career in the arts,” said Smith Center President Myron Martin. “I think it’s fair to say at that point in time, Las Vegas didn’t have the same things to offer as New York City did in terms of arts and culture. Las Vegas was still a small and growing town. I have seen Las Vegas grow tremendously. We still have room to grow. We have a long way to go before we’re on par with New York or Chicago. That’s one of the reasons why the Smith Center is so important to us, by providing a cultural infrastructure for our community, for Southern Nevada.”

A Tale of Two Cities
As the population of Las Vegas grew, so too did its reputation as a tourist destination. For many years, it seemed as if the city and its residents were focused entirely on the Strip as a source of both income and entertainment. Now Las Vegas’ off-Strip cultural underground is becoming more of a visible alternative, at least to those who live and work here.

“Non-natives and tourists look at Las Vegas culture as what we’re presenting on the Strip, which, frankly, when you’re looking at it, isn’t too bad,” Koep said. “A lot of the shows and things we have on the Strip and performers we bring in would be headliners in their own right in other cities. Sometimes we take for granted what we bring to the Strip, not realizing that those people are brought to other cities just as guests. I don’t think that oftentimes what we present culturally beyond what’s on the Strip is as known to people from out of town because they’re not coming for that. We’re not seen as a destination beyond what’s on the Strip.

“In Las Vegas, there’s a certain group or audience that certainly understands that there are excellent cultural offerings that have been going on in this city for a number of years. Those are the people who are the patrons of primarily what we bring into UNLV in terms of the Performing Arts Center. The local people are aware of those. I think there’s another group who oftentimes sort of say, ‘There is no culture in Las Vegas.’ That group I find are people who haven’t sought it out and gone and looked for alternatives.”

Some of the Las Vegans who seek out homegrown cultural offerings are those who produce and perform Strip entertainment. Though dancers, performers, directors and other artistic visionaries produce culture for tourists in their working hours, they also support local creative efforts. Koep said he thinks the two worlds, the two cities—Las Vegas and the Strip—and the artists therein complement rather than conflict with each other.

“Several years ago, if you had gone to New York you would have been happy to see the Blue Man Group,” he said. “Now they’re here, and they’re part of Las Vegas culture and they’re doing excellent work. I think culture on the Strip, performers on the Strip, are in and of themselves the people who work on those shows. The producers are pretty supportive as being audience members to stuff outside the Strip.

“I’ve really never felt that the Strip is negative to Las Vegas or negative to the cultural growth. It’s more of a matter of Las Vegas—and I think it’s starting to do that—starting to educate the audience. Really letting people know, ‘Hey we do have this in Las Vegas. You don’t necessarily have to go to Chicago or New York to see this.’”

The Smith Center will serve as a counterpoint to tourist culture when it is completed in early 2012. Not only will it become the home of the Nevada Ballet Theatre and the Las Vegas Philharmonic, but the Smith Center will host touring productions and performers that are currently unable to find space in Las Vegas. The end result will be a cultural turning point for the world’s “adult playground.”

“People who live here have an appetite for really high quality performances of all kinds,” Martin said. “If we give them the opportunity to bring their families to a non-gaming environment in a truly world class facility unlike anything other that we have in Las Vegas today, we will have an audience.

“People who live in Las Vegas truly are thirsting for more of this very high-quality entertainment. People who live in Las Vegas want all kinds of things. Going to the Strip and eating at a great restaurant and going to see Jersey Boys is a perfect night out. For those of us who live here, we want more. We want to be able to, on a regular basis, see all kinds of things, whether it’s popular or classical, music, theater, dance. I’m absolutely convinced that there’s an audience for all of it.”

A Fork in the Road
The recent groundbreaking of the Smith Center signified a touchstone in Las Vegas history, a time when Las Vegas residents made the decision to build a future for themselves and for their successors.

Though Martin and his colleagues at the Smith Center have yet to announce a confirmed slate of performers, they are already negotiating dates with some of the nation’s most prestigious Broadway productions and legendary musicians. No longer will a touring Tony award-winning show skip Las Vegas for lack of space or interest. Martin’s goal is to build a home for both native Nevadans and outside cultural influences to converge—and hopefully a like-minded community of businesses will spring up around the center.

“The Smith Center puts us on the world stage in terms of arts and culture,” Martin said. “We’re known as the entertainment capital of the world, but when you talk about more serious types of entertainment, we’re not so much. We don’t have that type of reputation. It will be the catalyst for development in Downtown, as performing arts centers do. People want to locate businesses around performing arts centers because of the vitality they bring.

“I’ve heard people say that the Smith Center is going to be the opposite of the Strip. We’ve all experienced that thing where you want to go out to dinner at one of the restaurants and you can’t get in because it’s either totally booked or tables are being reserved for casino patrons. Sometimes, living here, you’re the secondary citizen to the tourists when it comes to some things. The Smith Center is being built clearly for those of us who live here.”

Martin also said he has spoken with some of the Strip’s most visible representatives, and all are in agreement: The Smith Center will only elevate Las Vegas’ reputation.

“If you ask someone like Jim Murren what he thinks of the Smith Center, he will tell you that he doesn’t see the Smith Center as competition, he sees the Smith Center as providing the kind of infrastructure that our community needs so he can attract the kinds of people who will run these big companies,” Martin said.             “The Smith Center is going to fill in gaps for our community in that it’s going to provide a cultural infrastructure, it’s going to provide opportunities for arts and culture that we don’t have today, and those things actually help when it comes to attracting businesses to live here.

“Having said that, will there be competition for some attractions? Tony Bennett plays in Las Vegas on a regular basis. He also performs in performing arts centers across the country. Will there be times when you see Tony Bennett here for those of us who live here and then see him six months later at a casino? Yes.”

Though the Smith Center will not open its doors for three more years, the people of Las Vegas already have high hopes for the statement the center will make to bystanders. The Smith Center will prove to the world that the city cares about its vitality and its contributions to society, both on the Strip and off.

“I think the Downtown performing arts center will make a statement to the residents of Las Vegas and be a complement to what we have going on [at UNLV],” Koep said. “In terms of people coming here, it may take some time. Eventually, people will say, ‘Wow, they have a great performing arts center Downtown; they bring in good things. This city is not only about the Strip.’ People come and they want to see three shows on the Strip and go to the Hoover Dam…and you can do all those things, but it makes you a little proud that you can take people Downtown and say, ‘Look at this. Look at this performing arts center. We are investing in the future.’”

By Caitlin McGarry