Group makes its stand with downtown plan

Wes Isbutt does not have $300 million to spend on art, as Steve Wynn has done for his Bellagio hotel-casino, but that has not stopped Isbutt from bringing a three-day art festival to downtown Las Vegas.

Isbutt, the owner of The Arts Factory at Boulder Avenue and First Street, said he is hoping that 10,000 people will visit downtown's Gateway Arts and Music Experience on Sept. 25-27.

"There is a huge need and an outcry from the public for a cultural center, and maybe this can be a spark to get it started in downtown," Isbutt said. "All of these 1.3 million people that have moved into Las Vegas are looking for an art center in Las Vegas because that is what they had in their old cities."

The Gateway Arts and Music Experience will mark the first street festival in downtown Las Vegas history, according to Isbutt.

"This is not a crafts fair but a street festival in the truest sense," Isbutt said. "There will be music, art, food and poetry. There will be 100 booths and children's activities."

The festival will be on Boulder Avenue between Casino Center Boulevard and Main Street behind the Arts Factory building. It also will spill out onto about five blocks of First Street.

Downtown business owner and co-chairwoman of the Downtown Central Development Committee, Terri Galardi, said that downtown businesses and community members see the event as a positive.

"It is a wonderful event," Galardi said. "We need more events like this to attract people to downtown and change the bad perception that has become associated with the area."

The festival will kick off at 6 p.m. Sept. 25 with a free concert from jazz guitarist Larry Coryell. On Sept. 26-27 the festival features a 7 a.m. farmers market, followed at 10 a.m. by the opening of 100 booths with different art displays and performers. Bands will play on two stages throughout the weekend.

Mayor Jan Laverty Jones is scheduled to be at the festival Saturday as part of the City Council's "Art in Las Vegas" promotion, which runs from Sept. 18-27.

The mayor said she sees this as a chance for the arts and downtown to come together.

"It not only ties the arts back into the urban quarter, it helps to develop downtown as a place where locals can come," Jones said. "We want to make downtown into an art district where people can come for art, shows and theater."

Isbutt said that it is only natural that people would expect to find art in downtown Las Vegas.

"Artists don't usually have a lot of money, so art districts usually spring up where there are warehouses and older buildings that are cheaper," Isbutt said. "That's usually in the downtown areas."

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