Expo to introduce best-known, less-known arts groups

By Joe Brown

Friday, May 2, 2008 | 2 a.m.

They’re turning the Liberace Museum into a megamall!

Don’t panic, preservationists. For one day only the Las Vegas institution will become a one-stop shopping center for the arts and culture, gathering more than 20 purveyors and presenters of the region’s arts under one roof — for the first time ever.

Sunday’s debut of IMPACT (Imagine Museums, Performance, Arts and Culture Together) will feature performances, displays, exhibits, demonstrations and information about such organizations as Desert Spring Arts, Celebrity City Chorus and Nevada Marching Arts.

Who?

Exactly.

“It’s not an arts fair or a crafts fair,” says Darin Hollingsworth, director of the Liberace Museum, one of five leading arts organizations that came together to make IMPACT happen. “It’s an arts and cultural expo.”

When it was first discussed, IMPACT was imagined as an opportunity for elbow rubbing among the arts insiders, a way to exchange information, encourage cross-pollination and maybe inspire collaboration among the many local organizations.

“We’re all in the arts, and you might think it’s a small world, but we really don’t get to know each other or see each other’s shows and programs,” Hollingsworth says. “It’s hard, because the symphony may be playing on the same night as the ballet. The museum people tend to hang out with museum people and so on. And of course we all get so wrapped up with our own donors and supporters. The idea behind IMPACT is, if we can’t be there in the audience, let’s make sure we know more about each other. We should all be able to be conversant about what else is available in town.”

Joining the Liberace Museum at the core of IMPACT were the Nevada Ballet Theatre, the Las Vegas Philharmonic, the Las Vegas Art Museum and the Rainbow Company Youth Theatre.

“Our hope is that the staff and inner circle of each organization (at IMPACT) uses this as an opportunity to really get to know each other better and let this be a springboard,” Hollingsworth says. He hopes IMPACT becomes an annual event that will outgrow the Liberace Museum.

The culture-loving citizens of Las Vegas are welcome to attend the free event, whether they want to book their own cultural calendar for the year or meet some of the people behind the art.

“We’re hoping there will be a lot of shock and awe that there are 20-plus organizations presenting cultural content this diverse,” Hollingsworth says. “So if you’re looking for something to do on our arts and cultural scene, you’ll walk away with some new information or an introduction to a new organization you didn’t know before.”

Along with the established names, IMPACT will introduce emerging groups, including Desert Springs Arts, which started at Desert Spring United Methodist Church and has developed a chorale, a chamber orchestra and choirs for teens and children. The Celebrity City Chorus is a chapter of Sweet Adelines International that has more than 90 women who sing barbershop-style music (they’re scheduled to perform at 2 and 3 p.m.).

And another new group, Las Vegas Marching Arts, hopes to drum up some support at IMPACT. Of the 51 high schools in the area, only 18 have marching bands. Las Vegas Marching Arts intends to fund and find a way to create a competitive drum and bugle corps experience for Las Vegas high schoolers by 2010.

“I just will not listen to someone say there is no culture in this town,” Hollingsworth says. “Join us on Sunday and become a part of that which you hope to create.”