Friday, May 09, 2003 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

New Heights

Aerial Gallery brings art to the masses on Las Vegas Boulevard

Art banners line Las Vegas Boulevard South in the annual Aerial Gallery public art exhibit, including works by Dottie Burton. Photo by Ken White/Review-Journal. An art banner by Karen Wheeler is part of the Aerial Gallery public art exhibit. Photo by Ken White

Getting art to the people long has been the goal of artists, and for the third straight year, the city's Cultural Affairs Division has pushed that concept with the Aerial Gallery, a public art project for the downtown area.

The event features 40 banners by local artists that are hung from converted light poles on a milelong stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South from Charleston Boulevard to Fremont Street. The seven-feet-tall banners went up in mid-April with an preview walk down Las Vegas Boulevard South. They will be on display for about a year.

This year's selection of artwork features "quite a variety of work, in terms of media," says Richard Hooker of the city's Cultural Affairs Division. "There are paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, photos of sculptures and even an artist who designed a book cover."

Among the artists represented are professionals and students alike.

Artists, all of whom must be members of the Las Vegas Arts Commission's Artists' Registry to participate, contact the project with their interest in submitting work for the gallery, or they are contacted by the commission. A selection committee picks the works that will go up, then the original works are digitized and made into a two-sided banner.

The project originated three years ago as a way to bring more visibility to the arts downtown, Hooker says. "It's also a way to enhance the streetscape, to visually improve and beautify the Boulevard."

Officials estimate 30,000 cars pass by the banners each day, for an average of about a million per month.

"We like to say some are repeat customers," Hooker says.

Among the artists selected this year are Dottie Burton, Dray, Stewart Freshwater, Christoff Koon, Eric Dunn, Carrie Jenkins, Margaret DeClerk and Robert Brunz.

"The Aerial Gallery reminds people there's a diverse community of professional artists working here," Hooker says. "It brings art into the life of the street."

The banners are maintained year-round, and some of them need the first aid because of winds that can reach 60 to 70 miles per hour. Sometimes winds rip the banners off the poles and are then picked up off the street by passers-by.

In addition to the banners, the project expanded last year to include Aerial Gallery Curbside, a project, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, that wrapped temporary murals around several downtown buildings, such as the former Nevada State Bank building at Las Vegas Boulevard South and Carson Avenue.

The Nevada State Bank mural has been carried over for this year.