Briefs: Music, art and family fun
Family fun
SPRING BLOOMS
AT BELLAGIO
Stop and smell the tulips.
Spring officially began Wednesday, but you’ve got plenty of time — through May 11 — to bask in the spirit of the season at Bellagio’s Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
Spring has most definitely sprung there, thanks to displays featuring more than 8,000 flowers per week.
Among the attractions: a 26-foot windmill (36 feet tall if you count the blades) and more than 800 butterflies (hailing from Costa Rica, Kenya and the Philippines) fluttering inside a 36-foot-long greenhouse.
Make-believe butterflies — made of crushed Manzanita leaves, carrot flakes, lentils, radishes and rice — join a mother swan and two cygnets, formed from 5,000 feathers and simulated fur, patrolling a pond that also features a bridge and waterfall.
Surrounding the conservatory’s 26-foot-tall windmill: fresh tulips, mums and poppies, along with larger-than-life displays of 17-foot tulips and 40 oversized raindrops.
There’s even a salute to “Warhol Out West,” currently on display at Bellagio’s Gallery of Fine Art: a floral interpretation of Warhol’s “Diamond Dust Shoes” within a 6-foot frame.
Adding to the atmosphere, musicians perform from 5 to 6 p.m. daily in the South Garden’s Victorian Gazebo. They’re surrounded by 22-foot daffodils and a pair of floral ladybugs, adorned with carnations.
The conservatory is open around the clock at Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South.
Art
ARTIST INTRODUCES
‘BACHELOR PORTRAITS’
The Contemporary Arts Center welcomes Philadelphia-based artist Justyna Badach tonight as her “Bachelor Portraits” opens a monthlong exhibit at the downtown gallery.
An opening reception will be from 6 to 9 p.m.; Badach will discuss her photographic series at 7 p.m.
“Bachelor Portraits” focuses on the lives of men at the margins of society; their individual stories chronicle their isolation and desire for connection; text pieces augment the stories the photographs tell.
The Leningrad-born Badach lived in Warsaw before coming to the U.S. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, from New York’s NY Photography Festival to Sydney’s Australian Center for Photography.
“Bachelor Portraits” continues through April 20 at the Contemporary Arts Center, located in the Arts Factory at 107 E. Charleston Blvd. Gallery hours are from 2 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. For more information, call 382-3886 or www.lasvegascac.org.
Family fun
BOULDER CITY BRACES
FOR ‘TRAIN ROBBERY’
It’s all aboard for Old West adventure this weekend at Boulder City’s Nevada State Railroad Museum, as a bunch of no-good varmints prepares to stage “The Great Train Robbery.”
As the museum’s Nevada Southern Railway departs from the Boulder City depot, re-enactors from throughout the West will try to hold up the train, attracting the attention of the local law.
Guests are encouraged to dress in Western attire for the annual event — and should be prepared for the sound of six-shooters during the fifth annual “Great Train Robbery.” Trains will depart at 10 and 11:30 a.m., 1 and 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday from the museum’s Boulder City depot, 601 Yucca St.
Tickets are $10 for passengers 12 and older and $5 for children 4-11; there’s no charge for children under 4. For more information, call 486-5933 or go online to www.nevadasouthern.com.
Music
SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE
SALUTES CHICK COREA
Jazz pianist Chick Corea doesn’t make his Smith Center debut until March 29, when he performs with banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck.
But the SFJAZZ Collective provides a sneak preview of Corea’s music as the award-winning ensemble returns to The Smith Center’s Cabaret Jazz tonight and Saturday with a show devoted to “The Music of Chick Corea.” (Last year, the collective explored the work of soul legend Stevie Wonder.)
They’ll perform at 7 tonight and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday in Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave.
For tickets ($39-$59), call 749-2000 or go online to www.thesmithcenter.com.
Art
SIN CITY GALLERY HOSTS
JURIED COMPETITION
Size matters, once again, at Sin City Gallery’s second annual “12 Inches of Sin” juried art competition.
Twenty-five finalists from the U.S. and Europe — including several Las Vegas-based artists — are featured in the exhibit, which continues through April 20.
More than 200 international artists entered the competition, which limits eligible artworks to 12 inches in every direction.
The competition “compresses the exhibition boundaries while expanding artistic challenge,” gallery curator Laura Henkel says.
Sin City Gallery, located in the Arts Factory at 107 E. Charleston Blvd., is open from 7 to 11 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and by appointment during the day. For more information, call 608-2461 or visit www.sincitygallery.com.
— By CAROL CLING
