Charleston Heights Arts Center shows $2.1M remodel

The Charleston Heights Arts Center looks like a million dollars.

Make that $2.1 million — the approximate cost of a recent remodeling project at the 40-year-old center just north of Charleston Boulevard at 800 S. Brush St.

A few of those improvements are immediately apparent, such as glowing back-lit letters on the building’s exterior — spelling out CHARLESTON HEIGHTS ARTS CENTER after dark — and inside “hydration stations” that have replaced mere drinking fountains.

With cold, filtered water available to refill reusable bottles, “people don’t have to use plastic cups” anymore, explains Ally Haynes-Hamblen, director of Las Vegas’ Office of Cultural Affairs, as she leads a tour of the remodeled center. “It helps us cut down on our waste.”

As for the restroom improvements — which required knocking out an exterior wall to make room for six additional women’s room stalls — they’re “pretty unsexy,” Haynes-Hamblen acknowledges. “But for people who come to a lot of shows here … ”

Getting rid of piles of outdated, unused technical equipment stored in the ballroom has enabled officials to “break all the spaces out,” she notes.

That, in turn, has prompted thoughts of “how much we can utilize the ballroom in exciting ways?” Haynes-Hamblen says. “We use it for social dances now, but maybe chamber music in the round. Or cabaret shows. The space is so flexible.”

The center also has the formal 365-seat Jeanne Roberts Theatre, which is home to the award-winning Rainbow Company Youth Theatre and numerous local and touring musical, theater and dance performances.

Thanks to the remodeling project, the theater finally has a permanent sound system.

Previously, crews set up a portable sound system for each event, but now “it’s a lot easier on the crew,” she notes, “because the crew doesn’t have to haul in components.”

To install the system, “we had to upgrade the power and segregate the power for sound,” Haynes-Hamblen says. “In the future, this will pay dividends.”

As a result of the new system, Rainbow Company crew members can sit in the audience and operate onstage microphones from iPads, according to artistic Karen McKenney.

“It’s a huge improvement,” she said.

The remodel also means Rainbow Company has a new costume shop — which only seems fair given that “we had to empty out the office” and the costume shop to stay “one step ahead” of construction crews, McKenney adds.

Other changes at the center include two new classrooms, new lights in the art gallery and new ceilings throughout.

In addition to a complete re-roofing, five of seven air conditioning units were replaced, joining the two that had been replaced previously.

The center — financed by federal public works funds — opened in 1978 as the Charleston Heights Library and Arts Center. The city and the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District shared the space until January 1993, when the library district moved into the then-new West Charleston Library.

Since , the Charleston Heights Arts Center has primarily served its central Las Vegas neighborhood, according to Haynes-Hamblen.

“But with more programming, we’re getting the publicity out further — and we’re seeing a lot of people coming through for the first time,” she says, “to have folks come in and see what a gem we have here.”

Contact Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.