“In addition to this being a crappy time for Las Vegas generally, it is an especially crappy time for the arts in a town with a strangely ambivalent relationship to art–a town known for its aesthetic showmanship and for being a cultural lightweight. The backdrop to the arts community’s woes, meanwhile, is the impending start to construction of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, a $465 million theater facility slated for Downtown Las Vegas’ Union Park development.”