Hungry for Local Culture? Bite Into Eat More Art Vegas!

BY KENDALL HARDIN

Are you a “culture vulture” starved for an endless banquet of arts and entertainment offerings across the Vegas Valley? Then EatMoreArtVegas.com is your guide for whatever whets your appetite – from theatre, music and the visual arts to dance, opera and the literary arts. It’s the perfect one-stop “shopping spot” to satisfy all your cultural cravings.

“The challenge across the Valley isn’t lack of cultural options. it’s competition for promotion,” says EMAV founder and local theatre director, Sarah O’Connell. A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, she struggled to connect at first with her peers when she moved to Las Vegas from San Francisco in 2002 with her A-list lighting designer husband, Axis de Bruyn, whose credits include a long list of star performers like Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Carol King and James Taylor.

“Fortunately, I ran into a member of The Asylum Theatre at a local community center and began to meet fellow creatives bit by bit.” Over time, she realized how much work was produced without most of the public knowing about it. It was 2 am one morning in November five years ago when Sarah resolved to serve up a menu of news and reviews for local cultural happenings beyond the Strip.

“A one-person show was debuting downtown at Art Square just as the area newspaper cut their local reviews.” Worried that no coverage would result in an empty audience, she decided to take matters into her own hands and secured a domain to inform the public about the event. A week later, O’Connell invited the laid off critics to continue their independent coverage on her platform. The site was named after her mantra, “You are what you eat, so EAT MORE ART!”

It did not take long for the cultural scene to seize on the opportunity to tell their own story to the public.
Within six months, several volunteer staff joined the team to support features and reviews across multiple disciplines including theatre, dance, poetry, film, music, and literary communities. Organizations can submit their listings free of charge, which are then delivered to a growing list of the thousands of Eat More Art Vegas fans through the “TASTE Vegas Arts” newsletter and social media bounces.

The art evangelizing grew beyond the internet when EMAV salvaged the management of the Las Vegas Valley Theatre Awards, which just celebrated its sixth sensational year in a sell-out production rivaling that of the Oscars on television. Earlier this year, Sarah established open forum meetings for arts leaders called The Vegas Arts Table on the second Monday of every month. The vision is to develop a network that connects artists and organizations to each other in order to improve communication, build partnerships and inspire collaborations. “We believe that art is for everyone, and opportunities to participate are all around us.

Photograph of Las Vegas Valley Theatre Awards

By informing and supporting each other, we accomplish a lot by working smarter, not harder.”

EMAV continues to champion the arts in Carson City and Washington DC, as well as locally – winning support from both U.S. Congresswoman Susie Lee and U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen. A successful campaign to keep “Debbie Reynolds Drive” on the Las Vegas map resulted in the delivery of hundreds of petition signatures urging the Clark County commissioners to save the Hollywood legend’s street designation. An agreement to withdraw the proposal was reached while the county and other stakeholders relocate, rather than erase, Reynolds’ namesake street.

“We celebrate the cultural legacy that our local creative community has built for us, and everyone is invited to sample a rich menu of experiences that grows every day,” O’Connell explains. “Check it out. We’re saving your seat at eatmoreartvegas.com.”