Murals proposed to adorn downtown area

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003 | 10:59 a.m.

A Henderson advisory board is recommending that a prolific hometown artist be paid $50,000 for five murals that would dress up a barren beige downtown wall with images from Henderson's past, although exactly what the murals would look like is unknown.

The Redevelopment Agency Advisory Commission on Tuesday voted 6-0 to recommend the City Council award a $50,000 contract to Robert Beckmann, who was the only artist considered for the job.

If the council agrees, Beckmann's murals could be attached to the exterior of the Sprint building at the intersection of Water Street and Pacific Avenue later this spring. The murals would be about 9-by-22 and would be placed side by side on the Pacific Avenue side of the building.

Even though Beckmann had no conceptual drawings to show the board, Commissioner Karen Elliott said she was comfortable recommending him because the City Council will approve the art before the murals are painted.

Others noted Beckmann's experience and reputation. Beckmann has painted about 300 murals. One featuring a Big Horn Sheep hangs over a moving walkway in the D gates at McCarran International Airport and others appear in local casinos and public buildings.

He is also an accomplished painter who received the governor's Excellence in Arts award in 1996 and whose series of paintings depicting the destruction of a house during a nuclear test, "The Body of a House," were recently purchased by the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno.

"I'm comfortable with it because I saw examples of what he has done," Commission Vice Chairman John Clayton said. "I'm excited about it. It's all in keeping with revitalizing downtown Henderson. ... Hopefully this will bring people downtown."

Mayor Jim Gibson said he wasn't familiar with the details of the mural proposal, but he said the council rarely goes against the recommendations of the advisory commission.

"They've never recommended anything to us that was frivilous," Gibson said. "Our objective has always been to try to create an art district, to bring culture and art downtown. Not just spruce it up."

However, Gibson said he does want to know why the redevelopment agency asked only one artist to participate.

Usually artists are given the chance to compete for such government art projects, Dave Hickey, an art critic who teaches art and English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said.

"The instinct would be to either have a design competition and then have a local jury make a decision, the way an architectural design contest is done," Hickey said.

Program coordinator Michelle Romero said the committee wanted at least one of the murals completed by May 11, the end of the city's 50 days of celebrating its 50th anniversary as a city. Given Beckmann's experience and reputation, and the deadline, they skipped a competition, she said.

On the current timetable the council could be giving final approval to Beckmann's proposed mural design in April, Romero said. Accepting multiple proposals for the murals would have delayed the project by months, she said. But the city might allow artists to compete for future city mural projects, she said.

Redevelopment Mana ger Robert Ryan said the city is not required to put the mural project out for competitive bids because it is a professional services contract in which city officials can consider factors such as professional experience over cost in awarding the contract.

Romero said redevelopment officials began working on the mural idea in January.