Leaving her mark on Las Vegas’ culture, arts scenes

Monday, March 26, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

For all the lamenting over slow cultural growth in Las Vegas, Patricia Marchese is one person who could have lodged a valid complaint.

When Marchese and husband , Lamar , arrived in Las Vegas in the early 1970s there were only two arts groups, no cultural centers and no public radio.

But that was then. While Patricia Marchese was creating the city's cultural division and forming Rainbow Company Children's Theater, Lamar Marchese was starting a public radio station, of which he would soon be president.

"They came from Florida (via Kentucky), went right to work and set the town on fire. It was pretty amazing," said Patrick Gaffey, Clark County cultural program supervisor.

"Back then there weren't that many people working in the arts. Patricia was one of the key people."

Marchese, however, is too modest to say so herself as she wraps up a three-decade career that has left the arts and culture in Las Vegas forever altered.

In her mind, Marchese - who retired Friday as director of the Clark County Department of Parks and Recreation - was just doing her job along with scores of other government employees.

When she and Jody Johnston were forming the children's theater, "we were too naive to know that we couldn't do it," she said.

As with the now-defunct Las Vegas Junior Symphony she founded in 1976 with conductor William Gromko, Marchese points out a view shared by her husband: In older cities entrenched in history and culture, you have to wait until someone dies to sit on a symphony board. In Las Vegas, "You can just start a symphony. So I did.

"I had the opportunities to do things I would never be able to do in other cities."

As a city employee, Patricia Marchese opened the Reed Whipple Cultural Center and the Charleston Heights Arts Center, placed concerts in the parks and oversaw the city's first public art program. In 1981 she went to Clark County to do much of the same. In 1998 she took a job in the private sector, but it was merely an interlude. She was soon back at the county, where one of her projects was turning Winchester Community Center into Winchester Cultural Center by adding a theater and gallery, both of which are still operating.

But after being in the thick of government-sponsored culture since 1973, Marchese is stepping down in conjunction with her husband's retirement from public radio.

"I wanted to leave at the top of my game," she said.

Patricia Harris, assistant manager for the city's office of cultural affairs, said Marchese's "greatest talent was as a visionary."

"Her stamp is a little bit of everywhere in this community," Harris said.

Nancy Deaner, president of the Neon Museum board and Las Vegas' cultural affairs manager, said years before the program came to fruition Marchese was a strong proponent of a city ordinance under which 1 percent of any capital project is devoted to the arts.

Others credit her for staging art exhibits, folk arts programs and museum efforts. As a county parks and recreation director she also was able to see a 20-year master plan for parks and cultural centers get under way.

Although travel - including, perhaps, a trip to Egypt - is in the couple's retirement plans, many hope that Las Vegas continues to benefit from their commitment and creativity.

"My hope is that they both remain in the community," Deaner said. "We need those voices to stay."