TV show casts light on Vegas’ downtown district

By Kristen Peterson

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 | 2 a.m.

With the Travel Channel, “Cops,” the World Series of Poker and shows such as “CSI,” Las Vegas has no problem getting national exposure on television — for better or for worse.

With “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in town to rebuild a Las Vegas family’s home, viewers will get a different perspective on our community and a peek at a part of Las Vegas that flies under the radar: our humble arts district.

“Extreme Makeover” is renovating the home of Terri and Chuck Cerda, whose two daughters, Molly and Maggie, have a severe immune deficiency disease. The show’s producers decided to pay homage to the efforts of Terri Cerda, whose mural program has covered the walls of children’s hospitals.

Producers contacted the city last week to see about creating a mural and the process unfolded quickly. Markus Tracy of the Office of Cultural Affairs, which co-sponsored the mural, perused the city’s artist registry, scouted a location and had the artist and site chosen by Thursday.

Jerry Misko, known for his abstract paintings of neon and Vegas sign iconography, designed the mural — a slightly distorted view of the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. On Sunday, Misko and about 20 volunteers were painting it onto the west wall of the old Mission Laundry building at First Street and Coolidge Avenue. Host Ty Pennington was at the site Monday to film part of the show’s opening.

Owner Wes Myles donated the wall of the industrial building, which is home of the annual Samuel Beckett Festival and other activities. For example, crews on Sunday were recording drum tracks for a music CD and video project.

Myles also owns the neighboring Arts Factory, which houses the Contemporary Arts Collective and other galleries and artist studios, and he’s always pushing for more murals, saying they help identify the area as an arts district.

The “Extreme Makeover” bus was filmed driving through the arts district as well as wheeling all over town and out to the Red Rock Conservation Area.

With six weeks of editing ahead, it’s hard to say exactly how much of the district will be featured on the show — or how it will look, particularly in the aftermath of the failed arena plan that cleared out some of the galleries and boutiques. But the entire incident adds a little excitement to the 18-block area established by art advocates.

“This is such a unique experience for us,” Tracy says. “It’s really great exposure for the arts and the artists.”