Off the Strip festival features 28 artists showcasing variety of styles

What is art? A painting, certainly. A sculpture, definitely.

But Southern Nevadans with a desire to discover just how broad "art" can be will find what they seek at Off The Strip 2010, a three-day festival of performance, video and installation art that begins today.

It's the second year for the event, which is sponsored by the Contemporary Arts Center of Las Vegas. Wendy Kveck, director of the festival, said this year's event will feature 28 artists from around the world and Southern Nevada who will examine Las Vegas via imagery, sound, monologues and performance art, and other artistic media.

In fact, Kveck says this year's event has been expanded to specifically include "new genres," or "art that isn't confined to one medium."

So, this year's artists will create art out of everything from a sound-and-video installation presented in 3-D -- guests will receive glasses -- to interactive projects with audience members to spoken words.

Some performances will be scripted, Kveck notes, while "others will be more improvisational and will really involve the participation of the audience."

So may "interventions," Kveck says, or events that will "happen unexpectedly or in a space not considered an art space, like a gallery."

Meanwhile, one artist is scheduled to present a re-creation of Elvis Presley's last recorded performance in "the character of Cheyne Stokes, a 5 (foot)-11 (inch) cockroach," while two others truly will give their all for their art: They'll be married on Fremont Street, Kveck says, "creating this piece about the social and private performance of marriage."

A full schedule of events can be found on the festival's website (www.OffTheStrip.org). But whatever their media and artistic approach, the participating artists are charged with examining Las Vegas and the qualities inherent in it, from consumption to visual spectacle to sexuality to atomic testing to the city as global hub.

As the festival's name suggests, the events will take place in several off-Strip venues, including the Fremont Street Experience, The Arts Factory, the Atomic Testing Museum, Commercial Center and the Aruba Hotel. But Kveck notes that the festival's name also connotes a slightly different artistic aesthetic.

The festival serves as "an alternative to the Strip," she explains, where entertainment is "more highly produced" and, perhaps, easier for the viewer to digest.

The festival's offerings, in contrast, "may be a little more challenging for the viewer," Kveck says. "But the really important thing is, it engages the viewers in different ways and makes them think about our culture."

Toward that end, a panel discussion scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Saturday at The Beat Coffeehouse & Records, 520 Fremont St., will serve as "an opportunity for audiences to interact with the artists," Kveck says.

It's possible some audience members may find themselves challenged, even upset, by what they'll see. Kveck notes that performance art, in particular, "can really push buttons and sometimes it can be very confrontational."

But she also remembers a patron at least year's festival who saw a performance that was, perhaps, a bit too sexually oriented and a bit too raw for her tastes.

The patron, Kveck says, "told me the story that, she saw that piece and didn't really know anything about it, but that she couldn't stop thinking about it."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.