Strip Cultures: Finding America in Las Vegas
The members of the Project on Vegas are Stacy M. Jameson, Instructor of Film/Media at the University of Rhode Island; Karen Klugman, photographer and Chair of the Art Department at the Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut; Jane Kuenz, Associate Professor of English at the University of Southern Maine; and Susan Willis, Associate Professor of Literature at Duke University.
Bread and Circuses
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Published:September 2015
Art and entertainment on the Strip illustrate the stratification of taste in the twenty-first century, where products, styles, and whole experiences are branded and franchised, and culture itself is marketed as an entertainment commodity. Examples include Steve Wynn’s museum and hotels; the closed Liberace Museum and the revived Composers’ Showcase; Cirque du Soleil, which now has numerous shows in multiple venues along the Strip as well as commodity tie-ins with artists and designers; and the Cosmopolitan Hotel, whose brand explicitly offers a Vegas experience as an engagement with high art.
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