Life is Beautiful festival continues mission to bring murals and art downtown,

Share Tweet Pin

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The Life is Beautiful festival continues its 2022 run with a crucial yearly mission: to bring more murals to Downtown Las Vegas, as some mourn the bittersweet demolition of beloved pieces nearby.

“We have done more than 100 murals and installations as well. It’s a special place for artists because the history of downtown Vegas is incredibly rich. The architecture is also very interesting for them,” said Charlotte Dutoit of JustKids, who coordinates the art displays yearly and helps select muralists.

The return of LIB comes with a bittersweet note for some artists and festival goers, as the beloved Pantone exhibit on 7th Street was recently torn down in a private business decision. Several murals were demolished in the bulldozing of a vast swath of property. The beauty of the pieces long gone were remembered on Instagram by @DTLV, and caused outrage and disappointment among some community members.

“Felipe Pantone’s 3D Neon Mural was my absolute favorite neon sign in Downtown, sucks to see it go down,” @boogie.702 wrote. “It would be great if they’d stop getting rid of the things that made DTLV so amazing,” said @vagabondvintage.dtlv.

“When it was taken away, we were hurt. It’s hard to see these things go. But with the falling of one thing comes the opportunity for others. So we remain optimistic to looking to new places and continuing to spread this open-air museum that is downtown Las Vegas,” said Elliott Demlow, the local LIB art curator, who was part of the process to see the mural come to fruition. “Sometimes we paint over a piece that people really fall in love with. But that is street art. The essence of it is to keep it fresh, keep it new,” he said.

The debate over leaving murals standing has been a hot topic across Downtown Las Vegas, as the budding area has become a hotspot for real estate developers. FOX5 told you how a recently painted-over mural in the Arts District was restored by the owners, after social media backlash.

A Life is Beautiful spokesperson tells FOX5, what happens to the murals after the festival leaves is ultimately the community’s decision; however, more of the painting displays will be on portable canvases, to make sure the art will live forever and can return to the festival grounds yearly.

“We’re running out of wall space with businesses and homeowners. We’re now starting to build our own to bring to the festival and with that, we now have the ability to break these down and use them in other areas. We can preserve these for all of us,” Demlow said.