I don’t know if they meant it this way, but the curators of Viva Las Vegas were smart to position Mary Warner’s 2008 oil painting “Vegas World” as the first thing you see when you enter UNLV’s Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery. Lushly rendered and utterly gorgeous, it depicts a local neighborhood streetscape at sunset, the old Vegas World casino lit up in the distance.

This weekend and next week, Indian Country is abuzz with identity-defining art, sensational shopping opportunities and a worldwide Native shoe party.

This weekend and next week, Indian Country is filled with identity art, sensational shopping opportunities and an Indigenous shoe festival around the world.

Your cultural choices include a major moment for moccasins, a magnificent seasonal art market, and an ambitious exhibition illuminating Indigenous responses to historic events.

Traditionally, the Southern Paiute people have foraged the landscape for raw materials, turning reeds and grasses into beautifully woven baskets. Today, Las Vegas Paiute tribal member Fawn Douglas uses the same time-honored techniques to produce an innovative result.

Fawn Douglas’ life is defined by balance.

Culture: Art exhibits, theater productions, and more.

The UNLV School of Music is serving up a full slate of shows this fall — and its annual Jazz Concert Series might be the centerpiece.

This year, Las Vegas visual, literary, theatrical and performing arts scenes took several decisive steps forward. Here are just a few of the year's highlights.

‘Axis Mundo’

Artwork by more than 50 artists — including paintings, print material, photography, video and fashion — showcases artistic and cultural movements from the late 1960s to the 1990s in the traveling exhibition “Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A.” UNLV’s Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway. unlv.edu/barrickmuseum