Amidst the increasing bustle that is downtown Las Vegas at the corner of 6th and Fremont streets sits a building adorned with a large neon sign. It reads “Emergency Arts”. Equal parts coffee shop, co-working, geek resource library and gallery space – the central cog in the whirring machinery of this edifice is The Beat. Sit yourself here on any given morning and it becomes clear pretty quickly that this is one of the core meeting spots for the Downtown community. To call Michael Cornthwaite the proprietor of this establishment is to dilute just how deeply connected he is to building the downtown community. In this interview he talks about The Downtown Project, where it falls in the grand scheme of revitalizing this area and how this endeavor has changed him.
Michael Cornthwaite – The Downtown Project from Cathy Brooks on Vimeo.