Sports Come Alive Through Art And Storytelling In Las Vegas – Forbes

If you are a rabid sports fan visiting the Wynn Hotel Las Vegas, get ready to be floored. The luxury resort and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip partnered this summer with sports podcasting company Blue Wire Pods, to serve up new sports content, while also commissioning a new collection of paintings and murals that honor athletes who inspire us.

The multimillion-dollar Wynn-Blue Wire project kicked off the 2021 NFL season by unveiling a 1,700 sq. ft. state-of-the-art media space to be used year-round to create thousands of hours of sports-related audio, video and social content from Blue Wire’s network of more than 175 podcasts.

Currently, Blue Wire boasts over 50 million annual downloads that contain a wide variety of podcasts. Some of Blue Wire’s sports titles include The Dane Moore NBA Podcast and A Touch More, hosted by Megan Rapinoe and WNBA legend Sue Bird.

Ahead of the Wynn partnership news, Blue Wire also announced this summer that longtime NFL stars Chris Long and Cris Carter were signed as part of their platform’s growing roster of talent. 

Carter, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member and legendary wide receiver, hosts WR1, where he interviews top receivers in football. Long, a retired defensive end and two-time Super Bowl champion, hosts Green Light With Chris Long. Wynn’s betting platform, WynnBET will serve as title sponsor for both programs.

“The production and distribution of engaging our ‘only at Wynn’ content is an important part of our strategy to build the WynnBET brand,” said Craig Billings, CEO of Wynn Interactive, in a press statement in June. “Our partnership with Blue Wire will create unique storytelling-based sports content, much of it produced at Wynn Las Vegas.”

Art and a submersive sports experience

Another major goal of the Blue Wire-Wynn project was to honor athletes from all over the world, both from major team sports leagues as well as individual sports.

In doing so, Wynn commissioned artist Carling Jackson, who is known for her extensive work in sports art and human rights-related art. To showcase the project’s spirit of inclusion, Jackson created pieces for the exhibit titled “When Champions Rise: Amplifying Underrepresented Voices In Sports.”

Jackson, a Vancouver-based painter, specializes in portraits for professional athletes, and says that the project is a perfect marriage of sports and art. But she also hints that many of the athletes were chosen for their own inspirational personal stories, not just their fame.

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“The individual stories of each of these remarkable humans are incredible, and to have them painted together as a collective is something super special,” Jackson said about the project.

She adds that the athletes showcased in the work are ones who use their own platforms to promote human rights, social justice, women’s rights and equality.

Some of the athletes visitors will see first consist of Olympians, WTA stars, soccer players, and stars of Major League Baseball, the NBA, NHL and NFL.

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Among them are 17-year-old tennis phenom Cori “Coco” Gauff, and the late Justin Fashanu, a British footballer who became the first openly gay player to play within England’s Football Association.

Other athletes, all of whom are depicted in oil painted on wood, include outfielder Adam Jones, alpine skier Gus Kenworthy, former hoops star and broadcaster Renee Montgomery, and Turkish-born NBA center Enes Kanter and others.

The exhibit consists of four 4.5×5 foot paintings, spanning 20 feet in length, inside the main floor of the Wynn Las Vegas. Jackson said that the athletes that she and organizers of the project worked with had input on what photos should be used of them in crafting the murals.

“These individual athletes are champions of diversity. Many are close friends of mine who have faced, sacrificed and overcome seemingly insurmountable odds,” Jackson said.

The “When Champions Rise” exhibit opened on September 7.

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Read Frye’s recent interviews with Billie Jean King and Shaquille O’Neal.

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