Canvassing Downtown: ‘A Day in the Arts District’ spotlights downtown arts scene

Thursday, Nov. 7, 2002 | 8:32 a.m.

Plotted among the warehouses, auto shops and old homes in downtown Las Vegas is a fragmented cluster of quaint boutiques, galleries, antique shops and family owned restaurants.

The problem is, not everybody knows it's there. And some who do, say it's not interesting enough to visit.

By holding a neighborhood open house Saturday, the Las Vegas Arts District is hoping to gain a little more recognition.

"A Day in the Arts District" is an open invitation to stroll through the more than 30 suggested stops and attractions in the neighborhood.

It comes complete with trolley tours, a welcome tent, color-coded walking-tour maps and two-for-one meals at participating restaurants. Frank Wright, one of Las Vegas' favorite historians, will lead a tour of the area. Refreshments, music and other entertainment will be featured on site.

"A lot of people aren't aware that this neighborhood exists," said Richard Hooker, cultural program specialist with the city of Las Vegas, which is hosting the event in conjunction with the Las Vegas Arts District Neighborhood Association and First Friday merchants.

"This is to encourage people to come into the neighborhood and explore the shops and galleries."

Anchored by the Arts Factory, near Charleston Boulevard and Main Street, and the neighboring S2 Art Center, the arts district includes, among other businesses, the unique shops of the Gypsy Caravan Antique Village on South Third Street, and the antiques and collectibles at The Funk House.

It stretches roughly from Oakey Boulevard to Gass Avenue and from Main Street to Las Vegas Boulevard.

Specialty fashion items are sold at Talulah G boutique. Made-to-order Italian dishes are served at Chicago Joe's on South Fourth Street. Poetry readings are featured at Iowa Cafe.

Though actual galleries and storefront art studios are not dominating the scene, S2 Art Center, which produces fine-art lithographs, features a gallery and a handful of other galleries are located in Wes Isbutt's Arts Factory one of the original arts buildings in the district.

For years, the area has been the broken-record-that-keeps-spinning story.

Residents and artists complain there is no central and aesthetically pleasing arts district. Artists and business owners in the area say they are trying to build a viable arts district, but need the community's support.

Some have criticized the region as more a commercial area than a true arts district. Others complain that the homeless and high crime in the area make it unappealing.

"One of the drawbacks is that downtown and the edge of downtown have a reputation of not being safe or visually attractive," Hooker said. "But typically arts neighborhoods begin in areas that have been vacated."

Jack Solomon, newly elected president of the Las Vegas Arts District Neighborhood Association (which recently changed its name from the Gateway Arts District Neighborhood Association), is optimistic about arts development in the area.

Solomon and his wife, Carolyn, drew a lot of attention when they moved their business, S2 Art Center, from New York to Las Vegas more than a year ago following success in galleries in Strip hotels.

Solomon spent close to $1 million to build the S2 Art Center. The city of Las Vegas provided him a $100,000 low-interest loan using federal funds. Solomon's studio draws such names as 1960s poster artist Stanley Mouse, who was recently working at the studio to re-create large posters of his earlier works. Mouse is trying to draw other national artists and businesses to the area.

"I keep reading stories that things aren't happening," Solomon said of the area. "Well they are happening. It's just not happening overnight. It's now turning from being a long-term possibility to a short-term probability. My colleagues here are committed."

Solomon says his was the third gallery to move into New York's Soho district roughly 30 years ago. He was also part of Chicago's art district.

Regarding Soho, Solomon said, "Once you get a certain scale then all the sudden everybody wants to come. Galleries started to move in then, boom, everybody just started to rush down there. Then restaurants came, then coffee shops, then high-style fashions, Europeans. It used to be on weekends you couldn't move.

"It could happen here. There's a big hunger for our own culture like other big cities have. We just need to get our neighborhood to be viable. There's a whole lot of potential that we're trying to organize."

Funkhouser's Fridays

The ideal arts district would include clusters of businesses that would tightly weave the area together, Solomon said.

Getting the "right kind of businesses" into the area is essential for the district's growth, Solomon said.

Both Hooker and Solomon are excited about David Johnson's D Bar J Hat Company relocating to the area. The local business that handcrafts specialty hats is scheduled to move its shop from Spring Mountain Road to the arts district in April.

Two years ago the district lost Enigma Cafe on South Fourth Street, known for its art, music and poetry, and the Smallworks Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in the Arts Factory, in the same month.

The neighborhood association, which includes Isbutt as vice president, is meeting monthly to find ways to rejuvenate the area and draw businesses.

The city provides a live/work ordinance to encourage artists to live in the district. Its Aerial Gallery in the area displays outdoor banners featuring artwork by local artists.

To help promote the arts district, Cindy Funkhouser, owner of the Funk House, introduced this fall a monthly arts event to be held indefinitely on the first Friday each month. First Friday encourages galleries, restaurants and businesses in the area to stay open for the evening. Musicians and artists are invited to perform and show their work.

Funkhouser has been in the area for six years and said she has been hosting art openings at the Funk House for the past two years.

The idea for First Friday came when she was visiting her son in Portland, Ore., where a similar event, First Thursday, is held.

"They get thousands of people," Funkhouser said. Locally, the events have already drawn several hundred people.

Other items on Funkhouser's schedule include the operation of a nonprofit group (which has already turned in its paperwork) to promote the arts, and scouting empty spaces in the district to see what's available to artists.

"The timing is really good right now with Mayor (Oscar) Goodman supporting us." Funkhouser said.

Seeking diversity

But the battle continues to brew between local and national artists. Some local artists would like to see more affordable space in the area. Others say an elitist attitude keeps local struggling artists from benefitting from the area.

The support for local arts needs to come from not only the community, but gallery owners and other arts groups, local painter Anna Fisicaro said.

Fisicaro had had closed her store on Eastern Avenue and Silverado Ranch that featured digital (glicee) prints and photography due to lack of sales.

Locals just don't buy art, Fisicaro said. Mostly, she said, they frame something they "picked up at Wal-Mart."

"They spend $100 to do their nails, $200 to party in a local club. But you can't get them to buy your art."

Fisicaro said she has sold her art -- realist paintings -- in Missouri, Seattle and San Francisco, but not in Las Vegas. For exposure to art communities, she vacations in Sedona, Ariz.; or Carmel, Calif.

Regarding S2 Art Center, she said, "(The city) welcomed them down there with open arms but it didn't do anything for the economy and nothing for Las Vegas artists. They don't want to show local artists."

"We all have the same complaints," Athena Peters, a local mixed-media artist, said. "There's no gallery to work out of and no place to sell from."

After looking into rates in the arts district, Peters said she couldn't afford to rent in the area.

"It was very expensive to have something like a storefront, to work in your gallery," Peters said. "They were asking $1,000-plus a month. And it's just not profitable for an artist."

Dirk Vermin, owner of Pussykat Tattoo and the adjacent Gallery Au Go Go, which Vermin opened six months ago, says, "You hear good and bad things about everything. You can either complain about it or change it. That's why I opened my gallery."

Referring to some gallery owners in the arts district, Vermin said, "Their chief complaint is there's no local support. But they turn up their noses."

Vermin's gallery, open for six months, has had six shows featuring local artists. His November show featured 100 local artists and generated the gallery's largest amount of traffic.

Vermin said his goal is to highlight the local arts scene. Some of the artists who have already shown at his gallery were turned down by establishments in the arts district.

Regardless of whether some of the art holds up to high standards, Vermin said, the main point is that the art is being shown and getting an audience.

"But I don't have to turn a profit," Vermin said. "They have to turn a profit."

Which is why Solomon said he's particular when it comes to featuring artists in his galleries.

"We take artists whose work is very saleable, who have a following, usually somebody who is mid-career and upward," Solomon said.

"This is a tough business. Probably the most competitive business is to be an artist. Anybody can be a professional artist with $10 to buy an easel and paint. If you're an actor you just can't do that."

Vermin said he'd like to see Las Vegas promote more diversity in the arts district, combining highbrow artists with lesser-known artists. Local artists say that in other cities, such as Seattle, San Francisco and outlying areas of Los Angeles, the mix has been successful.

"Nobody is mad that the other person is there," Vermin said. "They're just happy there's an art district."