Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sculpture garden takes step forward in Arts District

For all of the large condo projects recently announced in and around downtown, the centerpiece of the Arts District could be, well, art.

Las Vegas recently received approval for its proposal to spend $1.4 million of the proceeds from Bureau of Land Management auctions on preparation of a proposed sculpture garden behind the Arts Factory, on Boulder Avenue between Main Street and Casino Center Boulevard.

Jack Solomon, who owns S2, a lithograph company, and owns property in the Arts District, said the project is a partnership between the city and private investors.

The city has put in $30,000 to secure a scale model, called a maquette, and has dedicated the money to prepare the street for installation of the art, which is to cost $1.5 million and be paid for privately.

"It (the cost of the art) has been spoken for," Solomon said. "We haven't collected the checks. But people have indicated to us they are going to take a tax deduction and make a contribution."

Solomon said that he wasn't sure exactly when the sculpture garden would be completed. He gave a timeframe of a year and a half, but called that a "wild guess."

It will be completed before the monorail reaches downtown, he said.

"We'll do things as quickly as we can without doing it sloppy. We're not going to build another Neonopolis," Solomon said. "It certainly will be up and open to the public in advance of the monorail, which will be here in three years."

There is a sticking point, however. Before city officials approve closing Boulder, all of the property owners on the street must approve the plan.

Larry Watson, who owns Creative Furniture, which has frontage along Boulder, said he's not sure whether he will go along with it. Watson said Solomon and others have tried to buy him out, but he's not sure they're offering enough to make up for the loss of his livelihood.

"They're wanting to close my street up still and they're making me some offers on my building but, like I've always said, if they close that street I'm done. I'll have no parking and it will take away my frontage on First and Boulder," Watson said. "I'm just really scared I'll make a mistake and they'll run all over me."

Watson said he's being surrounded by speculation, as potential developers are "buying up all the property around me. I just got a feeling they're trying to strong-arm me out of here."

The property speculation stems from the grand plans for the Arts District, the designation given to an area surrounding the intersection of Charleston Boulevard and Main Street, where the Arts Factory shares a block with Solomon's S2, which moved to Las Vegas from New York City's art-driven Soho District.

City officials and boosters like Solomon aim to transform the neighborhood, dominated by furniture and other inexpensive retail stores, some two-story apartment buildings and lawyers' offices. Several loft projects, and high- and midrise apartment buildings, have been announced or are already being built in the area.

The Arts Factory, a low-slung warehouse building occupied by art galleries and studios, and S2 are what could be called the anchor tenants of the Arts District, although other shops fit the mold boosters hope will multiply -- for example, the club clothing store the Attic is nearby on Main Street.

Cindy Funkhouser, who owns the Funk House and is on the Arts District Board, said "the sculpture garden will bring, I think, a lot of tourists, particularly when the monorail is done."

Such investment can lead to gentrification, sometimes a dirty word for people who are priced out of neighborhoods they helped make attractive.

"I believe change is good anyway, in a general way. I'm interested in the whole process as the evolution happens," Funkhouser said. "I'm certainly not at the point of looking at it going, 'Wow! I wish I could stop it now.' I'm not saying that would never happen. Maybe when I don't have a place to park my car at night."

Funkhouser has been in the neighborhood seven years, and moved into her building at 1228 S. Casino Center Blvd. four years ago.

"We probably got, I'd say in the last less than two years, more than 10 new arts-related businesses down here, which is a huge change, when you consider over the last 10 years very little has gone on," Funkhouser said. "I expect things like cafes and bookstores to follow."

Michele Quinn, director of the Godt-Cleary Gallery, said her gallery, which has a space in Mandalay Place, is opening a second location in the Arts District.

"We want to be part of the local Arts District as much as we can," Quinn said. "We're also wanting to be part of the local arts community."

Quinn said the gallery in the Arts District would open in October, with an exhibit of actor Dennis Hopper's photographs.

"(The Arts District) has potential to grow as an arts center. Not all the locals want to come to the casinos," Quinn said. "If we have a presence on both sides (downtown and the Strip) we achieve all our goals."

That's the drum Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has been beating for his five years in office.

Goodman said the sculpture garden "is going to be the epicenter of the whole arts movement in the valley."

He said bringing Yaacov Agam to Las Vegas is comparable to the city's designation as a "City of Asylum," part of a network that helps find safe places for writers who are in danger in their home countries.

"It takes us to a level we haven't been before," Goodman said. "We're not only the entertainment destination of the world, but also a place that is eclectic in its sophistication."

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