First Fridays word spreads

Kristen Peterson

Sunday, April 16, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.

Three years ago First Friday entered the downtown scene as a grass-roots collaboration between a few downtown businesses and art spaces.

A few hundred people went to the evening arts event near Charleston Boulevard and Main Street.

Now the monthly First Friday stretches 30 blocks. It draws as many as 10,000 people in its peak months. Streets are shut down, booths are built, portable toilets are brought in and stages are erected.

Galleries, antique stores, boutiques open their doors and wait for the crowds of visitors who come to buy art, stroll, listen to sidewalk poetry readings, eat tacos, drink wine and observe random performance art.

It's hardly grass-roots anymore.

"It's too big and the community is too involved now to not have this taken seriously," said Brian "Paco" Alvarez, a Las Vegas native who is vice president of the Collective Arts Council at the Arts Factory and curates L Maynard Galleries in Holsum Lofts.

"It's like Helldorado every single month," Alvarez added, referring to the big Las Vegas festival of yore that featured parades and festivals.

As the event stretches toward capacity, city and First Friday officials are plotting its future. The city recently hired Karen Craig, a consultant and founder of the annual Artown festival in Reno, to assess the rapidly growing First Friday and make recommendations about its future.

"Whatever you do in Las Vegas is so big, so fast," said Craig, following a meeting last week with First Friday's key players. "What you've accomplished in three years would take 10 or 20 in another city."

Craig knows more than a little about festivals. In addition to work on several festivals across the country, she saw Artown grow from an attendance of 400 people at its first event to 170,000 last year.

"It changed the image of the city from being someone else's vacation to being our hometown," Craig said.

Thinking big

And that's the perspective organizers are taking as they embrace what began as a humble effort by founder Cindy Funkhouser and a couple of galleries and antique stores and has come under the umbrella of the nonprofit group Whirlygig.

First Friday and the Arts District have appeared in stories and documentaries around the country and around the world, according to the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Bureau, which has promoted the festival. Alvarez called the impact of First Friday "awesome."

"It's polarized the community in a positive way," Alvarez said.

Richard Hooker, a city cultural program specialist, said First Friday draws 100,000 people a year.

"We've come to the point where we want to take stock of where we are and look at what issues we have to deal with as more customers come into the neighborhood," Hooker said.

To help lighten the organizational load, the group discussed hiring a professional to assist in taking on what has become a full-time position. No one is sure where the money would come from. Funkhouser puts 30 hours a week into First Friday and says she could use some help.

The city contributes between $6,000 and $7,000 a month to First Friday, an amount that fluctuates depending on the attendance, said Nancy Deaner, the city's cultural affairs manager.

The money is matched dollar for dollar by sponsorships by such businesses as Cherry Development, Boyd Gaming, LaPour Partners and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority.

The city provides transportation (the buses and trollies that shuttle visitors around), parking, security, portable toilets, trash pick-up and barricades. The county provides its government center for parking.

"It's like a three-legged stool - visitors, the city and Whirlygig," Deaner said. "All three legs are solid. We're just checking it."

Economic impact

Most everyone involved agrees that First Friday energized development in the area. Before First Friday, there was only the Arts Factory on Charleston Boulevard and the Funk House at Casino Center Boulevard and Colorado Avenue and S2Art at Charleston and Main Street.

Since then, Dust and G-C Arts have opened on Main Street, the Holsum bread factory has been renovated and renamed Holsum Lofts, individual artists have moved into housing units across from the Funk House, and Commerce Street Studios have opened. There is also Art Bar on Main Street and Artistic Ironworks on Commerce Street. Then there are the proposed lofts coming into the area.

Whether First Friday is directly related to the growth hasn't been researched.

"There's no doubt that it's impacting the local economy," Hooker said. "It would be beneficial to produce an economic impact report on First Friday."

Hooker said it affects businesses, galleries, artists, antique stores, performing arts groups and downtown development.

Funkhouser said restaurants have also benefitted from First Friday. Among them are Tinoco's Bistro, connected to the Arts Factory; Casa Don Juan at Main Street and California, and the Charleston Grill inside Holsum Lofts.

"We want to know how many dollars are being spent, how many dollars are coming in and what's the benefit to the community," Funkhouser said. "We're looking at everything."

Lounging

Adding to the business of the area will be lounges opening in the Arts District courtesy of a new Urban Lounge License created by the city. The license removes distance restrictions between drinking establishments and allows for five slot machines.

Wes Myles, owner of the Arts Factory, is partnering with the owner of Tinoco's to build a lounge on the southeast corner of the property. Funkhouser is working with a partner from Dino's bar to open a lounge on Main Street near Dust Gallery.

Both establishments plan to be open several days a week, if not daily.

Dick Geyer, who is president of The Arts District Neighborhood Association and worked with Myles on the Gateway Arts and Music Experience, an annual precursor to First Friday, sees the Urban Lounge License as a step forward.

"We have to have magnets," Geyer said. "We have to have things that will pull people down there and not just on First Friday."

Myles said the strength of First Friday is the focus on arts and culture. The weakness, he said, comes when First Friday "gets out of control and it's a big street party."

For a while there have been stories of rifts between the north and south of Charleston galleries, small pockets of rowdiness and graffiti by rebellious youth, rumors of underage drinking and constant infighting. A 10-member steering committee meets after each First Friday event to address these issues.

"We're learning," Deaner said. "Everybody wants this to work."

G-C Arts, a blue-chip gallery nearby, features booths of young, local artists and jewelry makers selling work. Many teenagers visit the area, and Funkhouser welcomes the young crowd.

Naomi Arin, co-owner of Dust gallery, said First Friday is a great event for the youth.

"What other points of access do young people have here to look at visual art?" asked Arin. "You can wander in, wander out (during First Friday). You don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to. It's low-pressure education.

"Creating a point of access is the single most important thing that the city really did not have."

Arin, who doesn't necessarily make money off First Friday events, touts its educational values and sees is it as a "20-year down the line investment in the community."

Craig, who was paid $6,000 with a Nevada Arts Council partnership grant to spend two days with the key players, said she will deliver a report on her findings and recommendations May 10.

"If the city wants to pay for a consultant and help with this event, we're all for it," Arin said. "Most nonprofits just don't have time to do long-term planning. We need to do this long-range planning.

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