Project would give artists a home, a workplace, a world

By Joe Schoenmann

Friday, Dec. 21, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

You don't expect someone at 79 to speak in superlatives. You expect him to be measured and circumspect, rocking forward and back as he nods in bemused acquiescence to the wild-eyed ideas of the younger generations.

But then, you may have never met Jack Solomon. He's a master art salesman, having worked and survived in the business for 50 years.

Now the owner of S2 and Jack Gallery is about to do something he says will help the downtown Arts District turn the corner. With investors, he's planning to pour $27.1 million into Vegas Moderne, which will include museum, gallery and live-work-sell space for artists. He expects to take renderings to the city Planning Commission and City Council in February.

And here come the superlatives.

"My goal is to build Las Vegas into the world center for art design and intellectual ferment," Solomon says.

There's no giggle after that.

Vegas Moderne will be the first of a campus of five or more buildings on about six acres devoted to galleries and museums. The area is bounded by Main Street to the east, Commerce Street to the west, Charleston Boulevard to the south and roughly Coolidge Avenue to the north.

Solomon is still working on deals with some of the dozen or so property owners in the area, though he owns a big enough chunk of one building cluster to get moving quickly.

"Listen, I'm 79," he says, when asked when he wants to get it done. "I don't have a lot of time."

Design of the main building is based on an art deco building in Paris, part of an entire street designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens in the 1920s.

In Paris, Mallet-Stevens' building was used in the way that Solomon expects Vegas Moderne to be used.

"The artist's students were in here and there were big, high-ceilinged studios, and lots of artists over the years worked there," Solomon says.

He met with several would-be tenants weeks ago. He said he had aimed to talk to 11 galleries and would have been happy to get interest from five or six. Instead, he got 10 "and a half" very interested parties, including a famous Parisian gallery, a photo gallery from Los Angeles and one that represents artists from Israel.

Artists would also live within Vegas Moderne, creating art and selling it from their live-work-sell spaces.

Aside from galleries, Solomon is working on a deal with a major museum in Belgium and with several people in the United States with private collections. He wouldn't reveal some of the biggest names he hopes to sign, but promises if they do agree to move their museums here, "it will turn Vegas on its ear."

Solomon also has ideas for expansion of his "village" that include a little bit of something for everyone, areas of fascination that will draw more than the discerning art lover.

One idea is for the creation of a "Smile" or "Laughter" pavilion - Solomon isn't sure which name to use. Work on the design of the pavilion, which will be next to Vegas Moderne, is to start next week. One of the potential tenants, Solomon said, is the owner of the largest collection of Warner Bros. cartoon memorabilia. King Features, which owns the rights to numerous funny pages comics, also is interested. Another is the owner of the world's largest collection of character-based toys in the world.

Herb Barker's Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum is based in Cheshire, Conn. But Solomon says Barker is very interested in the idea of exponentially multiplying his museum customers by moving to a city that draws 40 million-plus visitors a year.

"These aren't necessarily museums like other cities have," he says. "We're Vegas. I'd rather call them centers of contemporary culture, not museums."

On the western side of Commerce Street, a few more plots of land are yet to be purchased. Two parcels are owned by the state of Nevada and used for storage. Solomon said he has talked to Mayor Oscar Goodman about having the city swap some of its land with the state. Goodman could not be reached Thursday for comment. Councilman Gary Reese, whose ward includes the planned project, had not heard about the plan.

The idea for Vegas Moderne came to Solomon, he says, not only because he wants Vegas to become an art mecca, but because of the real need for gallery and live-work-sell space for artists here and from out of state.

"There are not enough galleries for the talented artists who exist," he says. "If we bring more galleries and we make a place for artists to live, to work and to sell, we will have the most vibrant community on the planet."

Solomon has galleries in the Venetian and Mandalay Bay. When he tells would-be immigrant artists how much it costs to rent space there, "they change their mind" about moving here.

And although the space he'll offer in Vegas Moderne will be cheaper, it won't be dirt-cheap.

"There's a lot of artists making a lot of money and they'd all like to be in Las Vegas," Solomon says.