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damn i guess tabling the art walk is a good idea
Original Article
Leaders hope to control art walk chaos without killing the fun
Ginger D. Richardson and Monica Alonzo-Dunsmoor
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 5, 2005 12:00 AM
First Fridays used to be all about the art.
Now it's as much about partying as it is about gallery hopping.
What started as a tiny monthly gathering has ballooned into an hours-long street festival that draws as many as 10,000 people to downtown Phoenix. It's exactly what everyone wanted, sort of.
"Right now, it's a little bit out of control," said Kimber Lanning, who owns Modified Arts on Roosevelt Street, one of the central gathering points for First Fridays attendees. "We want it to be a quality arts event, not a free-for-all frat party."
The arts community and city leaders say that ironically, phenomenal success has come with its own set of problems: out-of-control parking, underage drinking and people carrying open containers of alcohol.
The question lies in how to fix it.
The event brings as many as 10,000 diverse people to downtown Phoenix, an area in dire need of energy and nightlife. Over-regulating it could kill the very spirit that makes it such a success.
"It has to be applied carefully," said Beatrice Moore, one of the driving forces behind Phoenix's arts community. "You don't want to kill the fun, eclectic nature of the event and make it too sterile, too tame."
Art leaders and Phoenix officials have started to talk about how best to manage the art walk, which started in the late 1990s.
Eventually, they expect to look at everything, from making Roosevelt a pedestrian-only street during the event to how to better control the street vendors who set up shop out of the backs of cars, Moore said.
For now, they're focusing on the biggest problem: parking.
Many of the thousands of festival patrons who descend on downtown park their cars on vacant dirt lots, in many cases ignoring "no trespassing" and "no parking" signs.
"A lot of people coming down to this part of town for the first time have no idea that parking on dirt lots is a violation of city code," Phoenix police Lt. Jeff Halstead said. "People who own the lots . . . have done everything they can, barring a total fence, to restrict access to their lots."
Starting tonight, Phoenix police will begin leaving warning notices on illegally parked cars.
"This is not going to be very aggressive type of enforcement action," he said. "We want this event to thrive, we want it continue to draw the amount of people it draws because it is good for downtown and the arts community."
The event's popularity embodies what Phoenix has long wanted for its downtown. Phoenix is investing more than a billion dollars in the city's core for large public projects like a new Arizona State University campus, light rail and an expanded Phoenix Civic Plaza in an effort to breathe new life into Copper Square.
But those are just buildings.
First Fridays has a natural vibrancy that city officials hope to imitate, Mayor Phil Gordon said.
"The concept of First Fridays should be every evening downtown . . . where there's activity on the sidewalks, on the streets, where businesses are open and people are coming," Gordon said.
It's absolutely critical, he said, for other downtown events to have the same success as the art walks.
"I remember the first one, where you couldn't find anyone on the streets. But organizers and participants stuck with it over the years, and now it's got more than 15,000 people," he said.
Vice Mayor Michael Johnson agreed, saying First Fridays has the "type of synergy that we're going to need to have a vibrant downtown."
"The event . . . draws people from all over the Valley: Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe and Ahwatukee," he said.
One of them is John Spiak, a curator at ASU's Art Museum. He has been coming to First Fridays for years.
"It's not about the people and the crowds," Spiak said. "It's about supporting local artists."
Some longtime arts patrons worry that the street-festival atmosphere of the event has detracted from that mission.
That's why the arts community is working to refocus its efforts on showcasing local sculptors, painters and photographers. Artists are now encouraging serious collectors to come downtown to tour the galleries and studios on Saturdays or on the third Friday of every month, so they don't have to deal with the crowds.
They point out that when First Fridays began, it was all about the art and the 300 or so people who routinely headed to downtown Phoenix to appreciate it.
"In the beginning, we begged for this," artist Randy Slack said of the throngs of people, musicians, belly dancers and tattoo artists that now converge every month in the heart of the city. "But it isn't about the art anymore.
"It's more about being seen."
Reach the reporters at ginger.richardson@arizonarepublic.com or at monica.alonzo- dunsmoor@aizonarepublic.com
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0804firstfridays-ON.html
Art walk a victim of its own success
Ginger D. Richardson and Monica Alonzo-Dunsmoor
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 4, 2005 09:15 PM
First Fridays used to be all about the art.
Now it's as much about partying as it is about gallery hopping.
What started as a tiny monthly gathering has ballooned into an hours-long street festival that draws as many as 10,000 people to downtown Phoenix. It's exactly what everyone wanted, sort of.
"Right now, it's a little bit out of control," said Kimber Lanning, who owns Modified Arts on Roosevelt Street, one of the central gathering points for First Fridays attendees. "We want it to be a quality arts event, not a free-for-all frat party."
The arts community and city leaders say that ironically, phenomenal success has come with its own set of problems: out-of-control parking, underage drinking and people carrying open containers of alcohol.
The question lies in how to fix it.
The event brings as many as 10,000 diverse people to downtown Phoenix, an area in dire need of energy and nightlife. Over-regulating it could kill the very spirit that makes it such a success.
"It has to be applied carefully," said Beatrice Moore, one of the driving forces behind Phoenix's arts community. "You don't want to kill the fun, eclectic nature of the event and make it too sterile, too tame."
Art leaders and Phoenix officials have started to talk about how best to manage the art walk, which started in the late 1990s.
Eventually, they expect to look at everything, from making Roosevelt a pedestrian-only street during the event to how to better control the street vendors who set up shop out of the backs of cars, Moore said.
For now, they're focusing on the biggest problem: parking.
Many of the thousands of festival patrons who descend on downtown park their cars on vacant dirt lots, in many cases ignoring "no trespassing" and "no parking" signs.
"A lot of people coming down to this part of town for the first time have no idea that parking on dirt lots is a violation of city code," Phoenix police Lt. Jeff Halstead said. "People who own the lots . . . have done everything they can, barring a total fence, to restrict access to their lots."
Starting tonight, Phoenix police will begin leaving warning notices on illegally parked cars.
"This is not going to be very aggressive type of enforcement action," he said. "We want this event to thrive, we want it continue to draw the amount of people it draws because it is good for downtown and the arts community."
The event's popularity embodies what Phoenix has long wanted for its downtown. Phoenix is investing more than a billion dollars in the city's core for large public projects like a new Arizona State University campus, light rail and an expanded Phoenix Civic Plaza in an effort to breathe new life into Copper Square.
But those are just buildings.
First Fridays has a natural vibrancy that city officials hope to imitate, Mayor Phil Gordon said.
"The concept of First Fridays should be every evening downtown . . . where there's activity on the sidewalks, on the streets, where businesses are open and people are coming," Gordon said.
It's absolutely critical, he said, for other downtown events to have the same success as the art walks.
"I remember the first one, where you couldn't find anyone on the streets, but organizers and participants stuck with it over the years and now it's got more than 15,000 people," he said.
Vice Mayor Michael Johnson agreed, saying First Fridays has the "type of synergy that we're going to need to have a vibrant downtown."
"The event . . . draws people from all over the Valley - Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe and Ahwatukee," he said.
One of them is John Spiak, a curator at Arizona State University's Art Museum. He has been coming to First Fridays for years.
"It's not about the people and the crowds," Spiak said. "It's about supporting local artists."
Some longtime arts patrons worry that the street-festival atmosphere of the event has detracted from that mission.
That's why the arts community is working to refocus its efforts on showcasing local sculptors, painters and photographers. Artists are now encouraging serious collectors to come downtown to tour the galleries and studios on Saturdays or on the third Friday of every month, so they don't have to deal with the crowds.
They point out that when First Fridays began, it was all about the art - and the 300 or so people who routinely headed to downtown Phoenix to appreciate it.
"In the beginning, we begged for this," artist Randy Slack said of the throngs of people, musicians, belly dancers and tattoo artists that now converge every month in the heart of the city. "But it isn't about the art anymore.
"It's more about being seen."
Reach the reporters at ginger. richardson@arizonarepublic .com or at monica.alonzo- dunsmoor@aizonarepublic.com
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