Arts District Director Discusses Its 25th Anniversary
The San Pedro First Thursday ArtWalk celebrates 25 years this month. The ArtWalk has gone through many changes since its inception and even had to stop during the days of the pandemic; subsequently, the Waterfront Arts District began to host “Armchair ArtWalk” during the time of quarantine and social distancing. It was a way to have discussions online with San Pedro artists on First Thursday, instead of the monthly art walk. The artists however kept working.
During each ArtWalk tour, a minimum of three galleries are highlighted and the tour rotates through all the galleries. Gathering at 5:30 p.m. at a designated spot like The Artistry Lounge & Gallery the tour walks guests to the first gallery. Linda Grimes, executive director of the Waterfront Arts District, said it’s important for the gallerists or the artists to talk to the group about their work on display. The guests view and discuss the art and continue to the next gallery. They usually finish within the hour, so guests have time to visit the rest of the artwalk.
Former arts district board member Pat Carroll, who unfortunately died in 2020, was the first person in San Pedro to hold art talks in the boardroom gallery at the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce when it still displayed artworks. Carroll’s dedication in this effort served not only the art walk but also the artists, in bolstering their work and its context, as well as educating the community about this unique cultural asset in its own neighborhood. Carroll served on the Board of the Grand Vision Foundation and on the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council. She was involved in the early days with the CRA-funded ACE District and she served as chair of the arts district. Pat earned her moniker in part because of her 10-year commitment to highlighting artists and their work through her monthly ArtWalk tours.
Grimes said that when she passed away, she felt like it was a gift to the arts district to take that tour on and start to do that as a line of service to the community.
Grimes spoke at length to Random Lengths News about the 25-year milestone and what it means for San Pedro and its future.
“I’m just grateful that almost everybody survived the pandemic,” said Grimes. “Some people [have] passed away … but pretty much all the spaces that had galleries are still there. It’s amazing to me that it’s been going on so long.”
Grimes, referencing the beginning of the ArtWalk, said artist and gallery owner Robin Hinchcliffe along with Andrew Silber, the original owner of The Whale & Ale restaurant in the arts district and Alan Johnson, CEO of Jerico Development, conceived the idea to start the ArtWalk. Silber, for instance, was instrumental in connecting the community to performance art from local theater groups like Little Fish Theatre to the downtown restaurants by combining packages for dinner and show. Johnson and others helped in founding the Historic Waterfront Property Business Improvement District called PBID, which lends marketing and financial support to the downtown business district.
Before the Waterfront Arts District became a nonprofit — when it was the ACE committee under the aegis of the Community Redevelopment Agency — Grimes was hired by Walter Beaumont, the CRA assistant manager to study other art walks. These events were happening across the country, but San Pedro’s was one of the first art walks in the region.
Up until that point, artists had been migrating to downtown San Pedro since the nineties, attracted by the relatively cheap rents. After a while, San Pedro started gaining a reputation as an arts destination.
In the early 2000s the Arts Culture and Entertainment or ACE District institutionalized the emerging arts scene and made San Pedro an arts destination. The arts district was created through the vision of RLN publisher James Preston Allen and seven years of lobbying with the help of the Community Redevelopment Agency or CRA. It captured some $500,000 of funding for the ACE district before the collapse of the CRA. The arts district had a diverse board of ACE committee members, mostly artists, overseeing it with guidance from Walter Beaumont, a CRA assistant manager. The goal, Beaumont said, was to provide as many people as possible “to meet the aspirations of … the artists, cultural institutions, the public … but it also needs to meet the goals of the local property owners.”
Gov. Jerry Brown’s dissolution of the CRA effectively ended the majority artist-run board. The founding of the PBID further shifted influence over the artwalk away from the artists in favor of the chamber of commerce and property owners. The PBID never really fulfilled its promise to fund the arts district to the level that it promised when the ACE district was formed.
One of the early goals of the ACE Committee was to set in place policies that would prevent the pricing out of artists from San Pedro’s downtown core as it had happened in other arts locales that had been gentrified. That’s one goal that has yet to be realized.
“It started to make me understand that nothing is forever and sometimes galleries have to be itinerant …” Grimes said. “This is [to say] I’m worried about gentrification and how the artists [will be able to] stay where they are.
Still, the San Pedro Waterfront Arts District continued to check items on its checklist to make downtown San Pedro an arts destination, which includes being designated by the California Arts Council as one of 14 California Cultural Districts in 2017.
Arts And Engaging Communities
The way an arts district engages a community is determined, in part, by its size. San Pedro’s arts district caters to a small but densely populated, diverse, urban-suburban “neighborhood” of Los Angeles. With that, the Waterfront Arts District responds to this small but diverse town ethos in similar spirit, with multiple, varied cultural offerings for the community that take place on a more intimate level.
Artists, including more recent gallery owners like Menduina Schneider Gallery, have long pushed for an arts center to anchor the arts in downtown San Pedro. They thought they had that when the Marylyn and Chuck Klaus Center for the Arts in San Pedro opened in 2015. The combined facilities located in the historic district of San Pedro was supposed to provide undergraduate students with instruction, internships and a cultural connection to the already existing creative corridor downtown. Perhaps more importantly it was supposed to be a keystone for the arts and economy in San Pedro.
Marymount university’s financial troubles ultimately doomed that plan before it was eventually shut down in 2022. With all the new housing developments being built downtown, combining the arts district events with an art center would create a dynamic draw to San Pedro as an arts destination.
Local artists who have been a part of the arts district since the beginning such as Ron Linden, and Arnee and Ray Carofano, of TransVagrant /Gallery 478 respectively, have pushed to prioritize maintaining low to moderate income housing designated as live-work spaces; and implement zoning changes where property owners of large buildings could convert them into large living spaces.
There have been many fights over whether the art walk resembled a flea market with food trucks and kiddy rides rather than a place where serious art can be found. Those arguments largely disappeared when the ACE Committee became a nonprofit.
The art walk has a family-friendly vibe to it, which is great for some people. But what the artists have asked for is to have more input and more support of their work.
The way to do that is to enlist the artists in the future survival and flourishing of the arts district. This would solidify the foundation of the district as a major LA arts destination — all while keeping the artists here.
San Pedro Arts District
Grimes and San Pedro Waterfront Arts District have worked at bridging the gap by encouraging a diversification of offerings and promoting arts education.
This year, for Día de los Muertos, the Waterfront arts district screened Coco in October and more than 300 people attended. Folks are hungry to come out to live events again, Grimes said, adding when they have events like this and the PBID helps, it has a farther reach, attracting people that the arts district can’t get to.
Grimes discussed a couple of events related to ArtWalk activities. She noted the arts district is an ardent supporter of the Pixels digital photography gallery and creative space for students, located in the former Parkhurst Galleries on 6th Street.
“At least once a quarter, we bring the guided ArtWalk tour to visit the gallery and are grateful for this vibrant space dedicated to the arts,” Grimes said. “The Pixel’s Gallery story is great. We didn’t lose a gallery, [Pixels] took it over and now there’s more young people involved.”
Grimes also recalled during a past artwalk, the theater troupe House of Bards, held a rehearsal during an art walk. The tour went to the Grand Annex to see their rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet. Because she explained, “it’s not just visual arts, it’s all of the arts. And we even include culinary in the list of arts.”
Grimes explained this is how the arts district “considers the whole district.” For instance, they begin the art walk tour at The Artistry Lounge & Gallery where they also serve food or, when Andrew Silber invited Armchair ArtWalk to his house to livestream him while he made Shepherd Pie.
Additionally, the art district presents an arts appreciation series titled “Culture Talks” (in person/livestream) at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium’s John M. Olguin Auditorium. Conceived to inform the public of cultural equity issues and demonstrate the power of art to propagate change, this series also further establishes the arts district as an influential cultural asset.
The current season opened with Gregorio Luke — former director of the Museum of Latin American Art and distinguished lecturer — on poet Pablo Neruda: Poet of Love and the Sea, followed by composer Austin Wintry, video game master class, with a small live-music ensemble. Upcoming prospective speakers are: Richard Montoya Culture Clash- Chavez Ravine In 9 Innings, Cornerstone Theater, Bruce A. Lemon – new play performed by Rancho San Pedro residents and Judith Teitelman author of Guesthouse for Ganesha and Malathi Iyengar, Rangoli Dance Company.
Watching Other Arts Districts
On the other side of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, Arts Council For Long Beach reaches a broad widespread community. In March 2022, the arts council announced 32 grantees funded through its annual grant programs; categories included community project grants — which funds programming and cultural projects that serve Long Beach communities, professional artist fellowships and operating grants. Of the grantees awarded, 19 organizations provide free events for the public. The “Artist Registry,” which was introduced to the city in 2009 as a gift from Leadership Long Beach, showcases artists throughout Long Beach and connects a diverse range of visual artists, performers, musicians and writers to residents and businesses. Additionally, “Collaborative Gallery” presents exhibitions curated from its Artist Registry to raise awareness of established and emerging artists and innovative approaches to art.
Looking southwest across the ocean, the Catalina Museum for Art & History has embarked on a capital project to construct a new education center to provide Avalon’s K–12 students with educational opportunities at the museum. Expected to open in spring 2023, it will be a dedicated space for students and adults to participate in hands-on workshops in the visual and performing arts, learn about Catalina’s history and engage residents and visitors to the island. The project also includes a “collection storage” for a collection of more than 100,000 artifacts, photographs, ephemera and original artworks.
What’s to Come in San Pedro
In terms of connecting the ArtWalk to the larger community, Grimes mentioned a few potential developments for the arts district going forward.
The Waterfront Arts District received a port community grant to paint a mural on the side of “Building G,” where the LA Maritime Institute or LAMI shop is on the edge of West Harbor. The arts district will hire a teaching artist and involve the community in creating a mural.
“All the DOT boxes or murals are a way for people to have art in their lives every day, who wouldn’t normally go into an art gallery or a museum,” Grimes said. “It’s a subtle way of saying arts appreciation.”
The arts district is also considering creating an AR tour of the various murals around San Pedro, in the form of an app. It’s only in the beginning planning stages now.
West Harbor, which has its groundbreaking event on Nov. 12, hired the arts district to commission four muralists who will do live painting, on 7×10 ” panels, plus three plein-air artists. Grimes believes the arts district is at the beginning of visualizing a connection between the downtown arts corridor and West Harbor. She pointed to Alan Johnson as the “principal” in West Harbor. Grimes said that Johnson and his daughter, Lauren, who also works at Jerico, understand that the arts district does not want to create a separation between the historic downtown core and West Harbor.
“It’s going to take a while, even though [West Harbor is] groundbreaking before [its] up and running,” Grimes said. “Then there’s the ‘one percent for the arts’ from the development of West Harbor and it’s up to them to decide how they’re going to adjudicate that. Then, for Dec. 1, the ArtWalk will present a 25th anniversary-themed guided ArtWalk tour.
“I’d love that when we’re 30 years old, that we’re still doing it and there’s still a full complement of artists here,” Grimes said of the First Thursday ArtWalk.
“It’s exciting that many of us have worked for the last 25 years to get to this point with all the redevelopment. Here we are. It’s real, we made this and it’s still here,” Grimes said.