Searching for a Heart of Art

by Chérie L. Turner

Can galleries expand the definition of Tahoe?

Inspirational in their beauty and attracting an affluent, relaxed, vacationing audience, destinations like Tahoe are commonly a great place to sell art. "People buy more art when they are on vacation," says Chad Jenkins, director of Art Attack Gallery in Incline Village. "It's really ideal to have an art gallery in a tourist area, no matter where it is." Hawaii has one of the most profitable art scenes in the world. Jackson, Wyoming, is one of the strongest art markets in the United States. Aspen and Vail, Colorado, Carmel, California, and Park City, Utah, are just a few of the other touristladen towns where galleries exist en masse, helping to foster the overall "art climates" of those communities. But while Tahoe is unquestionably a worldfamous destination, art galleries have often struggled here. Unlike the aforementioned resort areas, Tahoe has no cohesive art scene, either in terms of organization or physical proximity.

"Galleries are different from a lot of other retail businesses," says Patty Pogan, coowner with her husband, Jerry, of Pogan Gallery in Tahoe Vista. "The more of them, the better it is for each other. More people come to look at art because there is more art to look at."

To be blunt, Tahoe has also lagged well behind the above resort areas in many other cultural categories over the past few decades. That's changing, however. Artists—and art and music patrons—have recently made strides around The Lake on many cultural fronts. The Basins' two colleges now have strong art departments (see Avant-Garde Tahoe, page 42). There's a nexus of art galleries forming around South Shore's Heavenly Village. Incline's Parasol Community Arts & Culture Collaborative is attempting to fund and build a performing arts center. North Lake Tahoe Arts is filling their remodeled gallery space in Tahoe City with interesting shows and events. And Truckee is home to an upsurge of interest in the visual arts.

Yet there is still no heart of art in Tahoe. "It seems like the art scene wants to give birth to something, but then nothing happens," says Judith Vrooman, co-owner of two galleries in Truckee.

Blooms on the North Shore?

Art scenes in other resort towns have something that Tahoe does not: a centralized area where galleries, by and large, focus on a particular type of art. "Tahoe can never be an Aspen or a Park City," says Douglas Taylor, owner of Vista Gallery in Tahoe Vista. "You cannot compare what can happen here to any of those places because we have this geologic formation right in the middle that forces us to string out. We need to think out of the box—around the circle—in order to make this successful. We have to find out what is unique to us."

Taylor has long been an advocate for developing a more cohesive gallery presence for Lake Tahoe. Before he opened Vista, he participated in panels that focused on how to make Tahoe more of an arts and culture destination. "But nothing really came of it," he says. Taylor was also a driving force behind the creation of the Tahoe Truckee Gallery Association (TTGA), now defunct for over a decade.

"We originally started the TTGA because we wanted the galleries to all be connected," says Pogan. "The goal was to promote the arts in the area, but we found it to be a very difficult thing to do on this side of The Lake because we're so far apart." One remnant of the TTGA, a gallery guide, was updated and reprinted this summer with the help of North Lake Tahoe Arts.

While the type of scene-building efforts that have been cornerstones of other art scenes have not worked on a North Shore-wide basis, individual communities are attempting to create their own hearts of art. The newly established Tahoe City Downtown Association initiated an event held the first Friday of every month during which commercial establishments, including the town's four galleries, stay open late and serve refreshments. The organization also put on well-attended free music events on Commons Beach. Despite the fact that Tahoe City's splendid sidewalk project has turned the town pedestrian-friendly, many merchants have struggled–perhaps due to new competition in Squaw Valley and Truckee.

Incline Village, with its well-educated and affluent population, would seem a natural spot for a cultural heart. Certainly, the center-of-gravity created by the Parasol facility, and its Arts & Culture Collaborative's effort to build a performing arts center, bodes well for the health of fine arts on this corner of the North Shore. Yet Incline currently lacks the type of pedestrian-friendly center found in most resort art-towns.

Truckee's Artistic Awakening

While the North Shore of Tahoe faces hurdles in its search for a heart of art—high rents and small commercial districts—this is not the case for Truckee or South Lake Tahoe. In both of these areas, there is fertile ground for a full-fledged art scene.

Truckee has a large enough central downtown area (including anticipated expansion into the old railyard area) to support a critical mass of galleries. "I can see the artistic potential for Truckee," says Pogan.

Riverside Studios is a collective of artists that banded together in 2002 to provide a support system for local artists and support the arts in general. Mostly comprised of young, emerging artists, they are breathing fresh creativity into the area and presenting work that isn't regularly seen—from Japanese-inspired ceramics to graffiti-inspired painting. The community is responding with open arms. The artist receptions that they've hosted three times a year since their inception have grown in attendance from roughly 300 people to over 1,000. These all-day events include entertainment, food and beverages from local restaurants, and art from both Riverside Studios members and guest artists.

Over the past eight years, the husband and wife team of Judith and William Vrooman have also pushed Truckee's artistic path. After opening Vrooman Woodcarvings and Wildlife Gallery in old downtown Truckee, they decided to open Vrooman Fine Arts last year, across the street. The new gallery features a large variety of contemporary art from local and national artists. It is finding success at a time when other retail businesses are struggling. "We're doing twice what we did last summer," says Judith.

Another factor that bodes well for the Truckee art scene is the opening of a satellite campus of Sierra Nevada College, which will include an art department, slated to begin construction within the next few years.

The Beating Heart

With the creation of Heavenly Village in South Lake Tahoe, there is now a central area in which a gallery scene is beginning to thrive. Eight galleries currently reside in the Village and next-door Raley's shopping center, all within walking distance.

According to Rosemary Babbitt, gallery director for Wyland Gallery, plans are in the works to create a once-monthly gallery walk, at least within the Village. Both Wyland—which has been in business on the South Shore for eight years—and Oh My Goddard galleries, say they are experiencing impressively strong sales.

"Whenever you make something convenient, attractive and fun," says Babbitt, "people are going to come."

Another factor that bodes well for both the Truckee and South Tahoe scenes is that they offer work that goes beyond the Tahoe landscape, a common theme in art found around The Lake. Though stunning, this single subject is arguably not enough to carry an entire art scene. "We get caught up in Tahoe art," Babbit says. "It's wonderful, and we need to promote it, but a little goes a long way. It can be redundant and overdone."

By all accounts, the search for Tahoe's heart of art is a work in progress. The creative beat is certainly growing stronger, and as it does, it will be fascinating to see if the Tahoe art scene can discover "what is unique to us."