Arts & Entertainment Business Community

ArtWalk off for September, and its future is in doubt

Asked if ArtWalk would have continued if Gallery Row had not closed, Lea Basile-Lazarus’ first instinct is to say, “No.”

But the more she thinks about it, she mused in a recent interview, the more she realizes this isn’t true.

“When I really think about it, if we still had one more gallery, and we had one more artist doing demos the first Saturday of every month, that might have kept Art Walk going,” Basile-Lazarus said. “Right now, we have Ebb Tide, and we have Maví, and those are really it.”

Basile-Lazarus told Gig Harbor Now at the Aug. 3 ArtWalk that — for a variety of reasons — the monthly event won’t continue in September or thereafter, unless Harbor residents come together to help make it happen again.

Artist Nancy Nesvet, center, seated in front of some of her work featured at Maví, during ArtWalk on Aug. 3, 2024. Photo by Carolyn Bick.

Volunteers revived ArtWalk in 2023

Basile-Lazarus, the president of the Gig Harbor Open Studio Tour, is one of four artists who reignited the Harbor’s ArtWalk. It was an effort to get folks more engaged with the arts scene in Gig Harbor and raise awareness of the many artists in the area.

Basile-Lazarus and Josi Callan — both then artists with Gallery Row — and Bill Wachtler and Steve Hammond of Ebb Tide Gallery revived ArtWalk in 2023 with the help of a $3,000 Creative Endeavor grant from the city of Gig Harbor. Gallery Row managed the books for the grant.

Callan and Basile-Lazarus joined Ebb Tide after Gallery Row closed in January 2024, following a steep rent increase by new landlords, the Xitco brothers.

The four artists won a $2,500 Creative Endeavor grant for 2024 ArtWalks. Ebb Tide Gallery — which Callan said in a text message has been “very, very supportive” of the group’s effort — agreed to manage the funds.

“Our group sought to expand it and we did with several businesses,” Callan said. “Unfortunately, Gig Harbor needs a larger entity to manage it moving forward, rather than four volunteers.”

Elizabeth Ashe, center, artist and co-owner of contemporary art gallery Maví, and artist James Nieves, left, talk, as people visit Maví, during ArtWalk on Aug. 3, 2024. Photo by Carolyn Bick.

A Gallery Row-sized hole in downtown

The group managed to incorporate another fine arts gallery, Maví, in addition to the other businesses that participated. They found it wasn’t enough without Gallery Row, whose closure left downtown with just two dedicated fine art galleries.

The four artists found it was too difficult for such a small group to continue to coordinate an arts-focused event in a downtown whose flow, based on attractions and amenities, does not easily lend itself to space for artists to show their work or for people to bring kids along.

One of the city’s fine arts mainstays, the 34-year-old Gallery Row closed its doors in January after John and Luke Xitco bought up the gallery building and a swath of other commercial properties. The Xitcos informed tenants that their rents would sharply increase, saying previous rents were below market rate.

The rent increase forced several businesses to close or move. Gallery Row didn’t survive, in part because of this rent increase, Callan said.

Gallery closure not the only factor

But the Xitcos’ commercial acquisitions is just the latest in a frustrating struggle the city’s Arts scene has faced. The gallery’s closure is not the only factor in the decision to stop ArtWalk.

Artist Steve Hammond works on a piece during ArtWalk on Aug. 3, 2024. Photo by Carolyn Bick.

Basile-Lazarus said that she and the rest of the ArtWalk crew are just plain tired. 

In addition to leading regular lives, and pursuing their own art, the four are also involved with Peninsula Art League (PAL). Callan, Wachtler and Hammond are on the board and work to coordinate PAL shows throughout the year. Basile-Lazarus is both helping to get PAL shows together and heading PAL’s member shows this year.

Basile-Lazarus said that she and the other artists who organized ArtWalk are also all older. The pressure of coordinating yet something else is wearing on the small group.

“[It] takes people to organize it, and to communicate with our artists and communicate with businesses, and etc., etc.,” Basile-Lazarus said, describing the behind-the-scenes effort it takes to put ArtWalk together every month. “The four of us just decided we just couldn’t keep on going.”

Basile-Lazarus feels that the city is not to blame for the uphill climb Gig Harbor’s arts scene faces — she specifically pointed out that the Arts Commission appears to be making a concerted effort to breathe life into the arts scene. She acknowledged that the issue is complicated, but she still wishes there would be a more focused push to elevate the arts here.

Arts center

Basile-Lazarus said one issue is that downtown is just not structured in a family-friendly way that would allow adults and kids to do their own things.

Dennis Arneson works on a framing order at Water’s Edge Framery and Gallery in downtown Gig Harbor, during ArtWalk on Aug. 3, 2024. Photo by Carolyn Bick.

Both Basile-Lazarus and Callan feel that few restaurants along the main drag easily lend themselves to family dining. This means that adults with children can’t reliably come down for any length of time, without having to figure out mealtimes for hungry kiddos.

There are also few kid-focused activities.

Basile-Lazarus said that this latter issue could be solved by solving another one at the same time: Addressing the need for a central arts hub by creating some sort of art center. The city lacks such a center, which would provide the city’s many artists with a place to gather and showcase their work and talents. This center could not only offer affordable, rentable studios for younger and more cash-strapped artists, but also offer places for both adults and kids to take art classes.

“Adults here are dying to take classes,” Basile-Lazarus said. “When they come to see [artists] at Gig Harbor Open Studio Tour, all they want to know is, ‘Are you teaching classes?’”

More than 10 years ago, the nonprofit Gig Harbor Arts Center Alliance proposed that the city create such a hub, and commissioned an economic feasibility study by Johnson Consulting to explore creating an Arts Center. The study found the city to be a “prime” location for such a venue. The city ultimately did not create a center.

Arts in other towns

Callan compared Gig Harbor to Bainbridge Island, which has a thriving arts scene and an Art Walk every first Friday of the month. As in Gig Harbor, there’s a lot of money on Bainbridge, which is part of the reason the island can host such a thing. But she also doesn’t “think Gig Harbor wants to be Bainbridge, and nor should they be.”

She also described Ashland, Oregon, which — while completely different from Bainbridge Island — still fosters an arts community. She specifically pointed out that Ashland has affordable studio spaces for artists.

“The first time I went [to Ashland], I was so impressed that they had this little center where you could wander in and people could pay [for studio space],” Callan recalled. “I just loved it. … There’s enough buildings in Gig Harbor that are empty that they could do short term studios. … There’s so many artists who would love a studio space.”

The city also has a gallery association.

Ebb Tide Gallery visitor, Joan, left, talks with artist Steve Hammond inside the gallery, during ArtWalk on Aug. 3, 2024. Photo by Carolyn Bick.

Arts and science

Still other places in the United States whose main industry and attraction is not the arts nevertheless showcase thriving arts communities. One is Huntsville, Alabama, whose main industry revolves around NASA — it’s even called “Rocket City.”

But Huntsville ensures that its arts and science communities complement and blend with one another. The city is also home to a decades-old arts nonprofit. Huntsville’s own visitor’s center website even reminds visitors that the existence of one thing does not automatically mean the exclusion or nonexistence of its seeming opposite.

“It’s easy to assume that with the Rocket City’s unusually high concentration of left-brained, technically focused minds, that the arts play second fiddle to technology and innovation,” the website says. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Though Gig Harbor’s current ArtWalk committee will not be hosting ArtWalk again, Basile-Lazarus believes that this does not spell the end of ArtWalk. After all, she said, “nothing should ever die in the Harbor.”

“Someone just needs to say, ‘I have the time and energy,’” Basile-Lazarus said. “‘Let’s see where I can take this.’”

Artist Lea Basile-Lazarus works on a piece, during ArtWalk on Aug. 3, 2024. Photo by Carolyn Bick.