Vancouver may revive cultural commission

Vancouver may revive cultural commission
City also considers closing Main Street for First Friday Art Walks
Thursday, August 6 | 9:10 p.m.
BY JEFFREY MIZE
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Vancouver is moving to revive its dormant cultural commission and close a portion of Main Street in downtown for First Friday Art Walks.

City council members supported both ideas as a way to inject support into the arts during a brief discussion Monday night.

Mayor Royce Pollard said he envisions an all-volunteer cultural-arts commission, to succeed the group that was disbanded in 2005, consisting of arts supporters and representatives of arts groups, with the city providing a liaison to answer any questions but no financial support.

Council members questioned who would serve on a commission and how it would interact with existing arts groups.

"I would be interested in learning more about it," Councilwoman Jeanne Harris said, "particularly if it brought the arts together under one umbrella."

City Manager Pat McDonnell will return to the council with information on both ideas.

"I think one of the reasons why the cultural committee faded is really a lack of resources to implement things," he said.

Vancouver, unlike Seattle and other cities, does not have "a percent for the arts" program, which requires 1 percent of public money spent on building projects be used for public art or other aesthetic features.

Arts and downtown business interests seem to back both proposals.

Llewellyn Rhoe, who founded the Arts Equity theater at Sixth and Main streets in space that today is used by Magenta Theater, doesn't believe the latest city effort will be a false start.

"There's great support from the Vancouver's Downtown Association," he said. "Although we probably can't discuss the details at the moment, we think we have the funding for the actual startup for the arts commission here in Vancouver."

Rhoe said Vancouver lacks a group similar to the Regional Arts & Culture Council in Portland, which receives money from the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources and distributes it as grants to artists and operating support to arts organizations.

Without some agency acting as a financial conduit, the community essentially is giving up money that could flow here, he said.

"It's just about like writing a welfare check to Portland," Rhoe said.

But politics also are creeping into the arts discussion during an election year.

Councilman Tim Leavitt, one of two candidates challenging Pollard, put out a statement Tuesday saying it appears Pollard is "having a convenient change of heart" about supporting the arts.

"It's clear we have a wealth of local artists, performers and culture right here in our own community," Leavitt said in his statement. "But unfortunately, there has really been no interest over the past 14 years to nourish our local vibe."

Pollard, when told of Leavitt's comments, conceded, "I am not a great connoisseur of the arts, but I always have seen the value of the arts to a community."

"Only recently," he said, "have I heard anything out of his (Leavitt's) mouth that, 'I'm going to reinstate the cultural commission.'"

Joel Littauer, a board member of the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Children's Opera, said he hosted Pollard in his home for two meetings with arts supporters during the past month.

"We showed him how supporting the arts would benefit the city of Vancouver," Littauer said. "After the second meeting, he became convinced of the value of the arts for the community, both culturally and economically."

Closing Main Street in downtown is seen as a logical step toward promoting art galleries and other downtown merchants.

Littauer said he has been to Palm Springs, Calif., for its Thursday night Villagefest where the city's primary street, Palm Canyon Drive, is closed for entertainment, art and food sales and other activities.

Rebecca Ocken, executive director of Vancouver's Downtown Association, said her group would like to have music and dancing on Main Street, with restaurateurs offering outdoor dining and retailers setting up on the sidewalk and spilling into the street.

Organizers still don't know what portion of Main Street they would like closed.

"I'm not sure we are that far along, to be perfectly honest," Ocken said. "The idea was to close a section of Main Street and provide nodes of activity. …Because if we close it down, we want to make sure it's really active."

This week's First Friday Art Walk will feature galleries, restaurants and other attractions stretching from 12th Street south to the West Coast Bank, 500 Broadway, which will host a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday.

Galleries will be open 5 to 9 p.m.

Friday's Art Walk is part of the two-day Art in the Heart event.

Jeffrey Mize: 360-735-4542