SPIRITUAL ART The Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival is expanding the type of art it includes in this year’s festival with an exhibition and silent art auction at The Open Room. The show will feature work by artists from across the state, and proceeds will go to support the film festival as well as its mission of celebrating diversity. The show will hang Aug. 31-Sept. 21 with an opening reception on Sept. 4 during the monthly gallery walk. All Idaho fine artists are invited to submit work, although only one piece per artist will be selected. Two-dimensional work can be no larger than 4 feet square, while sculpture can weigh no more than 50 pounds. Submissions must be sent electronically in a JPEG format with a maximum size of 600-by-800 pixels, and only one image of two-dimensional work is required. For those submitting sculpture, two to three images are requested. Each submission must include the artist’s name, title of the work, dimensions and a starting auction price. All submissions are due by Monday, July 20, and final selection will be completed within one week. The selection panel will include one board member from the film festival, a staff member from the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, a member of the Sun Valley Gallery Association and a representative from The Open Room. Selected work must be dropped off between Aug. 14 and Aug. 21, and the silent auction will begin on Aug. 31 and run through Sept. 19. Half of the final sale price will be donated to the film festival, while the remaining half will go to the artist. E-mail submissions to jennifer@openroomfurniture.com. For more information, call Jennifer Jacoby at 208-622-0222.
CLEAN ART Artists are always looking for someplace to display their work, so why not up in lights on the side of a downtown building? Metro Carwash’s downtown location is looking for artists interested in having their work displayed on the building’s massive readerboard facing Front Street. In past months, the electronic sign has shown everything from photography and painting to stained glass as part of its program to promote local art. But now, they’re running a little short on submissions. All kinds of artwork will be considered for display, and organizers are particularly keen to get some kind of flash animation up on the board. Interested artists can e-mail six submissions to martin@alexanderandassociates. com. All submissions must be in BMP format and include two images: one at 500kb and the other measuring 92-by-72 pixels. There is no deadline for submission and selected works will remain up for about a week.
RETURNING ART Retirement doesn’t mean endless days of inactivity. Especially not if you’re an artist. Basement Gallery will be celebrating the depth of talent of some of Boise State’s now-retired art professors with its new mixed media show, “BSU ... Blast From the Past.” Former instructors John Killmaster, James Blakenship, Brink Chipman and Tarmo Watia will all be displaying an assortment of mixedmedia works. They will be joined by fellow former teachers Kellie Cosho—who will be showing a new series of abstract ink paintings—and John Taye, who will share sculptures, paintings and drawings. The show hangs during July and August at the gallery, 928 W. Main St. —Deanna Darr
28
| JUNE 17–23, 2009 |
BOISEweekly
ARTS
CULTURE
B Y AMY ATKINS
SIXTH STREET BEAT Downtown triad district ready
see people’s reactions and to get to interact with them. I think having a studio in a far off place would be so isolating.” Wil Kirkman is also a part of the downtown vibe. He owns and operates Rocket Neon which is housed in the big Ming Studios building and said his inspiration is less about the geography etween Front and Broad street on Sixth, a handful and more about the people who live and work around here. He of businesses create an isosceles triangle of industrial agreed that this area could easily become an acknowledged arts creativity that contributes to downtown Boise’s arts culdistrict; it just can’t be forced. ture. They aren’t typical art galleries and though they welcome “Areas like Hidden Springs and Bown Crossing didn’t happen walk-ins, most of their business comes via word-of-mouth and organically,” Kirkman said. “So they’re too artificial” referrals. On the whole, the products that come out of these Filip Vogelpohl, owner of Boise Art Glass, said he does think companies are special ordered or come out at regular intervals. working downtown is vital to the kind of work he does, and This creative enclave includes Classic Design Studio, Rocket that both his surroundings and the people around him contribNeon and Boise Art Glass in the Ming Studios building; North ute to his work. by Northwest Productions; and Boise Weekly. Encircled by Boise “I had a retail store for three and a half years on Orchard by the freeway. It sucked,” Vogelpohl said. “I did OK, but nothing like I do down here.” It’s beneficial for Vogelpohl to be near like-minded artists and craftsmen and to be in a location where the public has easy access to him. “It’s nice to turn to [Weber] and say, ‘Hey, what do you think?’ and work out a problem together,” he said. “Plus, this is one of the stops for the trolley on First Thursdays. That’s amazing.” Boise Weekly owner and publisher Sally Freeman also believes that working downtown makes a difference in how the public perceives the paper and, in turn, the kind of product the Boise Weekly has become. It had always been important to her to own the building BW occupied for viability and sustainability. Though she looked at places in other areas of town, she kept her eyes out for available property downtown. “It’s critical to be downtown,” Noel Weber Jr. sees the creativity happening on Sixth Street as a sign of things to come. Freeman said. “It’s a matter of credibility and perception ... and as part Art Museum and The Flicks to the north, Ballet Idaho, Boise of the re-branding when we bought Boise Weekly, I felt like a reContemporary Theater, Trey McIntyre Project to the northeast ally strong storefront presence was important.” She also felt that and BoDo’s AIR program to the east, these Sixth Street business- presence would have less of an effect in one of the outlying areas es are an integral part of what is naturally turning into a vibrant of town and believed that places like Classic Design and NXNW downtown arts district. would foster creativity in her business. Classic Design Studio creates signs, awnings and architectural North By Northwest Productions was already on Sixth and details that help define a business. When a restaurant or store Broad streets when Freeman and Boise Weekly moved in. The opens or remodels, Classic Design is often called upon to fashion firm was founded in Spokane in 1990 and opened a Boise branch the shingle the business will hang, a visual that helps brand a in Boise in 1993. Because they don’t have a strong storefront place and that may also entice potential visitors inside. presence, many people don’t know what goes on in the building Fire and police personnel who now work at the new City Hall that used to be a John Deere dealership, but when you see or West are greeted each day by iconic images and faces of their hear an Idaho Lottery or a Peterson Toyota commercial, it was predecessors set in stone, a job awarded to Classic Design by the likely produced at NXNW. city’s Department of Arts and History. They take a creative idea from an ad agency and turn it into Classic Design is a family-run business, one that has been a a viable product, something general manager Shane Jibben depart of Noel Weber Jr.’s life and the Boise landscape for a long scribed as “visualization to picturalization.” time. Weber’s mother and father moved into their small steepJibben said being located downtown definitely influences how roofed, brick building on Sixth Street in the late ’80s. They his employees feel about their jobs and about how, as a team, slowly expanded until they occupied the two adjoining buildthey work. ings, including the large garage that used to house Ming Auto Every Monday, Jibben puts together a list of lunches for the Body. The hodgepodge of architecture outside reflects the myriad week. He walks to Winco to do the shopping, and then preprocesses that go on inside working with materials from glass pares lunch for his employees each day. Often times after lunch, to concrete and using methods from hand-carving to machining several of them walk over to Julia Davis Park for a little exercise molds. The business’s location downtown is not by accident. before heading back to work. One of his employees is learning to “When we moved into the building in ’87 or ’88, we intenplay the cello and brings the instrument to work so that he can tionally looked downtown for the building,” Weber said. They practice during downtime. Jibben said if NXNW was located in wanted to be a part of and help foster downtown’s growth and a different part of town, much of what makes it a comfortable, successes. Being located downtown affords a sense of credibility low-key environment would be lost. in the eyes of other downtowners, and also may appeal to comThough what the businesses on this block do may not be panies outside the grid looking for a business to provide a modtraditional art, whether it’s making a commercial, putting out a ern, urban product. Weber believes that being located downtown newspaper, or manufacturing a store sign, the people who make is a key to their longevity, in part due to their visibility to the these products are a creative, artistic bunch and believe their hundreds of pedestrians and cars that pass by on any given day. environment only serves to better their work. As Boise grows in “I think one of the big advantages of being in a downtown size and scope, arts and cultural districts should begin to form location is people walk by and they’ll stop in and see new and like clusters of wildflowers. In the little triangle of commerce on different things we’re doing,” Weber said. “To be able to give Sixth between Broad and Front, we’re already pointing our faces someone a tour of new projects, it’s nice and kind of inspiring to toward the sun.
B
SUSA N VALIQUETTE
ARTSNEWS
WWW.BOISEWEEKLY.COM