About 1,200 people perused art galleries and traipsed through studio buildings during a four-hour open house Jan. 28, marking the debut of the River North Art District, or RiNo for short.
The mostly industrial area in northeast Denver, which is home to an array of artists, artisans and custom fabricators, is at least the seventh such visual-arts neighborhood to take form in the city.
A few of these districts, such as RiNo or the Artdistrict on Santa Fe, have a formal structure with specified boundaries, membership rosters, organized events and updated websites.
Others are informal, ranging from a trio of veteran cooperative galleries near West 38th Avenue and Navajo Street to a mix of commercial art spaces in Cherry Creek North.
Given the growing number of these areas, it seems natural to wonder: Are more art districts good for Denver? Or is it possible to have too many art districts, with new ones posing threats to existing galleries already struggling to survive?
Bobbi Walker, owner of Walker Fine Art, 300 W. 11th Ave. in the Golden Triangle Arts District, does not feel threatened by such growth. She believes each art neighborhood has its own character and caters to a different aesthetic taste.
“I don’t think people go to Robischon (Gallery) and buy something there and not buy something from me,” Walker said. “I think we all have a pretty distinct niche. If everyone goes after their target market, there’s enough business in this town.”
At the same time, she said, additional art districts enhance local and national perceptions of Denver’s art scene, something that is important as the city scrambles to capitalize on this fall’s much-heralded opening of the Denver Art Museum’s $90.5 million expansion.
“It’s good in the sense that there is diversity in the art scene,” Walker said, “and I think that shows well for gaining a more national presence. People will say that there is a lot of diversity and a lot going on.”
Jill Hadley Hooper, an artist who co-founded RiNo and serves as its co-director, points to the axiom that when the water rises, all boats rise with it.
“I just don’t know how more could be bad,” she said. “If everyone was more concerned with how their neighbor did than how they did personally, we would all be better off.”
Besides, RiNo is not so much adding to the visual art scene as it is highlighting more than 30 existing but often overlooked artists and art organizations, said Tracy Weil, owner of Weilworks, 3611 Chestnut Place, and RiNo’s other co-director.
“We saw the great things that were happening over in the Santa Fe art district, and we were missing sort of the people and the excitement over here, so we decided that we would band together and start our own group,” he said.
In an ideal world, one primary art district would probably be best for Denver’s art galleries, Walker said, concentrating potential buyers in one place. But because of historical precedents and practical hurdles, she does not believe such a scenario will come to pass again.
In the early 1990s, LoDo was unequivocally Denver’s art district, with more than 30 galleries by one count, many grouped along two blocks of Wazee Street from 16th through 18th streets in what had been idle storefronts and warehouses.
But escalating rents forced many to close or flee, leaving just a handful of art spaces in the neighborhood, including Metropolitan State College of Denver’s Center for Visual Art, 1734 Wazee St., and Robischon Gallery, 1740 Wazee St.
Two of the oldest and most respected former LoDo galleries settled in other art districts – Sandy Carson Gallery, to 760 Santa Fe Drive, in the Santa Fe art district, and William Havu Gallery, to 1040 Cherokee St., in the Golden Triangle.
But Robin Rule, owner of the Rule Gallery, headed to 111 Broadway. A few galleries can be found nearby but not enough to really consider the Broadway corridor an art district.
Rule likes being on her own. She said she has been in business long enough and is exhibiting artists of sufficient stature that potential buyers seek out her gallery.
Andenken Gallery, 2110 Market St., belonged to the Ballpark Neighborhood Gallery District. But the loose confederation is largely defunct; many galleries either defected or closed.
“To be honest with you, I’m happy to be an island now,” said owner Hyland Mather. “We have enough to concentrate on and enough to try to keep afloat with our own building and with our schedule.”
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
