Art is huge in the "Big D"

Art Business News, Oct, 2004 by Pam Crumpler

Some may joke that the culture of Dallas is found in its restaurants and shopping centers. Although known for both, the "Big D" has been a center for the arts for many years.

From a visual arts perspective alone, there is the 100-year-old Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) and the Meadows Museum, home to one of the finest collections of Spanish art outside of Spain. There is also the African American Museum, which opened its doors in 1974. Today, it houses one of the largest African American, folk art collections in the United States.

Expansion of Dallas' Arts District began in earnest six years ago with the Crow Collection of Asian Art, comprised of more than 600 pieces dating from 3500 B.C. to the early 20th century. The Nasher Sculpture Center made headlines in 2003 when it moved in next door to the DMA and became home to more than 300 works of 20th-century sculpture. These works comprise what is considered to be one of the world's greatest collections of modern sculpture.

Beyond the Arts District is the Uptown Gallery District, which is promoted as the center of the art gallery scene with approximately 40 galleries. Deep Ellum is the music center of Dallas, interspersed with its own collection of galleries. Downtown, the resounding heartbeat of South Side on Lamar can be heard. Its story is one of urban renewal, art and community.

In 1997, Jack Matthews was responsible for purchasing more than 30 acres of land, complete with six neglected buildings in the barren area of South Dallas. Central in this purchase was the old Sears building, which ultimately became home to 457 lofts. Built in 1913, the building opened as the first catalog distribution center for Sears outside Chicago. Probably state-of-the-art at the time, train tracks came into the building for workers to unload deliveries right onto the loading docks.

After 83 years, the building closed and remained ignored until Matthews came forward with his vision. At that time, the area was dead; streets were torn up, the buildings were vacated, and there was no life--only potential.

Ultimately, Matthew's vision, with the help of many creative minds, transformed the 1.2 million-square-foot Sears building into residential lofts with various amenities, including a screening room, theater, gym, game room, coffee shop and various retail establishments. The loading docks were transformed into gallery space. Train tracks became the main street within the building, providing access to the galleries where artists live, work and display their art.

The typical model for an urban-renewal endeavor such as this is to surround the building with barbed-wire fence and begin work, allowing only one way in and out. However, as work on the Sears building began, Matthews turned the typical urban-renewal model inside out. That is, no barbedwire fence was used. Instead, a "courtesy team" clad in yellow shirts, kept watch while riding bicycles through the area.

Matthews knew that lots of creative minds would be needed to make his vision become reality and that "artists were a way to bring the soul back to this area." With this in mind, the first artists moved into South Side on Lamar in August 2000. The deal was that in exchange for inexpensive rent, South Side artists would develop and donate pieces of art. As a result, today the halls and offices are covered in art.

In an effort to further improve the artists' community, a residency program was put together with the University of Texas in Dallas (UTD). Art students are provided an opportunity to learn and integrate with a larger artist community. Kyle Wadsworth was one of these students. His mixed-media sculptures and wall works have been described as involving cast and found objects that study the interactions of industrial-fabrication techniques. Today, Wadsworth is considered by many to be a rising star in the artist community.

Vision Draws Residents

Rolando Diaz is a collected artist, who has lived in South Side from the beginning. He says Matthew's big vision is what initially drew him to the building. He wanted to join South Side at the grassroots level and be part of the growth. When asked how he benefited from being at South Side, one of Diaz's first thoughts was the community. "Being surrounded by other artists and their energy adds to one's work," he says.

Certainly, this is exemplified in his collaboration with Seth Simmons. Simmons, a pianist, and Diaz have a program called "EuforiaLive." Together they perform about once a month in the South Side Theater. Simmons plays piano while Diaz creates an original oil on canvas for the event before a live audience.

Beyond this, The Janette Kennedy Gallery--the main gallery at South Side-is now a home for Diaz's annual art show, which occurs in November. The gallery is consistently booked with artist showings throughout the year, along with book signings and other artistic venues. Roger Moore is one of 50-pins South Side residents who sold their homes and moved to South Side to be full-time artists. Moore, an accomplished photographer, sold his home in North Dallas 18 months ago. Today, he and his wife have four lofts in the building--one for living and three for business. They spend about half of their time here with the remainder of their time on Vancouver Island, where they own a home and Roger works on his photography.