Tucson’s east side an art hub?
It’s happening.
A new theater on East Tanque Verde Road near North Bear Canyon Road is home to two local companies, and more are expected to bring performances there.
And Steven Fenton, president of Fenton Investment Co., has made one of his three office buildings on North Wilmot Road behind Park Mall available as low-cost artist studios. The building has space for about 30 studios. In the two months since Fenton made them available, more than half have been rented. Artists pay $150 to $650 for rent, depending on the size. If more artists are interested, another of the buildings in the complex can be converted as well, says Fenton.
“Downtown is gentrifying and studios are less available there,” says artist Steven Eye, who manages the property for Fenton, calling it “East Hive.”
“It’s a great opportunity for us out there.”
Steven Eye, second from left, shows a piece of artwork on his phone to Adam Yeater, far left, Azrael Wagner and Ray Garcia at East Hive.
Ray Garcia agrees.
The painter and sculptor, who lives on the east side, once had a downtown studio. “It was so far away,” he says. So he left downtown and worked out of his house. As he got busier , the space became inadequate.
“This opportunity came up and it was perfect,” he says of his new studio. “I jumped on it.”
The spaces have windows, some have balconies, and there’s a patio shaded by pomegranate trees now heavy with fruit.
The carpet is frayed and the paint isn’t fresh, but the roof doesn’t leak and, best of all, it has air conditioning.
“The AC is awesome in there,” says photographer Emily Jones, who just got her studio and has yet to set it up. “I was shocked at how cold it was. It was such a relief.”
Jones thought about moving into a studio downtown. Just the thought of parking was a bit daunting. She lives close to the east-side studios. And she likes the idea of spreading the creation of art around.
“For how large Tucson is, it’s cool to spread out,” she says. “Why does art and culture need to be in one spot?”
The artists who have moved into East Hive have plans for a gallery in the lobby area and open studios for people to visit.
“Hopefully by the end of August, halfway through September,” says comic artist Adam Yeater, who moved into his studio about two months ago. “It’s easier than painting on my couch,” he says about his new space.
The energy that’s generated by a group of artists in a shared space has particular appeal to those who have rented there.
East Hive is a former office building, located at 326 S. Wilmot Road, that is being converted into studios for artists. Steven Fenton owns the property and has asked downtown artist, Steven Eye, to find artists to rent out spaces. Tuesday August 9, 2016
“Artists feed off of each other. They give support and encouragement,” says painter Marc Douthard, whose large oil paintings are stacked up in his small studio.
“Working around other artists is like a think tank. You are fueled by the others.”
A little farther east and north is the Alliance Performance Center of Tucson — APCOT.
The Gaslight Theatre is on Tucson’s far east side, and Live Theatre Workshop and St. Francis Theatre at St. Francis in the Foothills Church are both considered to be in east Tucson, but those theaters are used primarily by resident companies. The nonprofit APCOT was conceived to attract a variety of theater companies.
The small theater — it can seat up to 126, depending on the configuration of the stage — opened in March and is currently home to Roadrunner Theater Company and the Tucson Alliance of Dramatic Arts (TADA).
“We originally thought we’d open one in central Tucson,” says Sheldon Metz, who founded the company and opened the theater with John Vornholt.
Pam Ross, co-owner of 1202 Artworx, paints a wall outside of her studio at East Hive, located at 326 S. Wilmot Road, on Tuesday August 9, 2016. Ross, who is glass artist, is relocating her hair salon to the East Hive to be around more artists. She says it’s nice to be part of a community where everyone understands the need to create art. East Hive is a former office building that is being converted into studios for artists.
But the two men live on the east side, and they sensed there’s a theater-loving audience there that is reluctant to venture to the more theater-populated midtown and downtown.
“There’s about 387,000 people living east of Swan,” says Metz. “A lot of those people don’t go to the theater; they don’t like to go downtown. … We figure there’s a tremendous audience that doesn’t get attention.”
That’s what Susan Arnold, Winding Road Theater Ensemble’s artistic director, is thinking, too.
Next year, the company will open its production of “The Language Archive” at the Cabaret Theatre in the Temple of Music and Art downtown. It will play there for two weeks, then move to APCOT for another two.
“We’ve toyed a lot with the idea of taking art to the community,” says Arnold. “It’s a huge population we’ve not explored. We decided we need to go to them.”
Renata Rauschen, the executive director of the APCOT resident company, Roadrunner, says the response to the theater is proof that if you build it, they will come.
“It has been phenomenal,” she says, pointing out that the current show, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” has sold so well that they are considering holding the musical over another weekend, to Aug. 21.
Metz is looking to bring a string quartet in to perform, as well as a dance company, and he and Vornholt would like to have about five theater companies that would call the space home. At $550 a weekend during performances, and $60 for six hours of rehearsal time, they are making the theater affordable for small companies.
And he and Vornholt are considering expanding in the same complex.
“Our original idea was a smaller second stage, and rehearsal space,” he says.
“That’s still our plan.”
