JON HELGASON/Arizona Summer Wildcat Mauricio Toussaint, president of the board of Dinnerware Contemporary Art Gallery, is concerned about the future of downtown artistsā studios. Dinnerware, a nonprofit artist cooperative, is the oldest gallery in downtown Tucson.

Proposal to expand Aviation Parkway may break up arts district

In the heart of downtown Tucson is a haven where artists flock for desirable studio space. It is a place of imagination and creativity ÷ an artistic realm of sorts.

However, the proposed expansion of Aviation Parkway last spring, along with more and more desirable gallery space being built north of Tucson, have made the downtown arts district look passŽ.

Barbara Penn, an associate professor of art at UA, has shared her studio space downtown at the Steinfeld Warehouse, 101 S. 6th Ave., with associate professor of art Ellen McMahon and local artist, Laura Lafave for 11 years. It is in this space that Penn does her creative research, her installation work and her painting.

The currently proposed expansion of Aviation Parkway is set to include the area of land that the Steinfeld Warehouse occupies.

With the new risk of having her studio space taken away, Penn said she has been confronted with issues also posing a threat to her future at UA.

"It is important that I have this space to keep my need to make work flowing and active · (and) to maintain exhibitions necessary to hold a job as a professor in the School of Art," Penn said.

"It is important for affordability, space; I need to have 10-foot-high walls (for) the scale of work that I make and for storage," Penn said. "It is an advantage to have this space in a quiet area, away from the university in order to ensure a state of being required to make work."

Affordability of space is a major issue for artists in the area. Artists occupying studio space in the area have a rent control agreement with the state of Arizona, which owns the properties.

JON HELGASON/Arizona Summer Wildcat Mauricio Toussaint examines the lighting on a large piece.

But, with the new roadway likely to attract more motorists and, by extension, more consumers, the artists face the possibility of higher rent.

"I could never afford a place thatās nice and spacious," McMahon said. "My studio work is more like visual research, related to my teaching at the university. It is exhibited in museums and galleries but generally not purchased."

Penn said the addition of a highway through downtown Tucson would change the atmosphere of the area.

"It would certainly change the outside surrounding space of the buildings in terms of a different feeling; (a) congestive feeling," Penn said. "Currently, my view from my door offers an expansive view of the sky and mountains and railroad tracks; a distant and open view."

Not only would the addition of roadway change the aesthetic look and feel of the arts district, but it may also determine whether the artists would want to remain in the area at all.

"I love the (current) studio because it is quiet and spacious and beautiful," McMahon said. "I would move if it was surrounded by highway."

One possible alternative for the artists is to relocate to another section of town. The most recent trend for artists is to set up studios and galleries in the Foothills area. Artists with no connection to the university may find this to be a plausible solution, but for those with direct ties to UA, it presents a logistical nightmare.

"I would never move to the Foothills because I live and teach in the central part of town," McMahon said.

Mauricio Toussaint, president of the board of the Dinnerware Contemporary Art Gallery, 135 E. Congress St. ÷ founded as Dinnerware Artistsā Cooperative Gallery in 1979 ÷ and interim Dinnerware director said that the addition of highway space through downtown would decrease the feeling of community in the area.

"Usually what I see in urban development (is that) whenever they open a highway they split the neighborhood," Toussaint said. "People that live on one side of the neighborhood eventually donāt go to the other side, isolating sections of the city."

He said he thinks less people would visit the respective "sides" of the downtown area.

Penn agreed the pedestrian life and artistic vibe of downtown would be threatened by the incorporation of a highway in the area.

"It would make downtown far less interesting in terms of creative spirit and energy."