8/14/2019 Building a Downtown Arts District

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8/14/2019 Building a Downtown Arts District

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FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2008 THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN A3

earlier this month.Last week, a woman browsed

the store and returned half anhour later clamoring for localartist Alberto Herrera’s Picasso-style painting of a man with a gui-tar. It cost $2,000.

“She said that it reminded herof her husband who had died sev-en years ago and it just reallytouched her heart,” Ruth said.

“And when she said she wanted it,she started crying. ... She sharedwith me her husband and somefriends would sit outside thehouse and play guitar and sing.”

A handful of artists are plung-ing into the gallery business, hop-ing their works will elicit suchstrong reactions from the heartand the wallet. They’re optimisticdespite the risky timing, as con-sumers face not-so-pretty foodand gas prices.

Though not a gallery, Kuka’s isan example of a growing interestin downtown’s artsy vibe. Tonight,stained glass artist and sculptorJuliana Bernier Dooley opens thegallery side to Juliana’s Art Studioand Gallery on 18th Street, thethird gallery to open in twomonths. More are on the way.

The Underground Gallery &Studio and The Aperture Photog-

raphy Gallery opened across fromeach other on 19th Street in Mayand early June, respectively. TheArts Council of Kern opens itsthird gallery, The YoungerGallery, focusing on contempo-rary and functional art, in theChain, Younger, Cohn & Stilesbuilding on Truxtun Avenue onJuly 31.

Another contemporary galleryacross from the Fox Theateroperated by art instructors VikkiCruz and Yvonne Cavanagh openson Aug. 1.

If you build it ...Jeanette Richardson Parks fig-

ures the streetlight banners fea-turing the work of local artistscreated a buzz when they went upin March.

“People needed to hear some-one say, ‘This is the Arts District,

come here, this is where you’rewelcomed,’” said RichardsonParks, executive director of theArts Council of Kern, which oper-ates galleries at its K Street officeand the Kern Central CreditUnion on H Street.

The city of Bakersfield and thearts council define the Arts Dis-trict as bounded by R Street, 18thStreet, 21st Street and F or Gstreets.

Cathy Butler, president of theDowntown Business Association,said the boundaries are changingto accommodate growth, especial-ly with the Mill Creek project eastof Chester Avenue, imagined asBakersfield’s own art-friendly riv-er walk with shops and restau-rants.

Stained glass artist JulianaBernier Dooley bets on that proj-ect and the future federal court-house. In sight of the BakersfieldMuseum of Art, her gallery openswith an exhibit of oils, photogra-phy and sculptures by top localartists such as Patti Doolittle andBob Gardner.

Bernier Dooley opened her stu-dio a year ago. Behind the brickwall is a habitat out of step withthe crumbling neighborhood.Birds flock to the koi pond sur-rounded by flowers and tomatoplants.

The log cabin-style home is awarm space ready-made for winereceptions, with exposed beams,skylights and more brick.

While she waits for promiseddowntown improvements, BernierDooley hopes word of mouth andthe quality of her exhibits willattract art lovers to the far-flungspot. Collectors will always buy,she believes, no matter the econo-my.

“Art will always be the basis of a culture, so people are alwaysflocking toward that,” she said.

Downtown businesses have longworked to change the downtownatmosphere from tawdry to trendywith artsy street fairs and FirstFriday neighborhood events.

The city and the DowntownBusiness Association envision the19th and Eye streetscape project,scheduled to be completed inAugust, as a space for street fairsand concerts.

Metro Galleries owner DonMartin hopes he’s played a role in

raising downtown’s profile. Localtheaters, restaurants and bars, hesaid, create a young energy down-town. In recent weeks he’s soldabout five pieces in the $800 to$2,100 range. Art appraisals arehis bread and butter, he said, andhe’s had success renting out thegallery for events.

There’s been interest in down-town living; six people have putdown deposits for the nine-unit1612 City Lofts project above thegallery.

Bakersfield still struggles with abackwater, lowbrow image, sosome question whether it’s readyfor a diverse group of galleries.

“It’s not like it’s just happened,”Richardson Parks said. “We’vebeen fighting for this for so long.”

She wants to draw in Bakers-field residents who are buyingBakersfield art at the Central

Coast, Carmel and Monterey.“They have this perception that

if it’s on the beach, it’s worthmore,” she said. “We’re trying tochange the perception right here.”

Galleries should see one anoth-

er as partners, not competitors,she added. Hold events in com-mon, she advised, and you’ll seemore sales.

Odds for survivalMark Evans, associate dean of 

Cal State Bakersfield’s School of Business and Public Administra-tion, said it’ll be a challenge forgalleries to survive in the shortterm, or however long this down-turn might last.

As one might expect, works of art and other major purchasesmove well in a healthy economyand suffer when it tanks.

“That would be where youwould expect people to cut back alittle bit because there is a discre-tion there,” he said.

In the long run, however, athriving arts community willattract new businesses and theywill feed off one another’s success,he said.

Bakersfield has reached a pointwhere its size, income class andlevel of sophistication are bring-ing it closer to supporting artisticventures.

Doctors, business consultantsand other professionals are themost common consumers of luxu-ry goods, he said.

City assistant economic devel-opment director Rhonda Barn-hard remains optimistic aboutart’s future downtown. She saidit’s a good time for artists to takeadvantage of downtown’s lowerrents.

Keep the day jobArtists might want to take a cue

from Jill Thayer. She opened hergallery at the Fox Theater in 1994“as an aesthetic space, not neces-sarily as a commercial endeavor.”Jill Thayer Galleries at the Foxfeatures regional and internation-ally recognized artists.

She always had something tofall back on: her design firm.While it’s helped support thegallery, she said the gallery hasheld its own for years.

Thayer applauds the new kidson the block, but remains a bit

skeptical. It’s important forgallery owners to know how tomarket themselves and researchthe contemporary art scene.

“You can’t just open the doorand throw art on the wall and say,

‘Here we are,’” she said.

Taking a chanceYvonne Cavanagh, a Bakers-

field High School ceramicsteacher, and Vikki Cruz, aninstructor at the BakersfieldMuseum of Art, want to bring big-city sophistication to downtown.

Both attended college in the BayArea and hope it shows at SurfaceGallery on 20th Street, acrossfrom the Fox Theater. The womenwill promote emerging and con-temporary artists. They’ll openwith a four-artist show amid theFirst Friday activities Aug. 1.

The two poured their savingsinto the gallery and have a fewinvestors, Cruz said. They knowthey’re taking a risk, but they havetheir day jobs. Cruz has pokedaround the new galleries andwhile encouraged to see thegrowth, she thinks the value andquality of their art could be better.

“I wanted to open the space toup the ante a bit,” she said.

At The Aperture PhotographyGallery on 19th Street, ownerTony O’Brien, a truck driver, hasarranged his first photographs inthe display windows. He plans toopen with a full gallery in the next

two weeks. Aperture will offer live  jazz, and during shows, runnerswill deliver food from localrestaurants.

People want escapism, he saidshortly before he opened hisgallery. Art survives in the badtimes, too.

“You have to have a button torelease stress,” he said.

Across the street, The Under-ground Gallery and Studio rentswall space to artists. Owners Mikeand Tammy Niemann have soldtwo paintings since they opened, a$60 watercolor by artist Nyoka,from which they earned a 25 per-cent commission, and a DanielleHatfield painting Tammy recalledsold for around $35.

Mike plans to quit his job at theend of the summer to run hisgraphics business from Under-

ground.“We’ll probably have to cutback on some things and won’t beable to go out of town for a while,but you have to take that chance inlife,” Tammy said.

ARTS: Owners expect challenge with economic downturnContinued from A1

process because they would even-tually return to the area.

“I’m sure there are other thingspeople wouldn’t like to see in thatwater,” he said.

Abe said the lakes at the parkare not designed for swimming.

“If you decide to go swimming,you’re doing it at your own risk,”he said.

The city posted signs warning of the danger of swimming in thepark’s creek and two lakes in2006, after two drownings. Butpark-goers can still often be seenwading into the water.

Bob Lerude, Kern County Parksand Recreation director, said has

not received any complaints aboutleeches in the eight years he hasworked in the department.

Paul Crosby, Cal State Fresnobiology professor, said there arehundreds of leech species. He saidonly a small number of thosespecies suck blood from theirhosts, so it is “extremely unlikely”the leeches on Smith’s feet wereblood-feeders.

Some leeches can even be usedfor certain medical proceduresincluding reattachment surgery

after amputation, according toRudy Rosenberg, vice president of leech supplier Leeches USA. Hesaid as the medicinal leech sucksblood, it injects an anti-coagulatethat helps in the formation of newveins after seven to 10 days of treatment.

Smith said though the leechesdid not hurt him, he doesn’t planto walk in the water again.

LEECHES: Park has also had two drownings since openingContinued from A1

Iraq deathsAs of Thursday, at least 4,101 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq

war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,340 died as aresult of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is two fewer than the Defense Department’s tally, last updatedThursday.

The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bul-

garia, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia andGeorgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Aus-

tralia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.

The latest deaths reported by the military:

I No deaths reported.

The latest identifications reported by the military:

I No identifications reported.

HENRY A. BARRIOS / THE CALIFORNIAN

People wade in the water of a creek at The Park at River Walk. Marshall Smith says he had leeches attach to the bottom of his feet while hewalked through in the water looking for bullfrogs. No one wading in the c reek Thursday saw any leeches.

The bronze“Corn Hand”

is by galleryowner, JulianaBernier Doo-ley.

FELIX ADAMO / THE CALIFORNIAN

Of the 406 people charged sinceMarch 1, nearly 300 had beenarrested as of Thursday afternoonas part of a national sweep the Jus-tice Department dubbed “Opera-tion Malicious Mortgage.”

Prosecutors said the crackdownresulted in 60 arrests on Wednes-day alone, in Chicago, Miami,Houston and other places. Muellersaid the FBI had seized more than$60 million in assets — including

luxury cars, speed boats and a heli-copter — as part of the sweep.

No Kern County residents wereamong those charged, said DavidGelios, FBI senior supervisory resi-dent agent in Bakersfield.

The announcement at the JusticeDepartment came as separatecharges were unsealed in New Yorkagainst two Bear Stearns hedgefund managers accused of fraudand conspiracy related to their mar-keting of securities. Their allegedactions, according to governmentdocuments, contributed to the homeloan industry collapse which hascaused nearly $1 trillion in lossesworldwide, according to the FBI.

“Mortgage fraud and related secu-rities fraud pose a significant threatto our economy,” said Deputy U.S.Attorney General Mark Filip.

Robert Gnaizda, policy directorfor the Greenlining Institute in

Berkeley, said he feared the gov-ernment would seek to make exam-ples of mortgage brokers when thetrue culprits were the lenders andWall Street firms he said gave loansthey knew would be unaffordable.

“Mortgage brokers only did whatfinancial institutions allowed themto do,” he said.

Officials say mortgage fraud com-plaints lodged by consumers aregrowing, and the FBI is in the midstof redeploying agents to keep up.

In Los Angeles, federal authori-ties said a new SCAM task force(which roughlystands for SouthernCalifornia Mortgage) wouldinclude the U.S. Attorney’s office,the Internal Revenue Service,postal inspectors and the SmallBusiness Administration.

It will focus on two types of cases,“fraud for profit” and “fraud forhousing,” the FBI said.

The first category accounts forabout 80 percent of all mortgagefraud and involves such schemes asskimming equity or borrowingagainst falsely inflated propertyvalues — scams often carried outby several players working in con-cert. Fraud for housing schemesare perpetrated solely by borrow-ers who acquire and maintain realestate under false pretenses.

Last month, the FBI reportedthat mortgage fraud complaintsnationwide rose 31 percent to46,717 in the fiscal year that endedOct. 31 over the previous fiscalyear. So far this fiscal year, therehave been 43,458 such reports.

As new allegations are investigat-ed, FBI officials say an increasingnumber involve foreclosure rescuescams that promise to bail out finan-cially strapped homeowners.

Authorities also are tracking

developments in 10 states and theDistrict of Columbia, where theyidentified mortgage fraud as an“emerging problem”: Nevada,Utah, Arizona, Missouri, Ten-nessee, Virginia, Indiana, Mary-land, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

California and nine other states— Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Illi-nois, Michigan, Ohio, New York,Georgia and Florida — already hadbeen considered “fraud hot spots,”according to the FBI.

Apart from the individual casesannounced Thursday, Mueller saidthe bureau was investigating 19 cor-porations related to their possiblerole in the lending crisis. The FBIdeclined to identify the companiesor the specific allegations.

FBI officials also said they areinvestigating cases in which gangsand organized crime members aresuspected of committing mortgage

fraud. “It is a means by which indi-viduals could launder their mon-ey,” said Sharon Ormsby, chief of the FBI financial crimes section.

The market hasn’t waited forlegal action to start punishing thebiggest players.

The largest underwriters of trou-bled subprime loans — New Centu-ry Financial Corp. and AmeriquestMortgage Co. — are bankrupt.

New Century Financial Corp. of Irvine told shareholders it is underfederal criminal investigation forallegations that top executives mademillions exercising stock optionswhile failing to warn how quicklythe loans they had sold to WallStreet were going sour.

Ameriquest, of Orange, settledwith 49 states in 2006 by agreeingto pay $325 million and clean up itslending practices.

Countrywide Financial is alsounder investigation by the Securi-ties and Exchange Commission, theU.S. attorney in Los Angeles and thestate attorney general’s office. TheCalabasas-based company was nearcollapse in January when it agreedto sell itself to Bank of AmericaCorp., which in turn just booted itsCEO because its stock is slumpingdue to the deeper foray into mort-gage finance.

FRAUD: Foreclosure rescuescams also being targetedContinued from A1

BY JOE BOESEN

Californian staff writer

e-mail: jboesen@bakersfield.com

Family members of Lance Cpl.Ramiro Hernandez, who died lastyear in August at a Marine trainingcamp in Twentynine Palms, willcelebrate his life June 21, on whatshould have been his 25th birthday.

According to his mother, RachelHernandez, his family will release25 balloons and several doves in the5 p.m. ceremony held at the WascoCemetery at 300 Leonard Ave. inWasco.

A military investigation foundthat Hernandez committed suicideby hanging himself, but his motherhas disputed that finding, believingthat foul play was instead to blame.

Hernandez remembered her sonas a happy person. She said he wasfocused on getting promoted in theMarines and wanted to go fight inIraq.

“He wanted to be the best atwhatever he did,” she said.

Ramiro Hernandez grew up inBakersfield and went to BakersfieldHigh School where he was awrestler.

MICHAEL FAGANS  / THE CALIFORNIAN

Lance Cpl. Ramiro Hernandez

Family to remember

him on his birthday

Marine death