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When artist Priscilla Fowler opened her first gallery in the Arts District in 2016, her rent was under $1,500 per month. She’s moved a few times since then until she ended up at her current location on Main Street just south of Colorado Avenue.
Compared to her last location at the corner of Utah Avenue and Commerce Street, “it’s been much better for us,” she says. “Our numbers are back up to what they were. … And we had 260 people this past First Friday.”
But despite a spike in business, she’s afraid that another rent hike might force her to close her doors. She pays $3,909 monthly on her current space.
“It just pains me to think I might have to close it,” she says. “I’ve never had any trouble getting people who want to show. Right now I have about 50 artists. Maybe 7% or 8% of them are from out of town, but the rest are local. … I love the people I’ve got. I think they’re fabulous.”
Her gallery, Priscilla Fowler Fine Art, announced a membership program in an effort to increase her operating income. Memberships for students, artists and seniors are available for $30 per year, and individual memberships for all other groups start at $50 annually.
“We’ve probably had about 20 people sign up so far. My goal is to pay the rent with the membership,” she says.
Fowler isn’t the only artist struggling to pay rent in the Arts District. The nonprofit Vegas Theatre Company has seen their rent increase 40% since the pandemic.
“At the moment, we’re paying $5,334 to rent our theater every month. That doesn’t include other overheads of storage, electricity, utilities, compliance, insurance. And before the pandemic, that number started with a three. So it’s gone up considerably,” says Daz Weller, artistic director. “We’re still not paying retail [rate]. A portion of our rent is being subsidized by our landlord, which we’re really grateful for. But even then, our rent has gone up … since 2020.”
Most neighborhoods saw rents increase after the pandemic. But what’s significant about the Arts District is that it’s supposed to be a place where artists can afford to be.
According to a survey conducted for the City of Las Vegas in 2023—which received more than 300 responses from artists across the Valley, Arts District businesses and visitors—87% of respondents said they were very concerned about the overall loss of arts in the Arts District. And 73% of respondents were very concerned with the loss of artists and creative spaces in the neighborhood.
“This is a conversation that’s been cropping up for a while now. And it’s not uncommon in areas that are kind of going through a gentrification process, that property values [increase] substantially. And so rents are increasing substantially. And if that organic kind of process continues to happen, then naturally artists will be forced out because the area becomes unaffordable,” Weller says.
Since fall 2022, the City of Las Vegas has been working with consultant Jamie Giellis, who is based in Denver and president of consulting firm Centro, to find a path forward to keep artists and the arts in the Downtown district. Giellis, who helped with the “revitalization” of Denver’s River North Art District, spearheaded the survey for the city and conducted approximately 100 interviews with artists and art organizations, business owners, property owners, developers and community organizations who have a stake in Vegas’ Arts District.
“We heard a lot about live-work space, because artists can’t necessarily afford to have housing and then rent a studio. It’s obviously more efficient to have space where they can live and work together, and be together with other creatives. So that led us to ArtSpace,” Giellis tells the Weekly.
The city’s key effort to address affordability for artists is by bringing in the nonprofit affordable housing developer ArtSpace, which operates 57 buildings in 35 cities across the U.S. The company already has a 35-unit project in Reno that was completed in 2000. Such a development could take years to get shovels in the ground, however.
The Weekly reached out to the office of Las Vegas Councilwoman Olivia Diaz, whose district includes the Arts District, for comment on the city’s affordable housing initiatives and how they’re addressing the issue of rising rents in the neighborhood. They did not respond.
The Weekly also reached out to the City of Las Vegas to ask whether they’re working on revising codes and zoning in the Arts District to help with affordability issues. They did not immediately respond to our request.
Giellis suggests that the answers to those and other questions don’t come easily.
“What control does the city have over affordability when we’re a market-driven society in America? What do you do to pull the levers you can pull around affordability? … We’re looking at what to continue to do around policy tools that could be either a carrot or a stick. How much do you require of a developer or investor in an area? … What tools could you use to incentivize people to do something? And so that’s the other piece that’s in motion. It’s sort of in its infancy right now.”
One approach the city is taking is setting up a Business Improvement District (BID) in the Arts District, which could help increase visibility and foot traffic, and increase profits for businesses. If it was created, property taxes would be collected and, under the legal requirements of an ordinance, the money would be transferred to a nonprofit set up to run the BID.
“And then the board [of directors] is in charge of executing and utilizing those funds to what’s been set out in the [ordinance],” Giellis explains.
Funds could be used for increasing police presence, “addressing homelessness,” enhanced cleaning and marketing. Weller, who is on the steering committee for the creation of the BID, says this would be “the best first step” to improve walkability and visitation to Arts District businesses.
“Because we can pool our resources and create strategic marketing, first and foremost to spread the word about how great it is down here. … And on top of that, we can implement clean and safe programs, which is marketing in itself,” Weller says.
Aside from affordable housing initiatives and the creation of a BID, engagement from the private sector is another important component to the survival of arts organizations, especially of nonprofits like his.
“There’s a real role for the philanthropic sector to play in helping keep artists here. Vegas is [last in the nation] for philanthropy toward the arts,” Weller says.
He’s not exaggerating. According to a Forbes analysis of charitable giving in 50 states, Nevada ranked lowest for “informal helping,” and in the bottom 10 states for overall generosity.
“I think our community, if they understood the urgency and the need, they would turn up. If we announced we were closing our doors because we couldn’t afford to be here any more, we would have so many allies turn out,” Weller says.
“Now is the time to turn out. The need is immediate for us. We can’t hold on for two years, while grant programs and things like that are created.”
Fowler believes the city could play more of a role in helping artists, such as they’ve done for startups.
“There needs to be stronger advocates within the city for people like me. … If it’s the Arts District, why are they not helping the artists?”
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