by Amy Upah
Daily Lobo
In an attempt to lure art collectors to the city, the Downtown Action Team is holding the Go! Downtown Albuquerque Arts Festival.
Fire dancers and belly dancers, catering from Tucanos Brazilian Grill and a silent movie projected onto a building will be offered free to the public on opening night Thursday, Sept. 22. The event will feature the work of 150 local artists.
Amy Turner, coordinating manager of the event, said the goal of the festival is to bring people from various parts of the city into Downtown.
"The Downtown Action Team and their revitalization efforts for Downtown Albuquerque put together an event that would tie the creativity of inner city Albuquerque and expose it to outer city Albuquerque," Turner said.
It was originally called the Downtown Studio Arts Tour, and people would go from studio to studio, purchasing work. Turner said they opted for a different name.
"We decided to name it "Go!" to get people out of their houses," Turner said.
Turner hopes to see the festival grow and become a popular national event. She said a co-worker once told her the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta started with a couple of balloons in the parking lot of Coronado and Winrock Centers, and now it's a worldwide event. Turner hopes to see similar growth with the art event.
Next year, Go! will be featured in an international art guide.
Downtown Action Team member Jim Trujillo said the festival is one of the Downtown Action Team's revitalization efforts. The organization works to clean up the streets from aggressive panhandlers, suspicious activity and graffiti. The Downtown Action Team advocates for the homeless and has a Clean Team which cleans up what the city cannot or will not, Trujillo said. Its efforts are focused to help the economic and cultural growth of Downtown.
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The revitalization efforts are also focused to enrich the culture of Downtown, like creating a niche for contemporary art, Trujillo said.
Susan Tische Clifford, an artist whose works will be on display, said it would be difficult to make the Albuquerque art scene contemporary when it is more Southwest and American-Indian oriented.
Clifford is a career artist who said the Albuquerque art economy is lacking.
"Sales are really slow," she said.
2,500 people are expected per day during the four-day festival. Rapid Ride plans to change its route during the festival to make it easier to attend. The wide range of art includes jewelry, etchings and paintings.
Plans for the future popularity of Go! and the revitalization of Downtown aren't concrete.
"It takes years to build something up," Clifford said.
