One-Stop Shops for Arts Get on Track : New Complex in Former Red Car Station May Help Revive Gallery Scene

Can a former Red Car trolley station be the savior of Southern California’s depressed gallery scene? Hop on board to find out. Next stop: Bergamot Station.

The new Santa Monica arts complex, developed by contemporary art dealer Wayne Blank of the Shoshana Wayne Gallery, is scheduled to open Saturday. A dozen galleries--offering everything from contemporary paintings and sculpture to vintage photography, African art, artist-designed furniture, art glass and American collectibles--will open their doors on a sprawling, 5 1/2-acre site at 2525 Michigan Ave., near the intersection of 26th Street and Olympic Boulevard. Visitors also will get their first look at other components of the five-building complex, including a cafe, architects’ offices, a bookstore and a frame shop.

“I’m really elated that it’s finally happening and that we are opening on schedule,” Blank said, as construction crews worked overtime to meet deadlines and his fellow dealers prepared to install inaugural exhibitions.

“I had a vision of this complex, and I never doubted that it would become a reality,” he said. “But I am surprised that it has turned out to be so interesting architecturally and that the community has gotten behind it so strongly. We’ve had a great response to the project. Everyone seems to look at it as a new beginning.”

Named for a Red Car trolley station that occupied the site until the 1950s, Bergamot Station was purchased in 1984 by the city of Santa Monica for Metro Rail-related use. When plans for the property failed to develop, Blank persuaded city authorities to let him transform it into an art center. His dream was to provide affordable facilities for art dealers while creating an inviting destination for art lovers. There would be an enticing mixture of art in a pleasant ambience that offered easy access, plenty of free parking and a place to hang out over a snack and a cup of coffee.

The project, which has taken shape over the past year, was greeted with considerable skepticism when Blank took over the property. Doubters, who dubbed the project “Wayne’s World,” questioned Blank’s ability to strike a deal with the city, renovate the ramshackle buildings and attract respectable tenants.

But the lure of low rent--only 75 cents a square foot, less than half the going rate around town--coupled with the promise of a collegial atmosphere eventually won support from the art community. Much remains to be finished on the buildings and grounds, but the participation of such leading dealers as Patricia Faure, Rosamund Felsen and Burnett Miller has lent an air of prestige to what once appeared to be a rather shaky concept.

Bergamot Station has also gained a substantial backer in television comedy producer Tom Patchett, known for his work on “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Alf.” Patchett originally checked out the development as a place to store part of his vast collection of contemporary art and Americana. But one thing led to another. He began to think of opening a small show space, then rented an entire building with a cavernous, museum-style showcase for his American collectibles and a smaller commercial gallery for exhibitions of contemporary art. In June, he became Blank’s financial partner.

“I think the lines are drawn much too definitively between fine and not-so-fine art,” Patchett said. “What I would like to do in my exhibitions is to lead people on a path that makes connections between everyday objects and the art of ideas.”

Other participants say that affordable space attracted them to Bergamot Station, but they offer a variety of reasons for joining forces there.

“For me, it’s a natural progression from being with Turner/Krull to moving into my own space at a very fair price,” said Craig Krull, who deals in photo-based art and will open at Bergamot Station with a show of architectural photographs by Julius Shulman.

“It’s a more reasonable way to do business,” said Lois Lambert, who has moved her 6-year-old Gallery of Functional Art from its former home near the Santa Monica Museum of Art. “I will get a lot more space--3,000 square feet--for less money. That will give me a chance to do what I like, which is to show furniture and objects made by artists. I also like the idea of having a variety of arts in one location. The energy is really nice.” Her opening show, “Great Movements in Art,” features artist-designed tables, chairs, dressers and lighting.

Rosamund Felsen only last week confirmed plans to move her gallery from West Hollywood to Santa Monica. Although she won’t open until Nov. 15, with paintings by Marc Pally, she said she is so excited she can’t sleep.

“We have seen groups of galleries before in mini-malls or strip malls,” Felsen said. “But this seems a little bit different. It’s a separate entity, and it isn’t just galleries. There are architectural offices and related activities, so I think it will attract a broad audience. It will get a lot of attention and create excitement. There’s parking for 400 cars, so that makes it easy for people to come and spend time there. I think it’s going to be fun.”

Bergamot Station is “a unique opportunity,” according to Ernie Wolfe, a dealer of African art who will retain his West Los Angeles gallery while opening a space in Santa Monica. “In terms of the evolution of art complexes--one-stop shopping--this is the most highly evolved example of the form,” he said. “People don’t have a lot of time these days. By being a single destination on Sawtelle, as I have been all these years, if I didn’t cajole people into coming, they didn’t come. It was a lot of work. It still will be--that comes with the territory--but people will have a lot of reasons to come here.”

Wolfe said he considered moving into Santa Monica’s Colorado Avenue complex a few years ago, “but with the kind of thing I do--whether you call it idiosyncratic or weird--being another slice in a loaf of bread just doesn’t work for me. Here I can put my imprimatur on a different kind of space. I will have a lot of flexibility; with the two spaces I can do any weird thing I want.”

The opening slate of exhibitions includes a sculptural installation by Joel Otterson at the Shoshana Wayne Gallery (which Blank operates with his wife, Shoshana); paintings by Ellen Phelan at the Patricia Faure Gallery; photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Peter Fetterman Gallery; paintings by Leonard Koscianski at the Robert Berman Gallery; mixed-media works by Giuseppe de Piero at the Sherry Frumkin Gallery; and light installations by Steven V. Correia, Richard Godfrey and Steve Schauer at the Patricia Correia Gallery. Saturday’s opening reception is 7-9 p.m.