Founder Reshaping Burned-Out Art City

Nearly three years after a pair of back-to-back fires ravaged Art City, the sculptors’ studio complex on the western edge of Ventura is rising out of the ruins.

Instead of dwelling on the thousands of art pieces charred in the flames, Paul Lindhard, the Santa Barbara sculptor who established the artisans’ enclave, saw it as a rare opportunity to clean house.

The collective’s founder is working with city building and fire officials to improve safety conditions at the one-acre site at 197 Dubbers St., next to an auto salvage yard.

Fire inspectors have identified dozens of code violations and are helping Lindhard with a plan to improve operations in the next year.

Adhering to city codes was not a high priority for the artists who lived, worked and displayed their work at Art City. They lived like nomads--lean-to structures were haphazardly constructed to complete a specific art project and then torn down and set up in another part of the yard for the next piece.

“I had to decide if I was going to make a commitment to this location and clean it up,” said Lindhard, 55, who must determine which studios can be salvaged and what new structures and permits are required to meet city codes. Whatever can’t be brought up to code will have to be torn down and rebuilt, Lindhard said.

“They have cleaned up some stuff already and we want to work with them. They have some code violations that need to be corrected,” said city Fire Marshal Bob Prodoehl. “When people start to do work to bring things into compliance, we work with them.”

The makeshift, open-air studios among rosebushes and eucalyptus trees will become anchored and permanent work spaces. The fiberglass roofing and walls--which the artists had long relied on to let natural light into the small studios--contributed to the devastation of the December 1998 fires. A new corrugated material will shield the new studios.

Funds From Rent, Sales of Work, Stones

New plumbing, electrical wiring and a new compressor will be added within the next year. Refurbished studio space, a new gallery area and a facade facing Dubbers Street also are planned.

Lindhard said funds for the renovation will come from studio rent and sales of his and other artists’ work as well as sales of stones. He said he doesn’t know how much the total cost will be.

This collection of studios has matured into a more commercially viable space, Lindhard said. “We really want to present a new image to the city.”

Lindhard established Art City 16 years ago as a communal space where sculptors could come to work and share ideas. The collective hosts carving seminars and sells stone to carvers throughout the western states.

“Schools have studio space, but there is no equivalent to that when you go off to your professional life,” said Lindhard, who spends half of the year hunting for the massive quantities of raw stone used for carving at Art City--marble from Belgium and Italy, onyx from Baja and basalt stone from quarries in eastern Washington.

Lindhard expanded the studio complex in 1990 to create Art City II on nearby Peking Street with a gallery space that hosts 12 shows a year showcasing local artists’ work. The first fire on Dec. 16, 1998, which burned 4,000 square feet of art studios and a kitchenette at Dubbers Street, was ignited by a pilot light leaking propane, according to fire officials.

Twelve days later, another fire engulfed seven other studios, including Lindhard’s. That blaze was started by youths playing with matches on a nearby park trail, fire investigators said. Lindhard estimates he alone lost $200,000 worth of artwork.

Disheartened by their losses, many of the collective’s artists salvaged what they could and left. Others relocated while the cleanup began. It took six months to haul out the charred remains and sift through the ash for anything that might be rescued.

After losing her studio in the second fire, M.B. Hanrahan was forced to relocate to continue working, but she may return to Art City.

“People are always looking for studios, and not everyone is a painter that can work in a living room-size space. I’m a muralist and I need a huge space,” Hanrahan said. “It’s unusual to have a studio that is outside and has that much space in nature. You can make a lot of noise and have a lot of dust.”

After Fire, Artist Saved What He Could

One of the original artists at the collective, Steve Knauff, 41, lost 24 years’ worth of newspapers, about 8,000 videotapes and other materials in the second fire. A shed in one corner of his studio is now full of singed Los Angeles Times he has collected since he was 17 years old.

“Immediately after the fire, I did an archeological dig of all of my stuff. I saved every single recognizable piece of videotape,” he said.

JoAnne Duby, 50, is the only other artist who has remained from that time. The changes at Art City since the fires are for the better, she said: “The fire cleaned up a big mess, to tell you the truth. The buildings were beginning to deteriorate--they were just quick fixes we put up for the time being, but everyone moved into them. The fires cleaned up the lot, and I think it’s better.”

Eight artists now rent studio space in the yard--a more manageable number than the 17 who crammed the parcel at the time of the fires.

“There is a lot of good energy there right now, and it’s a great environment,” Duby said.

It’s part of the new vision Lindhard said he is trying to create to better fit into the city’s cultural arts community.

“With a clean slate, the things that were more important to me became clear. This gave us a whole new playing ground,” he said. “It’s like a wildfire in the mountains. Ultimately, it made a better, stronger place.”