MAY 2004
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The Warehouse IssuePeople & PlacesGo To: MOCA • Davis Dominguez • Tucson Warehouse & Transfer •
Curator Anne-Marie told Travel + Leisure magazine that MOCA was originally “an alley between two buildings (that) was roofed over, and then the two buildings on either side were torn down.” The structure became Walsh Brothers, a business equipment company that used Harleys with sidecars to deliver typewriters to customers. “The hogs ran right up the ramp into MOCA and parked at their station - the letters of the motorcycle bays are still on the walls,” Russell told the magazine. The museum shows national and international artists, and media of the same caliber have covered MOCA for their exhibits. Their first show was in December 1999. The space was to house them temporarily; they were interested in taking up permanent residence in the Thrifty Block, but the federal government delayed the process of declaring the block surplus for years. MOCA is still looking for an appropriate exhibition space. “We have a permanent exhibit that we can’t show because this isn’t a proper building. “It’s a great project space,” she said. Russell also added that they would like to try and renovate it and use it as an annex. Russell said that MOCA wants to keep the museum downtown. On a personal level, she said she came here “because of Downtown Tucson; because there is no where else in the country that is like this; because of the people downtown and the barrios that surround it. “This place is very special.” MOCA is located at 191 E. Toole Avenue. —Jamie Manser
Davis Dominguez GalleryThe Davis Dominguez Gallery is home to “Tucson’s largest exhibit of contemporary art,” featuring all sizes of mixed media paintings and sculpture for interior and outdoor placement. Contemporary art wasn’t always the focus of Davis Dominguez Gallery. In the 1970s, before Candice Davis and Mike Dominguez moved into their warehouse at 154 E. 6th St., the couple was doing office decoration. The Davis Gallery, on Oracle Rd, near Ina, was where Davis and Dominguez set prints of art and various posters into metal-section frames and sold to businesses around Tucson. “We called on brand new offices, and there were a lot of them downtown, and in other parts of town, too,” Dominguez says, “There was a little bit of a construction boom going on.” Davis and Dominguez got their first taste of a genuine art show when Floyd Spectrum closed his Spectrum Gallery on Speedway Blvd. He asked the two to exhibit his remaining shows. Those shows were what made Davis and Dominguez decide to begin their fine art program. The couple’s fine-art business had been expanding for twenty years, and they needed a larger, more affordable space to house their inventory. Downtown’s Historic Warehouse District has accommodated their needs since 1999. The Davis Dominguez Gallery currently represents over thirty artists, including Luis Jimenez, Sam Scott, Bruce McGrew, Ben Goo and Fred Borcherdt. —from Downtown Tucsonan files
Tucson Warehouse and Transfer CompanyThe Tucson Warehouse and Transfer Building, Downtown’s tallest historic warehouse, was constructed in 1918 of cast concrete with terracotta infill panels. The unused upper levels include cedar-lined storage cubicles and storage space accessible until last year by a now-disconnected 1918 Otis elevator, the oldest in use in the state until Benjamin Supply was denied its use due to potential danger and loud gears. Labeled as “Fire Proof” by painted-on signage when constructed, and still bearing painted-on “Mayflower” signage, the building has found a new life, if only on its ground floor. Purchased in 1989 by Mark and Ruth Berman as part of a half-city-block comprising footprints of 11 buildings, the ground floor currently houses Sakellar Associates, an architecture firm. Benjamin Plumbing Supply is located in the adjacent former ice house, reputedly designed by Josias Joesler in 1936, while Davis Dominguez Gallery, Metroform Limited, Ortspace, and additional artists’ studios occupy the remaining buildings on-site. Owner Mark Berman is currently working on a master plan to develop the upper three floors when the local market can bear the high cost of constructing for a changed use in a historic building. A more immediate goal is to rebuild the 1930s-era, now deteriorating, neon Tucson Warehouse and Transfer sign located on the roof of the building and once a landmark of Downtown Tucson’s skyline. —Mary Ellen Wooten Mat Bevel Institute
During his tenure, Schaper has created an impressive collection of his kinetic/found object sculptures that serve as an atmospheric backdrop for the Zeitgeist Jazz at the Institute series -which completed its seventh season last month. The space has also been the host of parties, graduations, weddings, recitals, and his own Surrealistic Pop Theater. “Presently, it is the BEVELVISION production studios. That means it is one big TV set.” Although the warehouse is remaining in the state’s control, his situation can still be considered tenuous; his lease is month-to-month. Nonetheless, Schaper plans to buy the entire lot and “build another studio north of me, turn this building into the Bevel Café, open it as a public venue again where everything that goes on here is broadcast out to the world as BEVELVISION, the eyes and ears of the Mat Bevel Institute.” With that kind of footage, one would no longer wistfully wonder what the walls would say, if only they could speak. Mat Bevel Institute is located at 530 N. Stone Ave.,www.MatBevel.com —Jamie Manser
Originate & EPAcenterFifty-four years ago, the 5-garage-door warehouse was constructed for Citizen Auto Stage Company as a freight loading dock. “Trucks from Mexico brought goods in and then the wares were transferred across the floor to another truck heading out to somewhere in the U.S.,” Originate’s Natasha Winnik explained. The owner of Citizen Auto Stage told her he “designed and built the building to be like a bunker. “It is a very solid building - triple wythe brick with concrete hollow beams for the roof and large steel beams.”
They chose the district location to be a part of Downtown’s revitalization and for the proximity to “all the activities that are happening now and in the future. “Josephine and I feel it is extremely important to be surrounded by the energy that exists within the artistic community within the warehouse district.” Originate and EPAcenter is located at 526 N. 9th Ave., www.Originatenbm.com, www.EPAcenter.org. — Jamie Manser Solar Culture
That makes the gallery/music spot the oldest building on the block. Formative years saw produce companies occupying the single bay warehouse with the “Fairbanks Patent Granger Warehouse Scale” still in the ground outside of SC’s door. He originally rented the building in April of 1987 to serve as a sculpture and painting studio. A year later, it was hosting art/music openings and saw over 70 shows from 1988 to 1991. Police harassment caused Eye to relocate to 530 N. Stone Ave. (now home to Mat Bevel Institute) in 1991. In the duration of four years, Eye’s Downtown Performance Center (530 N. Stone Ave.) had over 800 shows and was the place to see buzz bands that were left of the dial. Eye shut down after numerous police and West University neighborhood complaints and eventually moved back to 31 E. Toole. After a four year healing hiatus, “newly inspired and freshly renovated, the soul of the building evolved into Solar Culture. In October of 1999, the music would not be silent anymore as we had our first art opening/music event.” SC continues to host national and international bands and the gallery is open to any artist that wants to hang their work. Eye has dedicated himself to Tucson, the warehouse and is sculpting “a fantasy world inside and outside of this building,” inspired by his recent trips to Prague. “My new theory is that I’m cementing myself into the building and I’m not going to leave.” —Jamie Manser
Chax Press
Executive Director Charles Alexander is a book artist and writer who has operated small presses since 1979. In 1984 Charles began the non-profit Chax Press in Tucson. Since 1986 Chax Press has been located in the brick warehouse/artist collective at 101 W. 5th Street. The publishing company receives 60-70 manuscripts a year, but only publishes eight or nine books annually. It often takes several years from acceptance of a manuscript to completion Having run presses in other states, Alexander says he enjoys the Tucson arts community and the unusual interplay between artist disciplines that occurs here. Thanks to Chax Press, poetry has a solid place in the Tucson arts community. www.chax.org. —Jessica Monthony |
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From 1991-1995, this square brick structure was Steven Eye’s Downtown Performance Center. After hosting over 800 rock and punk shows, Eye made the heartbreaking decision to shut down after regular conflicts with the police and West University Neighborhood Association. About seven years ago, Ned Schaper took the reigns. “Eye wanted somebody to take it over who would stand up to the task,” Schaper said. 
Winnik and EPAcenter’s Josephine Thomason purchased it from the state last summer with the goal to “create a community resource center and demonstration site for building with ecologically sound materials and a demonstration site for the use of alternative technologies.”
According to Solar Culture’s visionary, Steven Eye, the venue was constructed between 1901 and 1904. 
Celebrating 20 years of publishing, Chax Press specializes in publishing hand-made books of poetry. These handmade art books, usually published in limited numbers, use traditional printing techniques, hand-made paper, sewing, and a variety of innovative techniques to house the written word within a unique visual art form.