As far as the Bay Area goes, San Francisco is the spot for art. But San Jose wants to change that. Galleries, businesses, organizations and city leaders are putting more effort than ever into boosting San Jose's arts appeal. With American Style Magazine naming San Jose the 25th best art city in the nation in its June edition, it appears the city is succeeding.
"I definitely think downtown San Jose is the art district. If you look at the groups downtown, the symphony, the ballet, the San Jose Rep, the Children's Discovery Museum, it's all there," said Jim Zuur, co-owner of Camera Cinemas.
It is this mix of theater, galleries, music, movies, and museums that creates downtown's appeal as an art scene -- and many feel that the integration of the arts is essential to keeping the city moving forward.
Cherri Lakey and Brian Eder, directors of the art gallery Anno Domini, started South First Fridays, an evening of arts and culture in downtown San Jose's SoFA district the first Friday of the month as a way to increase awareness of the galleries in the area. They hope to maximize attendance by encouraging gallery hopping.
"Things like First Fridays are good because they enhance the network of people for all of these different galleries," said Joshua Russell, communications manager for Arts Council Silicon Valley. "We need to share audiences so that people who are interested in the ballet, for example, can find out about the opera and expand their interests."
Lakey and Eder also created Street Market and Phantom Galleries, with the same goal of helping local artists. Street Market, which takes place near Anno Domini, gives artists and musicians a place to show and sell their work. Phantom Galleries are temporary art exhibits in empty buildings around town.
"We help them get the word out about their art,'' Lakey said. "We are treated as a link to the local artists."
Arts Council Silicon Valley also provides a link to the art world via the Web site artsopolis.com, which has 150,000 visitors each month, 1,000 events featured, and a directory of more than 600 arts and cultural organizations.
Another organization, Pacific Art Collective, also aims to build bridges to the arts -- and between artists.
"There are so many different art scenes and internal cliques when it comes to artists, but things like Pacific Art Collective represent a coming together of those scenes," said Michael Foley, a San Jose artist who participated in the group's June 23 Collabo event at the club Avalon in Santa Clara. At the event, he and 21 other artists painted in unison on wooden boards lined up next to each other. The boards were later auctioned off. Foley described the event as "bringing art back into the community."
Movies also provide San Jose with arts appeal, with events like Cinema San Pedro and the Cinequest Film Festival that took place at Camera 12 earlier this year, along with the recent news that Camera Cinemas is working to revitalize its Camera 3 theater.
"We are still offering a good venue through Camera 12 and then, with Camera 3 coming back, we will be able to show more of the real art films," Zuur said.
Right now Camera 3 houses ComedySportz, an improvisational comedy competition group. When Camera 3 reopens as a film venue, ComedySportz will be a part of the action, along with food service.
Every Wednesday from June through September, San Pedro Square is blocked off at 6 p.m. for Cinema San Pedro. The weekly movie event starts at dusk and features a short film and a main feature. Anywhere from 700 to 1,000 people attend each week and sit in the middle of the street to watch the movie.
"The films chosen range from real fan favorites, to movies that were more hip at the moment of release but are not really appreciated anymore, to really unknown films," said Arminder Randhawa, marketing director of Cinequest, which puts on Cinema San Pedro.
"I like just hanging out outside,'' said Jessica Jones, 28, who attended the June 21 showing of "Saturday Night Fever." "It's fun to be on the street with all of these people. And it's free."
Live music also is generating buzz in the area, attracting newcomers and familiar faces alike.
"If this is any inclination of what the city is like, then I'd say it's a pretty artsy place," Gretchen Benko said at San Jose's Music in the Other Park on June 22. Having just moved to the area, Benko, 36, was pleasantly surprised to hear about the event, saying, "I really had no idea what it would be like, but it was close to work, it was free, and it featured some good artists."
Music in the Other Park, held at St. James Park Thursday nights through June 29, is an alternative to the more established Music in the Park at Plaza de Cesar Chavez, which will start July 6 and continue Thursdays until Sept. 7.
But even with all of these events and new developments in the area, there are some things holding the city back from continued growth.
With the selling of media company Knight Ridder, a major sponsor of the arts, funding is expected to severely decrease. Knight Ridder's sale earlier this week means an immediate loss of $750,000 a year for the arts in the area. Overall, Santa Clara County has lost $4 million in the past year for the arts, said Bruce Davis, executive director of Arts Council Silicon Valley.
Housing also is a problem. "We are losing quite a number of artists because it is too expensive to stay around. This area turns out a lot of artists, but we can't seem to keep them around," said Cathy Kimball, executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art.
But with low-cost artist housing projects, such as the Art Ark in the Spartan Keyes neighborhood, springing up, some are hopeful that this will change.
Spartan Keyes is an older San Jose neighborhood bound by I-280 to the north, Senter Road to the east, Spartan Stadium to the south and Second Street to the west. San Jose hopes to turn it into an arts district. The Art Ark development, a collaboration between the city and a private development company, will have 148 low-income rental units for artists, as well as an art gallery on Keyes Street.
"We've lost so much potential housing already for artists, but it's a step in the right direction. I think wise strategy and stable investment by the city, by the state, by the corporations and by the foundations are needed," Davis said.
Patrick Hofmeister, a 23-year-old full-time artist in San Jose, said "that sounds awesome because it would be a small community for artists." But Foley, the artist who attended the Pacific Art Collective's Collabo event, was less optimistic.
"I think it will last for awhile," he said, "but if the community doesn't support the scene, then it will die."
As far as reaching that "SoHo" level, San Jose still has a way to go.
"We've got the city's ears right now so we need to band together and keep moving forward," Anno Domini's Lakey said. "We still have a lot to do, but it can be done."