For more than 40 years, gallery owners have invited the public to stroll along the downtown arts district. The Scottsdale ArtWalk, held every Thursday night, is marketed as “America’s original ArtWalk."
During Tuesday’s tourism meeting, Scottsdale Gallery Association board member French Thompson told commission members they should be embracing the event.
“The ArtWalk is one of the things that made Scottsdale famous," he said.
Its success attracted the Scottsdale Artisan Markets, a group that hosts outdoor events –and that didn’t sit well with gallery owners. While they paid rent on their brick and mortar locations, the Artisan Markets paid less than $300 for a special events permit that allowed the group to reserve public land for a year and set up tents near Beverly Moore’s gallery.
“Not only does it substantially affect my sales," Moore told Scottsdale Tourism Development Commission members, "But it brings with it the huge parking issue that we have on the streets.”
After getting complaints and petitions, the city stopped the events. The city council also directed staff to update the special events ordinance to ban any art-related events in the area on ArtWalk nights. That didn’t seem right to the city’s own tourism commission whose job is to make recommendations to the council.
“Right now it reads to most of us this very strong group in downtown Scottsdale could veto an event and that seems inappropriate to most of us," Commission Member Carl Grupp said.
With a unanimous vote, the commission directed staff to return to the council and review the veto power of any special group.
