ArtisanWorks

One Tank Trip /Rochester

Take a day to wander through treasures

By Martin Naparsteck

SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

Published: February 14, 2010, 12:30 am

ROCHESTER—If you enjoy looking through the years of accumulations in someone’s attic to discover artistic and historic treasures, visiting ARTISANworks will make you feel like you’ve been granted early admission into heaven.

Part history museum, part art gallery—although it claims to be neither—ARTISANworks is a quarter-million pieces of art and whatnots spread (cluttered it will seem at first glance) throughout 60,000 square feet (about the size of two football fields) of a former artillery factory on Rochester’s east side. While there, you’re likely to see artists painting or sculpting or doing the things artists do. Including talking to the visitors.

A brochure promoting ARTISANworks says it is neither a museum nor a gallery but rather “a 21st century art space in which we honor successful, prominent artists and their work.”

There are thousands of paintings, thousands of sculptures (including full size wood sculptures of a Harley Davidson motorcycle and a Model A Ford, both by sculptor Ross Rider). They hang on the walls and ceilings, are painted on doors, interior and exterior walls; they lean against walls and posts and each other.

And there are other things, from a fire engine to furniture to photographs to old cameras, just about anything a clutter bug couldn’t bear to get rid of. There’s no place you can walk inside the massive building without coming across something surprising or interesting or wonderful, and often all three.

There’s the Marilyn Monroe Room. Pictures of the late actress are on display in a room that is a replica of a Los Angeles studio where Doug Kirkland photographed her in 1961. ARTISANworks founder Louis Perticone told me that when Kirkland saw the room, the photographer had tears in his eyes.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Room is actually three rooms, although you may see only one. The other two are closed unless you’re accompanied by a staff member. The one open to all visitors has furniture based on the famed architect’s designs and a balcony library with thousands of books. ARTISANworks executive director Victoria Benz took me into the other two Wright rooms. The first is a wine cellar, a replica of the one Wright had at his famed Taliesin home in Wisconsin; the second contains replicas of items found at his Oak Park, Ill., home.

Among Perticone’s favorite parts of his massive collection is a 1950s dentist office, complete with uncomfortable chairs that remind you of why a trip to have your teeth worked on was such an unpleasant experience. You can shiver just looking at the half-century-old equipment.

Among Benz’s favorite spots in the former factory is the fire engine room, actually two rooms, complete with a fire engine, firefighters’ gear and beds for the firefighters to sleep in. (No, you can’t stay there overnight. I asked. And, no, you can’t slide down the pole; it’s fenced off.)

Perticone says he is changing the focus of part of ARTISANworks from strictly art to art and history. There’s a Kodak tribute room modeled on a 1900’s camera shop and a Tap Room with displays covering 130 years of beer making.

In keeping with the art focus of the place, however, Benz noted that they are constructing a gallery specifically to display works by regional artists. The first show will be “The Human Safari,” featuring paintings by Martine Lepore, one of the 13 resident artists who can often be found working while visitors tour.

ARTISANworks gets about 40,000 visitors a year. Most of those attend various events, including the dozens of weddings held there annually. You can rent a single room or the whole building. Depending on how much space you want and whether you want ARTISANworks to arrange catering and entertainment and other amenities, and how many people are coming, the prices range from a few hundred dollars to $10,000.

But it is open to the general public on weekends—Friday and Saturday from 11 a. m. to 6 p. m., and Sunday from noon to 5 p. m. Admission is $12; students and seniors get in for $8.

If you want to look at everything, plan to spend the whole day. If you spend less than two hours, you’re cheating yourself. There’s a coffee cart for drinks and snacks, but unless you’re attending a catered event, you can’t really buy a meal, so, Benz told me, visitors are free to bring their own lunch.

You might want to watch a movie in the Triangle Theater, named for the shape of the room. It holds 30 people and usually has a film showing continuously. When I attended a party there a few years ago, I got to see much of “Moulin Rouge,” the 2001 version with Nicole Kidman. No popcorn, but no extra charge, either.

Two parts of ARTISANworks worth spending extra time in are Vertigo Heights and Boulevard Garibaldi&The Courtyard. Along with the main entrance display space, they are the largest rooms in the building.

Vertigo Heights is, Perticone and Benz both told me, a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, although I looked and looked and could not find a single painting or sculpture that seemed to be a reference to the great director. Benz educated me (not hard to do when you don’t know a lot). She pointed toward the ceiling so I would see dozens of hanging works of art and several large paintings flat against the ceiling. Looking up, of course, isn’t what gives you vertigo, but some of the workmen who installed the art, she told me, suffered from a mild case. Which reminded them of the Hitchcock movie of that name.

Boulevard Garibaldi&The Courtyard is about 200 feet long and has the feel of a sidewalk art sale in Rome. A very crowded sidewalk art sale. The art studios and tribute rooms along the Boulevard are always open for browsing.

There’s also a rooftop sculpture garden, and the outside of the building is heavily dotted with paintings and surrounded by sculptures.

You might combine a trip to ARTISANworks with a visit to the Memorial Art Galley, a large and more conventional art museum, and drive by Rochester’s only Frank Lloyd Wright house, which is privately owned, so you have to be satisfied with a view from the outside.

If you go take the Thruway east to the I-390 exit, go north, switch to I-590, get off at the Blossom Road exit, turn left (west), and drive about a mile. ARTISANworks is on the left, a large teal building, clearly marked. There’s plenty of parking, but it’s tricky to find. Enter at the Rochester Business Center just east of ARTISANworks or at the office complex just west of it. In either case, there is parking in front of ARTISANworks.

To go to the Memorial Art Gallery, exit ARTISANworks and turn left. Blossom Road merges with University Avenue after a half-mile. After the merge, travel west on University about a mile and a half; the museum is on the right. It’s open Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a. m. to 5 p. m. and Thursday 11 a. m. to 9 p. m. Admission is $10 ($6 for seniors and active military personnel; $5 for students).

To get to the Frank Lloyd Wright home, exit ARTISANworks, turn left, take Blossom to University; go 2/10 of a mile on University; make the first left you come to, East Boulevard. Near the end of the second block (East Boulevard is only two blocks long), the Wright house is on the left. Its prairie style makes it easy to spot. It’s the easternmost Wright prairie-style house in the country.

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