Transplanted Alaskan has big plans in OC's artist relocation project
By MICHAEL MOLITORIS

Photo by Jerry Sowden - Charlie Whipple, artist and owner of the former Klivans Jewelry story building on Seneca Street, holds one of his paintings inside the store he is renovating into the Howling Dog Gallery Caf‚.

For an Alaska man and the Oil City artist relocation project - there's no looking back.

It's full-steam ahead.

Charlie Whipple, 54, is the city's first relocated artist - and a self-taught one at that. A retired merchant seaman, he didn't begin painting until the age of 40, but five years later he knew he wanted to be a master painter, according to his whippleart.net Web site.

Whipple moved to the city earlier this year when snow was still flying, closed a deal on a major downtown North Side property this summer and is talking big-time project.

While he's been working the deal on the old Klivans jewelry building next door to Il Colosseo Italian restaurant, Whipple has displayed several pieces of his art in local establishments - primarily the Yellow Dog Lantern - and at this month's Oil Heritage Festival art show and competition.

Last week, he said he planned to make art his life after retirement, but a disability forced him to up that option sooner than he had planned. With disability retirement giving him 17 percent of his working salary, staying in Alaska and pursuing his passion wasn't an option.

He was looking for a book last year, "Marketing on a Shoestring," when he learned about the artist relocation concept and how it was successfully working in other areas. In most cases, municipalities - like Oil City - offer financial, housing and retail incentives to artists who want to move to those towns, invest in their futures and show, sell and create their art.

Whipple is a western New York native, so a similar effort in Johnstown first grabbed his attention. He learned about the Johnstown and Oil City relocation efforts via the Internet and he visited Johnstown before coming to the oil town. A couple factors, however, put Oil City at the top of his must-move-to list: ARTS Oil City coordinator Joanne Wheeler and the fact that "this just felt like home."

"Every time I asked a question, I got an instant response from Joanne," Whipple said.

Contacts in an Illinois town were taking up to two weeks to respond to his queries.

So now, Whipple has a building, a stockpile of riveting art, a goal and a coordinated effort to make pieces fall into place.

"Right now, I don't have anything to fall back on, so this has to work," the easygoing Whipple said.

Here's what he has in mind.

Whipple now lives in the spacious second-floor confines of his building and eventually will create studio space there as well. The building's street-level Seneca Street side will house the Howling Dog Gallery Caf‚. (The building's Elm Street side houses the Yellow Dog Lantern restaurant).

He's already started renovation work to take the building back to its late-1800s grandeur - including solid plank flooring, a true "ice box," and other turn-of-the-century must-haves. The Howling Dog will feature espresso and other coffee drinks, a smattering of flavored teas, soups and sandwiches.

And art.

Whipple's artwork will adorn the space's walls. The philosophy is simple: get people in the door for a bite to eat or a coffee fix and give them a reason to stay by looking at - and hopefully purchasing - his artwork.

He plans to open in mid-September, already is hiring workers and plans to keep regular 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours on weekdays. Later in the week, he's even committing to a 6 a.m. to midnight schedule.

"One-and-a-half years ago, this artist relocation project was a vision," said Randy Seitz, president of the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry and Tourism. "Today, somebody's actually here because of the artist relocation program."

Wheeler has been working her 15-hour-a-week schedule trying to string the artist relocation program together from her National Transit Building offices. And she said that working with Whipple has helped organizers know what gaps existed in the program and what is working the way it should.

She's put together a list of relocation incentives for artists, including 100 percent, fixed-rate financing up to $150,000 for live-work space through First National Bank, $500 grants and $5,000 loans at 1 percent interest for facade improvement of commercial properties, certain tax breaks and eligibility for state-funded loans.

While the project's pairing with First National Bank only offered money for live-work space, the Oil Region Alliance offered money for other aspects of Whipple's project. Seitz and Whipple believe the Alliance's commitment to the project spoke volumes to the bank, putting needed money in the artist's hands.

Whipple isn't the only one to benefit from his endeavor, Seitz said.

"This is exciting," he said. "He has local contractors doing work for him. And then there are the heating, ventilation and air conditioning people and other spin-offs. Eventually, Charlie will be selling his local products."

Wheeler said a handful of other artists - some of whom also are from out of town - are eyeing studio and shop space in the National Transit's yellow annex. As more artists congregate in Oil City, the project will gain further momentum, she said.

"If you have a critical mass of something going on, then you can become a destination," Wheeler said.