Anchorage Daily News

Rebecca Stephan walked into Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge last winter for a cup of coffee, and she left with a business plan.

Funny what a good mug of joe can do.

The cozy lounge in Midtown set the right tone for entrepreneurial thought that day. When Stephan walked out and saw a "For Lease" sign next door, she knew the die was cast. The seed for Gallery Red sprouted.

"There wasn't going to be a better place for the gallery I wanted," she said.

Stephan grew up in the art scene and probably learned to string sentences together about the same time her parents founded Stephan's Fine Arts 31 years ago. After she bought the business from her folks five years ago, she discovered that the two downtown galleries, on Sixth Avenue and in the Hotel Captain Cook, have histories and lives of their own.

"Everything about Stephan's has been working well, but about 10 years ago tastes started changing," she said. "We want to bring in national artists, more exotic pieces, maybe art from other countries -- stuff you don't see in Anchorage at all."

She tried introducing different

artists and mediums at Stephan's but found it difficult to make it work. Yet she knew that many people, especially younger customers, wanted bolder, more colorful art and more variety in terms of size, price and medium.

With Gallery Red, she hopes to offer all that by carrying everything from giant paintings to jewelry, prints, sculpture and what some people might call knickknacks. Most of the works will come from outside Alaska.

"For the most part, it's about bringing in what's not available here," said Stephan, 34. "So many of our customers buy in Vegas, Maui, wherever they go on vacation, and really, our biggest competitor is the Internet."

If Gallery Red can develop a broad range of choices while maintaining its local roots, then it just might connect with a younger crowd.

NOURISHING THE ART SCENE

When Modern Dwellers opened last fall, it changed the character of the relatively new but staid strip mall at Old Seward Highway and 36th Avenue. Sandwiched between a sub shop and a physical therapy office, Modern Dwellers sells upscale chocolates and coffee drinks along with paintings, platters, belts, handbags, jewelry and such.

The owners make some of the furniture pieces they sell, but they also find art wherever they travel.

"We just buy what we like," said co-owner Zoe Oakley. "That way we don't mind looking at it if it doesn't sell."

Oakley knows little about Gallery Red's concept, but she hopes the new store generates customer traffic for their corner.

"I think it should complement what we're doing for sure," she said. "Obviously, we're competition on one level. But competition is good."

When Oakley and Martha Brigham opened their store, they wanted others to follow. Neither was thrilled about opening in a strip mall, but they saw potential for developing the personality of the place.

"We really, really wanted to see other businesses come in," said Oakley, "like boutiques, wine stores, that kind of thing."

Right now, most of the mall's businesses center on quick-sell products like medical supplies and phones rather than atmosphere, but Gallery Red might expand the ambiance forged by Modern Dwellers.

The gallery with red and coral walls will keep relatively late hours, until 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and hold First Friday gatherings every month along with other events throughout the year. It will also feature a design shop for framing and art restoration, Stephan said. Work by artists from Maui to New York will fill the walls and display cases, but the stock will also include art by a few locals.

Kathryn Carr has worked as a salesperson and frame shop employee at Stephan's, but she also makes multimedia art of her own, some of which will appear in Gallery Red.

Up to now, the Stephan's galleries have appealed to tourists and collectors who want an older style of art, including paintings of ships, animals and landscapes, Carr said. Moving into more contemporary art will open doors for many artists.

"(Stephan) is a great person to work with," Carr said. "I think she has a good relationship with artists, and Stephan's has been a good, nurturing place for them."

Stephan believes in nurturing artists and the art scene in general.

"I feel like we're a little stagnant in Anchorage right now," she said. "To keep our doors open, we have to give customers what they want while sticking to what we believe."

FROM OLD GUARD TO NEW

The concept for Gallery Red sounds a lot like the original vision behind its forebear, Stephan's Fine Arts. Tom Forbes, who now works as a sales consultant for Stephan's, used to be a customer.

"I bought art at Stephan's when Becky was a little girl," Forbes said. "It wasn't just Alaskan art back then. There were lots of Outside artists represented."

Kathleen Canfield remembers those days too. She works at the Stephan's gallery in the Hotel Captain Cook and said the gallery now mostly focuses on Alaska artists because that's what visitors and collectors want to see and buy. People from all over the country go to the gallery for works by artists like Charles Gause and Rie Munoz.

"Alaska fascinates tourists, and the artwork reflects it," she said. "We do it well."

Still, younger people prefer the brighter, more colorful, more affordable pieces.

"What they're looking for, I think, is a little more contemporary look, work that looks a little more 'with it,' " Canfield said. "They want something different and unusual, and I think (Stephan) wants to get that market of people who don't necessarily want Alaskana."

If Gallery Red gets a reputation for having different kinds of art, then "it's going to attract those people," she continued. "Stephan's has a look, a feel, and it's always going be successful that way, but (Rebecca Stephan) is trying to attract a different, wider, younger group of people."

That means selling art that costs less than a few thousand dollars a pop, said Stephan. She'll stock the gallery with everything from big original paintings to table pieces, giclee prints and even posters.

Stephan loves the family business she bought but sounds exhilarated about taking Gallery Red in her own direction.

"This is much more exciting to me," she said. "It's my generation, it's my kind of thing."

Find Dawnell Smith online at adn.com/contact/dsmith or call 257-4587.

GALLERY RED is in the shopping plaza at 751 E. 36th Ave. (at Old Seward Highway), Suite 104. Hours are 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and noon-6 p.m. Sundays. Grand-opening party June 13. (www.stephanfinearts.com)

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