Dia center delay puts pinch on Beacon arts business

By Craig Wolf
Poughkeepsie Journal

BEACON -- If Beacon's business scene were a play, it would be titled, ''Waiting for Go-Dia.''

Unlike Godot, the title character who never shows up in Samuel Beckett's famous absurdist play about hope and hopelessness, Dia: Beacon really does plan to show -- in May.

But delays and waiting for the town's biggest tourist draw have taken a toll, say some in the business community here. Rather than wait, they have formed a new alliance of art-oriented businesses, as yet unnamed.

Beacon's pot went from simmer to bubble in early 1999. That's when the New York-based museum picked the spacious old Nabisco plant as the home for its permanent collection, which was to open in 2001.

Hopes rose that thousands of metro-area tourists drawn to the museum would spill up the hill to Main Street. Art galleries opened. But Dia didn't open in 2001. It would be 2002. Then it was 2003. A few galleries closed.

In the past few weeks, a movement has emerged among arts entrepreneurs who say: organize now.

''I don't think we should wait for them,'' said Ron Iarossi, owner of Kringle's Christmas House. ''Dia picked us because of what they saw. We didn't say, oh, save us. They saw we had already saved ourselves.''

Thursday, the group picked Ricardo Diaz of The Framery as president; Iarossi as vice president; art conservator Christina Labrie as secretary; and Architectural Glass Inc. founder Michael Benzer as treasurer.

They plan a ''2nd Saturday" promotion in which galleries and other shops would stay open late one evening a month, starting Dec. 14.

Getting a vibe going

Diaz said the goal is to create ''an atmosphere of an upbeat Main Street,'' tying in show openings, refreshments, performances, restaurants and other events.

The Beacon Business Association has slumped. Sheila Wicklow, co-owner of The Little Pie Shop and a past president, said momentum was lost after the ferment of 1999.

''Next year it was like falling off a cliff,'' she said. ''A lot of the businesses went from the best year we've ever had to the worst.''

She said talks are under way about reviving it or creating a new group. Its scope would be broader than arts.

The city has to establish trolley bus service if Dia at the waterfront is to be linked to Main Street, she said.

''While we are thrilled that (Dia) is happening, there's always been a concern that unless Main Street was a destination before Dia happened, why would it be a destination after it happened?''

Where to call: For information on the newly formed business group, call Ricardo Diaz at (845) 838-4243 or Ron Iarossi at (845) 838-2830.