This Year, Some of Those Other Artists Are at Fair : Exhibitions: ART/LA93 branches out with a 400-artist show and three adjunct downtown venues.

When ART/LA93 opens tonight, the Eighth International Los Angeles Art Fair will be only one of four venues for contemporary art activity taking place in the downtown area. Beyond the Convention Center, this year’s offerings range from a 400-artist show in two converted warehouses, to prototypes for a museum and a nonprofit gallery that would focus on Los Angeles artists.

“How many great talents have we lost in this city because nobody’s seen the work?,” asks Brady Westwater, a member of the ART/LA advisory board who is spearheading two of the adjunct projects. He says the timing of these shows with the fair aims to “make it less intimidating for people to get out and see the wealth of talent we really have here in L.A.”

All three adjunct exhibitions are in some ways an outgrowth of FAR Bazzar, an alternative exhibition of installations mounted during last year’s art fair by the nonprofit Foundation for Art Resources, but these projects are designed to work with the fair instead of as a rebellion against its formality. Buses will run between the fair and the three adjunct shows.

The largest of the three efforts is “Downtown Lives!,” a three-week bash celebrating the visual and performing artists living downtown and in surrounding areas. Occupying 25,000 square feet of donated exhibition space in two warehouses at the corner of Alameda and Bay streets, the show includes 15 juried site-specific installations, plus an open exhibition of painting, sculpture, photography and video art. An accompanying performance schedule, set on three separate stages, encompasses theater, classical music, puppetry, cabaret acts, alternative rock and poetry.

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Artists featured in “Downtown Lives!,” billed as the largest exhibition of downtown art ever mounted, include Roland Reiss, Lisa Adams, Michael Barton Miller, Sandow Birk, Wayne Healy, Guillermo Bert, Eloy Torrez and Marcy Anne Watton. Scheduled performances include a theater piece by the Hittite Empire, a work presented by Al’s Bar National Theatre, an ongoing Lounge program with both curated and spontaneous performances, and a huge fashion show featuring designs by artists including May Sun, Daniel J. Martinez and Diane Gamboa.

Initiated to dispel the notion that the downtown art scene died with the recent departure of such institutions as Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and the Museum of Neon Art, “Downtown Lives!” is the first large-scale project organized by the Downtown Arts Development Assn., a new nonprofit organization run by local artists and business people.

In addition to future exhibitions and open studio tours, DADA hopes to develop links between downtown artists and collectors more familiar with the Westside gallery scene--hopefully prompting a better financial outlook for downtown’s many emerging and alternative artists.

Also attempting to establish new art-world links are “The Metropolitan Momentary Contemporary Museum” and “The Project Box”--the first offerings of another new nonprofit group--the Los Angeles Art Project, spearheaded by the art fair’s Westwater in conjunction with local, established artists and curators.

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Housed in the Metropolitan Apartment complex at 949 S. Hope St., the Momentary Contemporary is the group’s prototype for a new museum focusing on local emerging and mid-career artists--ranging from the unknown to those who have been successful in the gallery system but have not yet had major museum shows.

“For a two-week period, this is our calling card--our prototype for what such a museum could look like,” Westwater said. “After this debut, we will sit down and talk to foundations and museums about supporting such a venture.”

The other offering of the L.A. Art Project is “The Project Box,” located in a 10,000-square-foot donated warehouse/office space at 333 W. Washington Blvd., and featuring a dozen individually curated shows.

“The Project Box,” Westwater said, is also a prototype; this one for plans to establish two or three galleries in areas with heavy foot traffic--such as Westwood--that would feature curated group shows with artists from major L.A. galleries in an effort to “introduce contemporary art to people who wouldn’t normally go into established galleries.”

“It’s all about getting people to see the work these artists do,” said Westwater, who began the L.A. Art Project--and joined the ART/LA board--after receiving more than 1,500 responses to an open letter he sent out criticizing the quality of last year’s art fair.

* “Downtown Lives,” 740 Alameda St., (213) 629-5576; performance hot line: (213) 585-6186. Open Thursday-Friday, noon-6 p.m. Through Dec. 19: Saturdays, noon-11 p.m. and Sundays, noon-6 p.m., respectively. Opening party: Friday, 7 p.m.-midnight. * “The Metropolitan Momentary Contemporary,” 949 S. Hope St., (310) 456-1747, Ext. 255. Open today-Sunday and Dec. 11 and 12 (exact hours not set yet). Opening party: Thursday, 7 p.m.-midnight. * “The Project Box,” 333 W. Washington Blvd., (310) 456-1747, Ext. 255. Open today-Saturday, 1 p.m.-midnight; Sunday, 1-7 p.m. Opening reception, Thursday, 6 p.m.-midnight.