Town on way to Creative District designation

CB one of seven invited to two-year program…

A central portion of Crested Butte has taken the first major step to be officially designated as a Colorado Creative District. Crested Butte was one of seven places in the state to receive the accolade as a “Candidate Creative District “ this year.

The Colorado Creative Industries (CCI), a division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, and the Boettcher Foundation, announced the district designation.
The Candidate District designation puts Crested Butte basically into a two-year internship program. This incubator-style program offers Candidate Creative Districts benefits in the form of direct funding and professional assistance, training and networking with peers. Candidate districts are eligible to apply for certification at the end of two years.
“The goal of this program is to help Colorado Creative Districts achieve the administrative structure, funding streams, community engagement process, strategic plan and staff structure that provide both opportunities to grow the creative economy,” said Margaret Hunt, director of CCI.
Jenny Birnie, co-chair of the Arts Alliance and executive director of the Crested Butte Center for the Arts, feels the benefits of such a designation will be tremendous for Crested Butte. She was extremely pleased upon hearing the news.
“This will be a great thing for all of us,” Birnie said. “[CCI] have the ability to help us and take us to the next level as far as an arts destination.
“It was pretty cool to go through the process of the site visit in late May,” she continued. “For them to come here and see what Crested Butte was about with the arts was significant. They met with a lot of people and saw the impact of the arts to the community. I think it made a big impression on them. The amazing array of art offerings in the eight-block area, the ability we showed to work together and the desire by all of us to make artistic entrepreneurs successful really touched them when they were here.”
Birnie said it wasn’t just the interviewers who came to the valley who were excited with what they saw. The Crested Butte arts community in general were excited by what they heard from CCI and began to really understand how the program could help the area.
“After they were here, it created a lot of excitement in the community and it was clear they had a lot of assistance they could offer to us,” Birnie said. “They have some unique ideas and tools to take us to the next level. The big benefit for us would be that it would help us grow in our efforts to support the work we’re already doing.
“We’re trying to make the artistic community here into a fine-tuned machine, working together,” Birnie continued. “So the assistance from CCI would reinforce the work we’re doing and help us advance our mission in terms of being an economic driver for Crested Butte and support our desire to be noticed. It’s all about bringing people here.”
The proposed Crested Butte Creative District encompasses an area from the Center for the Arts and Town Park and runs west to include all of downtown Elk Avenue, bordered by Maroon and Sopris Avenues. This district includes 16 artist-owned studios and galleries, three co-op galleries, 20 year-round Artwalk events and 10 performance venues including bars, restaurants, and coffee shops—and let’s not forget community radio KBUT.
Crested Butte is also home to renowned artists, award-winning filmmakers and TV producers, architects, designers, published writers, actors, dancers, musicians, painters, photographers and chefs—all part of Crested Butte’s cultural creative community. Throw in the multitude of area festivals from the huge Crested Butte Arts Festival to the Crested Butte Music Fest and events like Vinotok and you have the makings of a vibrant art community.
“Part of the story we are trying to convey is about the workings of the Arts Alliance and its unique nature. I see the whole thing with the alliance as something we need to do, but talking to other people around the state, we are seen as being cutting-edge,” Birnie explained. “It is significant and it is genuine. We see the benefits of the partnership and see how if we work together to be an arts destination it will bring people here to support the town. It is our genuine desire to help keep the town alive. There are more and more opportunities and festivals to bring people back here for multiple visits. I’m already hearing that summer visitors are having a hard time choosing what they want to do because there are now so many quality choices.”
And the explosion of the arts in Crested Butte did not go unnoticed by the CCI visitors. “Another thing they talked about was the growth of our organizations in the last 10 years,” Birnie said. “The Music Fest, the Film Festival, Alpenglow—they’ve all seen tremendous growth in the last few years like so many of our artistic offerings in the valley. They were impressed by the speedy growth trends of Crested Butte and high quality of the things here.”
“These 2014 Certified and Candidate Creative Districts are great examples of how the arts create exciting places for people to visit and live,” said Governor John Hickenlooper. “These districts not only increase quality of life, they also help with economic vitality of the area and attract people from all over Colorado and the country.”
Concerning what the district means in the short term, Birnie hopes to see some quick but tangible steps. “Maybe we’ll see some signage and more of an arts district presence on Elk Avenue,” she said. “We might see some more public art, especially in the creative district corridor. We have always been advocates for that and it is an outcome we hope to see. Marketing will certainly be a plus. The CCI can help us market the area and put us more on the map with their efforts.”
Panelists using the following criteria reviewed submissions for the designation: district characteristics, management and planning, community buy-in, and other factors. Each candidate district will be awarded a $5,000 matching grant from CCI.
The newly certified districts are 40 West Arts District, Lakewood, Downtown Colorado Springs, RiNo Art District, Denver and the Greeley Creative District.
Candidate districts entering the two-year program aside from Crested Butte include: the Mancos Creative District, the Manitou Springs Arts Council Creative District, the Crestone Creative District, the Downtown Fort Collins Creative District, the Carbondale Historic Downtown Core and the Evergreen Creative District.
“It’s just a really awesome thing,” Birnie concluded. “And it was a group effort. It’s about all the work of the 14 nonprofit organizations that work together in the Arts Alliance. We were turned down when we first applied because we weren’t really ready for it. But we learned from it and with the support of the organizations and the support of the town, the entire community helped make it all happen.”