Rural Recipients of Colorado Creates Grant Funding

RAN logo_300 dpiColorado Creative Industries recently announced its recipients for the 2013–2014 Colorado Creates grant program. Colorado Creates is Colorado Creative Industries’ largest grant program, providing critical financial support that helps nonprofit cultural organizations and government agencies produce and present arts and cultural activities, bringing jobs to their communities and enhancing their quality of life. Grants are awarded annually on a competitive basis and provide a seal of excellence that helps organizations leverage local and national funds.

A total of 150 grants were awarded in 26 counties across the state totaling $1,125,000. The agency’s grants benefit both small and large communities, and over 50% of grant funds are awarded in towns and cities located outside the Denver metro area. The grant awards are for activities that take place between October 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014. See a list of awards made in Colorado’s rural communities. A complete list of this year’s grant recipients can be found at: http://www.coloradocreativeindustries.org/news/releases/recipients-2013-2014-colorado-creates-grants-announced.

Archuleta County Grantee

Folkwest, Inc.-$8,500

Chaffee County Grantee

Tenderfoot Transmitting, Inc-$4,000

Delta County Grantees

Blue Sage Center for the Arts-$6,500

Celebrate the Beat-$7,500

Eagle County Grantees

Bravo! Colorado at Vail-Beaver Creek Inc-$10,000

Spellbinders-$6,500

Wyly Community Arts Center-$7,500

Garfield County Grantee

Carbondale Council on the Arts and Humanities-$7,500

Grand County Grantees

Grand County Concert Series-$4,000

Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre-$8,500

Gunnison County Grantees

Crested Butte Music Festival-$8,500

Gunnison Council for the Arts-$7,500

Western State Colorado University-$10,000

La Plata County Grantees

Durango Arts Center, Inc-$8,500

Durango Chorale Society-$4,000

Music in the Mountains, Inc-$8,500

San Juan Symphony-$7,500

Mesa County Grantees

Colorado Mesa University-$10,000

Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra-$8,500

Western Colorado Center for the Arts-$7,500

Western Colorado Writer’s Forum-$4,000

Mineral County Grantees

Creede Arts Council-$4,000

Creede Repertory Theatre, Inc-$10,000

Montrose County Grantees

Delta/Montrose Youth Services, Inc-$7,500

Pitkin County Grantees

Anderson Ranch Arts Foundation-$10,000

Aspen Art Musuem-$10,000

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet-$10,000

Music Association of Aspen, Inc DBA Aspen-$10,000

Rio Grande County Grantees Grantee

South Fork Music Association-$4,000

Routt County Grantees

Bud Werner Memorial Library-$10,000

Friends of Perry-Mansfield Inc-$10,000

Strings Music Festival-$10,000

San Miguel County Grantees Grantees

Ah Haa School for the Arts-$8,500

Mountainfilm, ltd-$10,000

Telluride Academy, Inc-$10,000

Telluride Repertory Theatre Company-$6,500

The National Film Preserve-$6,400

Saguache County Grantee

Crestone Performances Inc-$6,500

Summit County Grantee

Lake Dillon Foundation for the Performing Arts-$8,500

Colorado Creative Industries and the Boettcher Foundation Announce Five Newly Certified Creative Districts

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DENVER – June 26, 2013 – Colorado Creative Industries (CCI), a division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, and the Boettcher Foundation are pleased to announce the certification of five new creative districts through the Colorado Creative Districts Program: Pueblo Creative Corridor, Corazon de Trinidad, North Fork Valley Creative District, Ridgway Creative District and Telluride Creative District.

“These 2013 certified creative districts are great examples of how the arts create exciting places for people to visit and live,” said Gov. 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.”

Initiated in 2011 with the signing of House Bill 11-1031, the Colorado Creative District’s program first certified Denver’s Arts District on Santa Fe and Downtown Salida, with an additional 13 districts granted prospective and emerging status.

“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 immediate sustainability and opportunities to evolve,” said Margaret Hunt, Director of Colorado Creative Industries.

The second-year grants will provide $15,000 and technical assistance opportunities to each of the five new Certified Creative Districts. They will also be eligible to receive a Boettcher Leadership Award of $10,000.

“The state’s newly designated Creative Districts are capitalizing on Colorado’s creative assets to grow their local economy and to improve the quality of life for their residents,” said Tim Schultz President and Executive Director at the Boettcher Foundation. “We want to help them be successful and sustainable over the long-term and we look forward to the Boettcher Creative District Leadership Awards taking them even further along the road to success.”

About Colorado’s new creative districts:

Pueblo Creative Corridor - 225 artists participate in the Pueblo Creative District whose activities attract 82,570 participants annually. The Packard Foundation has recently invested $50,000 to support more artist work/live spaces in the district in the near future.

Corazon de Trinidad - Trinidad’s creative district includes six pieces of “mystery art”, which appear on several vacant buildings, while the artist remains unknown to the public at large. Mayor Bernadette Baca Gonzalez attributes Trinidad’s certification to “the hard work and united efforts of city staff, local officials, local businesses, area nonprofits and individual residents. Trinidad is now poised to take advantage of yet another economic development tool; one that emphasizes innovation and creativity.”

North Fork Valley Creative District – The North Fork Valley Creative District in the heart of the Western Slope in Delta County encompasses the three towns of Paonia, Hotchkiss and Crawford.

Ridgway Creative District - Home to a thriving arts community encompassing visual, design, performing, textile, culinary, brewing and publishing arts, more than 10% of its 900 residents are artisans.

Telluride Creative District - Creative District Certification acknowledges Telluride’s remarkable accomplishments in the arts over the last 40 years. The Town of Telluride is a 2010 Governor’s Arts Award recipient and engages over 1,600 artists in its Creative District activities that attract over 255,000 participants annually. The Creative District recently spearheaded the Town’s Cultural Master Plan that coordinates and integrates arts and creative activities in local life.

The Creative Industries Division convened a panel of peer experts to review applications submitted by nine districts from the pool of 13 qualified emerging and prospective districts. Submissions were reviewed by panelists using the Colorado Characteristics of Certified Creative Districts and scored using the following criteria: district characteristics, management and planning, community buy-in, and other factors. The next deadline to apply for Creative District Certification is May, 2014.

For more information, please visit www.coloradocreativeindustries.org.

About Colorado Creative Industries  

Colorado’s Creative Industries Division, Colorado’s state arts agency, is a division of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Established to capitalize on the immense potential for our creative sector to enhance economic growth in Colorado, the mission of Colorado Creative Industries is to promote, support and expand the creative industries to drive Colorado’s economy, grow jobs and enhance our quality of life.

About the Boettcher Foundation

For almost 75 years the Boettcher Foundation has served the people of Colorado by helping to build community infrastructure through capital grantmaking and investing in young minds through its Scholarship Program. In virtually every community throughout the state, the Foundation has partnered with outstanding nonprofits to make a difference in people’s lives. The Foundation believes that this is what the Boettcher family intended when they gave their wealth to establish the Foundation for the benefit of the citizens of Colorado. For more information, visit www.boettcherfoundation.org.

Help us continue building our statewide network!

One of the main goals of RAN is to build and foster a statewide network of artists, arts organizations, and arts supporters throughout Colorado’s rural communities who face unique challenges that many large cities do not. The website is still in its very early stages, and we are in the process of building it gradually and steadily, but we need your help!

Ideally, we envision this website as a resource for both rural artists and arts organizations, and a sort of portal to facilitate information sharing among the rural arts communities across the state. To this end, we are currently collecting information on organizations, events, practicing artists and any additional helpful resources in your area to be included in the site. If you would like to be a part of this effort and/or be included in our website, please email Leah Horn at leah.horn@westaf.org.