Earlier this month, arts and culture reporter Claire Woodcock was in Breckenridge for this year’s Colorado Creative Industries Summit. She spoke with Christin Kay about the summit.
Colorado Creative Industries (CCI), is the designated states arts agency housed in Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office of Economic Development & International Trade.
The state agency strives to support profit and nonprofit creative sectors and expand the impact of creative industries, artists and entrepreneurs while advancing and driving Colorado’s economy. In the last seven years, CCI has developed many programs to help boost arts and the economy in the state.
One of them is the Space to Create program, which is is a state driven initiative for affordable housing for artists and creative sector workers and it’s the first program like this in the nation. Space to Create facilitates the development of nine projects in eight regions in Colorado’s rural, small town and mountain communities. This year, Carbondale is up against Paonia and Crested Butte for this region’s selection.
Amy Kimberly is the executive director of Carbondale Arts. She said affordable space is really scarce in Carbondale and that the town faces losing the creative types that have grown up or move here to make art.
“We need development and we want smart development and a project like this is the kind of development that will enhance our communities,” she said. “Strengthen our community, provide opportunity in our community, so we feel it's really important.”
CCI has developed other programs too, like the state’s public art program, poetry out loud for high school students, creative capital’s rotating art exhibitions, Colorado music. It also provides arts education resources in the form of grants.
Big tip: History Colorado, the state museum located in Denver is working on this long term project on the history of Colorado music — from the folk revival to the rock and roll youth counterculture to the state’s festival scene. The exhibit opens March 2019.
