The Durango Creative District, founded in 2019, is a pivotal mechanism in the city’s economic engine, according to its director. It beautifies public spaces, enhances the visitor experience and supports local artists and entrepreneurs.
But above all else – like art itself – it reflects the heart and soul of the human condition, said Kathryn Waggener, the district’s executive director.
Waggener said 2025 has been a year of transition for the Creative District. It gained independence late last year by becoming a bona fide 501(c)(3) nonprofit after previously operating under Local First’s fiscal sponsorship.
The Creative District hosts art exhibitions, stewards the city of Durango’s lodgers tax arts and culture fund, and organizes monthly First Fridays featuring art, food and music in its new space at 1135 Main Ave.
The new space is a game changer, Waggener said. Previously, the district operated from a small office in the Smiley Building at 1309 East Third Ave. To many, the organization felt “ethereal” – largely out of sight and out of mind.
The Main Avenue headquarters allow the district to be more public-facing, she said. After the city created its lodgers tax arts and culture fund in 2022, the district focused primarily on managing the fund, processing applications and awarding grants.
Tommy Crosby, the city’s economic opportunity manager, said more than 150 public art projects have been funded since a portion of lodgers tax revenue was dedicated to arts and culture in 2022.
“In our town of 20,000 people, 2 million bucks have been invested directly into arts and culture in four years, and I feel like it’s hard to drive through town without seeing some ripple effect of that,” he said.
Public murals, sculptures, scholarships, and brick and mortar artist stores were all made possible through the lodgers tax arts and culture fund and the Creative District’s work, he said.
He said the lodgers tax arts and culture grants average about $15,000 and there have been between 15 and 20 recipients annually since the tax’s implementation. About $200,000 is granted every year.
It’s a competitive program. The average ask is about $750,000, and the committee of volunteers tasked with selecting which projects to fund has its work cut out for them.
Crosby said Waggener has encouraged applicants to partner up to fund their projects with one pot of money.
Jeff Susor, Powerhouse executive director, said his team is pretty savvy at crafting grant applications, but the Creative District’s willingness to sit down and align an applicant’s priorities with the city’s has been invaluable.
The Powerhouse has benefited from lodgers tax arts and culture grants for exhibitions, development of its master plan and a child care program set to launch next year, he said.
“Incredible that we’ve got the resources, Tommy and Kathryn, to really help people understand what does it look like to apply for grant funding to open up public art opportunities,” he said.
Waggener said the Creative District has been zeroed in on the city’s lodgers tax arts and culture grants program since 2022. But the nonprofit organization is growing and spreading its wings and wants to form new partnerships.
She said it has partnered with the town of Ridgway, for example, to create a Western Slope Creative District to convene at annual Colorado Counties, Inc. conferences, connecting artists and creative types across the Western Slope.
“We’re trying to create these increased regional exchanges where we can outsource our artists, our performers, our musicians, and link them with our Creative District allies in Grand Junction or other locations,” she said.
The Creative District and the town of Silverton are contemplating a residency program linking the towns by the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
The Creative District partnered with the Katz School of Business at Fort Lewis College to conduct an economic impact report that showed every dollar spent on arts and culture generated between $1.40 and $5 in return.
“Artists are so scrappy. We can do so much with so little,” she said. “... The feedback loop is truly rewarding, socially and economically.”
While the Creative District is forming new relationships and trying new things, it still works closely with the city on its arts and culture grants and with applicants requesting grant funding.
The Creative District helps applicants strategically plan their project proposals, teaching them about budgeting and grant writing, brainstorming proposals with them and pairing them up with other like-minded artists for collaborations.
“We also very quickly realized that connecting that funding platform with business training and professional development training was ideal,” she said. “Everyone was surprised by the level of entrepreneurs who applied, these really creative businesses. I feel like it’s very Spirit of the West.”
Waggener said her background is in museum education, and she applies the theory of museum curation to the Creative District’s approach to community engagement.
It is fundraising in order to offer three micro grants to businesses at each First Friday, the idea being to help nontraditional businesses afford to pay artists for entertainment and demonstrations.
It’s cataloged over 130 pieces of public art around Durango, and there are plans to develop art tours and other ways to get residents and visitors to engage more directly with public art.
“Endurance,” artist Joshua Wiener’s steel sculpture depicting cyclists located in the roundabout near Chapman Hill, has occasionally been outfitted with hats or apparel. Waggener said she’s looking into a possible program for temporarily decorating public art.
The district is also working to identify areas of the city to activate with new public art. Murals on buildings are popular, but even though Durango isn’t necessarily infamous for urban blight, there are some dilapidated buildings that could benefit from a face lift, she said.
“If you put a mural on, it totally changes the psychology of (the) space. So we’re trying to enhance character districts that need it,” she said.
Nina Lundstrom, executive director of Maria’s Literary Foundation, said one thing Durango’s art scene needs more of is gallery spaces. The Creative District and its new headquarters fills part of that void.
“That’s a gap that the DCD is filling by being a commission-free gallery,” she said. “That’s a true community gallery space, and they can be really creative about the kinds of shows that they’re hosting there.”
Even though thriving art scenes are demonstrably good for the economy, Waggener said, at the end of the day the Creative District’s focus is on the people.
She said the “Magic City of the Southwest” documentary podcast about Durango’s history shaped by diverse working-class communities, produced by Adam Burke, Kirbie Bennett and Jamie Wanzek, is an exemplary success story of lodgers tax arts and culture funding.
“We’re trying to enhance conversation and we’re trying to teach people, largely, to be quiet and to listen and observe,” she said, adding the Creative District’s true value is qualitative over quantitative. “There is, of course, economic value, but the heart and soul is what we’re going for.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
