Arts Perspective magazine has returned after a decade-long hiatus, and with its relaunch, Publisher Denise Leslie hopes to build a community of artists of all types.
Leslie bought the magazine in around 2009, she said. She and her husband, Charles (executive director of the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College), were relatively new to town and she was trying to figure out what to do. She, like Charles, has a background in the music and arts industry, so when the opportunity to buy Arts Perspective, presented itself, the Leslies couldn’t turn it down.
Denise published Arts Perspective from 2009 to 2015 as a free quarterly publication. The 30,000 copies were distributed not only in Durango, but all over the region, including Moab, Utah; Telluride, northern New Mexico, Pagosa Springs, Creede and even into Denver.
The magazine– and all of the work that went along with it – went along for about five or six years, and then it, along with many other print publications, saw reader interest wane as the internet grew larger in influence. Leslie decided to take a break from it.
“I just decided to kind of put it on hold,” she said.
Between then and now, Leslie poured her energy not only continuing to work in the arts – she also founded Hideaway Ukulele Studio and the Rocky Mountain UkeFest, taking her passion for music and spreading it in the community.
And then she began to feel the pull of Arts Perspective again.
“I’m the kind of person, I need 30,000 things going on at one time. I had always kept the domain Arts Perspective magazine, and I thought, well, maybe one day,” she said. “And then I don’t know what it was, I think I just was ready. The digital world was starting to come alive more, and I thought, well, I could probably do an online magazine.”
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Check out Arts Perspective magazine at https://artsperspectivemag.com.
So now, in 2026, Arts Perspective is back, both with a robust website that’s updated weekly and a print magazine that is published annually. There’s also a weekly email she puts out to let readers know what’s in the latest edition. Leslie is working in collaboration with Ballantine Communications, the parent company of The Durango Herald.
“So it became a reality, and creating the digital component of that has been really fun, and a really nice creative outlet for me,” she said. “Then I had to do a lot of research about what’s the mission, what’s the purpose. It’s been really exciting to get back into the world of the arts and learn, to hear the stories from the artists and to put stuff to support and promote that. I think people don’t realize how lucky we are in our community to have the resources that we do and to have all the talent that we do. It’s really quite amazing. And for a small town like Durango, I’ve heard people come in and go, ‘Oh my god, there’s just something to do every night.’”
Leslie said having grown up in a small town in Indiana, where there wasn’t a lot of access to arts and culture, she learned the magic of the arts by exposed to theater, dance, music – all of it – when she traveled to bigger cities for shows.
As for staffing Arts Perspective, Leslie writes herself and has contributors, which, she said, she’s always looking for. She said she enjoys writing stories, especially about creatives she finds on her own. Readers who appreciate the magazine can also donate on a variety of sponsorship levels and even use a “Buy Me a Coffee” button, which Leslie really likes.
“I thought, what a great idea. Number one, I love coffee. Number two, you can really create a community with that as well,” she said. “The people that donate to me through that are just lovely. They’re just like, ‘Oh, I really enjoyed that article. Here’s 10 bucks,’ or ‘Hey, I love what you’re doing. I want to be a member.’ ... We love what we do, and we’re passionate about where we live and the arts from our community, and I love telling the stories and meeting the new people. One of my favorite things to do is sometimes I’ll just write a story about an artist I know, and then all of a sudden they see it online or on Facebook or wherever, and they’re like, ‘Oh my god, thank you for that article.’”
And for Leslie, while being a members of the arts community is fun and fulfilling, there’s a bigger reason to support the actors, musicians, dancers, artists and writers who keep us entertained, thinking and inspired.
“All the arts go together to really make a difference for us, and I think if it inspires me, it’ll inspire other people,” she said. “Charles and I are really strong believers that arts is a big connector in the world, not just in our community, but in the world, and we wish there was more of it. And every day it’s scary when it starts disappearing from our communities, you know, whenever the schools lose their arts programs or things like that, it’s really scary, because they’re so important.”
katie@durangoherald.com
