Durango City Council has approved the first 2026 round of Durango Creates! grants totaling nearly $20,000, which will benefit eight creative events and activities around Durango.
The Durango Creative District administers the Durango Creates! grants program, which is funded by the city’s lodgers tax arts and culture fund. Grants can be as much as $5,000 and are awarded to pay for supplies, materials, artist fees and other expenses for creative projects.
The projects awarded were reviewed and recommended by the Durango Creates! Working Group; a grant writer with experience in immigration justice; a Fort Lewis College student specializing in anthropology and art history; a four-member panel composed of a former arts and culture grant recipient; and a resident with more than 20 years of arts and culture involvement in Durango, according to the city.
Tommy Crosby, city economic opportunity manager, said the city received 14 funding requests totaling $65,330 – nearly double the available $35,000 in funding for 2026.
The awarded grants total $19,975, leaving about $15,000 left for a second round of grants later this year.
Among other projects, Crosby said funding will contribute to the creation of a “bicycle museum” and The Good Fight Boxing Gym’s “Animus on the Animas” – which will include comedy, a musical and a recreation of the 1915 Jack Dempsey vs. Andy Malloy match in Durango – during the city’s Four Days of the Fourth Independence Day festivities.
According to the city, money awarded to each project include:
- $1,500 to The Good Fight Boxing Gym for the third annual Durango Boxing Classic and Animus on the Animas.
- $1,800 for The Bicycle Room at Union Social House, described by the city as “bicycle-themed multipurpose space for meetings, art displays” and other events.
- $1,925 for Turtle Lake Refuge’s 17th Annual Dandelion Festival, which will feature arts, crafts and music for people of all ages and an expected attendance of over 1,200 people.
- $2,000 for Southwest Civic Winds, which will perform free public symphonic band and jazz orchestra performances in Rotary Park for the Fourth of July.
- $2,100 for a free community-wide open studio tour of 75 artist studios in Durango.
- $2,150 for the Wildwood Dance Project, which will feature free showings of four “place-based dance films” and community workshops.
- $3,500 for Solum Life Therapy PLLC’s community sound bath series during Mental Health Awareness Month. The series targets underserved residents, including the LGBTQ, Spanish-speaking and first responder communities over four free sessions.
- $5,000 to the Poet Laureate Committee for the Four Corners Poetry Festival, which will feature free poetry readings, workshops and installations.
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cburney@durangoherald.com
