The Durango Creative District’s focus this year is on supporting economic recovery efforts, working toward financial independence by finding an executive director, and enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion within the district.
The district received funding from the general fund in 2020 and 2021, but City Council allocated $75,000 from the lodgers tax this year to support creative district activities. The creative district has a budget of $81,000 for art projects and events expenses.
The funding will contribute to projects such as Durango Art Brigade, where paintings and sculptures and other visual arts are featured on businesses and in public places, the summer Durango Art Market and an event featuring the Colorado Poet Laureate in Durango, said Tommy Crosby, economic opportunity coordinator for community development, at a City Council meeting last week.
The Creative District budgeted $10,000 to work on and expand the Durango Art Brigade and $12,000 for weekly setup and deconstruction of the Durango Art Market through the summer.
The district also budgeted $10,000 for special community events, including hosting Bobby Lefebre and other poets with the Colorado Poet Laureate in the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.
Crosby said the lodgers tax funding will allow the Creative District to move forward on projects and fill the executive director vacancy.
“Filling this vacancy and increasing our (executive director) to a full-time position will allow a greater focus on making the DCD financially self-sufficient while also offering robust support to local arts organizations,” Crosby said at the Feb. 15 City Council meeting.
Durango Creative District President Charles Leslie said the district sees the need for diversity, equity and inclusion in art as well as representation on the DCD board. The district put forward a resolution to have diversity training for existing board members and future board members.
Leslie said lodgers tax funding opens opportunities “for artists from all walks of life in our community.”
Councilor Melissa Youssef said she is happy the Durango Creative Economy Commission, which recommended to City Council that it allocates lodgers tax dollars to the DCD, recognizes what the Creative District can provide to help Durango “reinvent, reinvigorate” and “infuse new energy” into the community.
Youssef said there has been an “imbalance” in Durango’s creative side for years and the creative economy has been underused.
Councilor Jessika Buell, who is the liaison between City Council and the Creative Economy Commission, said the lodgers tax allocation is a one-year ask from the Creative District.
Will the DCD be successful in its planned projects and events using the lodgers tax funding? Will the district implement diversity, equity and inclusion training?
Buell said if the Creative District follows through on its plans, then the lodgers tax funds would prove a great way for the city to support it.
“If they’re not (accomplishing what the city wants), then we work with them to make it better,” she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
