Wednesday, March 30, 2016

The Future of the Arts in Fort Collins is up to US


Today, I helped empty out the former offices of "Beet Street".  For those of you who don't know, Beet Street was the most recent Arts Organization to ebb and flow through the fair City of Fort Collins.  It started out great, lots of money, financed by the Downtown Development Authority, the City Council, Mayor and City Manager were all on board.  Lots of money was spent on arts programming, fancy socials, office supplies (Lots of office supplies).  They developed a terrific Community Arts Program called Streetmosphere.  Then, they got a little too big for their own good.  Much time was spent developing AiR (Arts Incubator of the Rockies) and because many of the Artists here in Fort Collins are open, good, helpful people, many of us pitched in to 'help'.  We helped develop curriculum, run pilot programs and participate in charettes.  We gave our time, expertise and in some instances, money to a program that is now owned by Berea College. Berea is using this curriculum to help Artists in Appalachia be more successful.  The question is what did we, the Artists left in Fort Collins get from 'helping' AiR.  The answer, as far as I can tell is a City Leadership that was burned by their experience with Beet Street/AiR and are reluctant to support the Arts in any way in the future.  I challenge you, next time you are talking to an employee of the city and ask them about Beet Street.  Watch the eyes roll.  And why shouldn't they?  We were all screwed by Beet Street/AiR.

So, what do we do now?  Where do we go from here?  While cleaning out the Beet Street office, I found the City's Cultural Plan, written in April 2008.  The cultural plan, written 8 years ago has  6 stated goals. The executive Summary sums them up as :

"The Cultural Plan goals include:
1. Develop the right mix of cultural facilities to meet the needs of the community and to make
Fort Collins a destination attraction.
2. Develop an Arts Council to promote and support the business of the arts.
3. Build Fort Collins’ identity as a cultural center and destination by increasing the visibility of
the arts, culture, and science activities in Fort Collins.
4. Develop sustainable funding, public and private, to support arts, culture, and science
programs.
5. Employ arts, culture, and participatory science to improve Fort Collins’ quality of life,
strengthen the local economy, and increase tourism.
6. Ensure availability of arts education programming to our youth through future community arts
centers, collaborations between schools and arts groups, training and resources for teachers, and
funding"
Throughout this document, the plan is to develop AND fund an Arts Council.  If Beet Street had been funded by the City, the whole Beet Steet/AiR drama wouldn't have happened. 

Why don't we have an Arts Council? 

Why wasn't Streetmosphere picked up as a City Program? 

Because, we as citizens let the City Council get away with NOT doing it!  Follow the link, read the Cultural Plan and let your City Representatives know you want the City to Fund and Arts Council and/or an Arts Coordinator for the City.  We need to annoy them until they do something.  You can send an email to all of our City Leaders at once by using this handy link. cityleaders@fcgov.com

2 comments:

  1. Preach! I agree, we need an Arts Czar to represent the creative industries at the City level. Go Elizabeth!

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  2. Creative Industries is a broad term. My concern is visual artists getting the attention and energy they need to participate in making FTC an arts destination. Streetmosphere was a good model because visual artists played a crucial role in its success. Other than the APP there are little to no opportunities for visual artists in the public venue. Galleries are closing. Gallery Walk promotion seems to have gone by the wayside. The local newspapers don't have a thing about visual arts events. Promotion and marketing are left up to individual artists which is (much) less effective. In the last 20 yrs. Multiple Arts Councils have failed due to lack of interest and/or lack of community support leading to burnout for those trying to make a go of it. Visual artists have complex needs from studio space to wall space. I think this idea is a great start & I'd be very glad to help out where I can. A goal of mine would be to promote artists being paid rather than paying to have a show.

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