Creative industries create economic impact

In May Gov. Bill Ritter signed a bill that creates the Creative Industries Division within the Colorado Office of Economic Development. The legislation merges the Office of Film, Television and Media, the Colorado Council on the Arts, and the Art in Public Places program into a single entity. The Council on the Arts is now called the Council on Creative Industries.

The legislation recognizes the emerging role of the state’s creative economy. This includes both conventional artistic fields such as design, film, literature and the visual and performing arts as well as new media technologies, outdoor clothing and equipment design, green products, and craft food and beverages. According to a recent study produced by the Colorado Council on the Arts, 186,251 jobs in the state are associated with creative enterprises and occupations, and the creative economy represents the fifth largest employment cluster in the state.

“We have an incredible density of creative individuals and enterprises in the state,´ said Elaine Mariner, executive director of the Council on Creative Industries. “The current creative industry is robust without having had extra support. The council will shine a light directly on these industries, helping individuals and enterprises gain better access to financial support.”

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Mariner points to programs like the Creative Enterprises Loan Fund in Denver, which helps small and fast-growing businesses.

“Often creative enterprises don’t know how to work the lending maze, and lenders don’t know how to assess creative businesses,” she said. “For example, lenders might understand a plan for a yogurt shop more than an enterprise producing purses from license plates.”

In the current economic climate, time is of the essence and Mariner said the reorganization of the Creative Industries Division is moving swiftly. “We’re working on a strategic plan, and the reorganization will be done by the end of this summer. The reason we can move forward is because of the input we received from the Creative Economy Advisory Panel.”

Established by Gov. Ritter last year, the panel was co-chaired by Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien, Colorado Economic Development Director Don Marostica and Botanic Gardens CEO Brian Vogt. With participation from a wide variety of organizations and individuals, the advisory panel identified several strategies for success, including significant sustained investment in the creative economy.

Immediate local impact

What is the effect of the reorganization in Northern Colorado?

“We’re seeing an immediate impact,” according to Susan Ison, cultural services director for the city of Loveland. “The Loveland Museum is the recipient of a Colorado Creates grant for $8,500 from the Council on Creative Industries. The money will be used to do an exhibit and related programming on China at the end of this year and the beginning of next year.”

State support is a crucial element to a thriving creative economy, Ison argues. “All of the work by the Council on Creative Industries has brought an awareness of the importance of arts and culture to the state. We tend to focus on the economic aspects because that is real and substantial, but it’s also very personal. The arts are here to enrich people’s lives,” she added.

Loveland’s Rialto Bridge project exemplifies this relationship between economics and cultural enrichment. The historic Rialto Theater opened in 1920 as a silent movie theater. Today it is used as a performance hall for musicals, plays, concerts and both independent and silent films. “It’s really the heart of the community,” Ison said. “It’s been in steady use since it opened, and every year it went up. We broke attendance records last year, which is remarkable given the economy.”

Beloved and well used, the Rialto Theatre has “some deficiencies,” as Ison puts it. There is no green room and very little production space. “In previous years user groups rented properties behind or adjacent to the theatre,” she said. “When they were no longer available, it became ineffective and at times unsafe. Users were beginning to have problems.”

Now the Rialto Theatre is the centerpiece of a development project intended to revitalize downtown Loveland. The 20,000-square-foot plan, designed by RB+B Architects of Fort Collins, calls for a three-story, multi-use building with a restaurant on the ground floor, community room and an atrium space on the second floor, and private office space on the third floor. The project adds a much-needed green room and production space to the Rialto Theatre, and creates space for the visual arts as well. A call for artists to work with the Rialto Bridge design team is funded through the Art in Public Places program.

The $4 million project is the result of a three-way partnership with real estate developer Troy Peterson, the city of Loveland and the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado. According to the plan, the project will create 30 jobs with an estimated 50 additional jobs to downtown.

Kiki Gilderhus, head of Art History Liberal Studies at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design in Denver, covers the arts for the Business Report. Contact her at news@ncbr.com.