Del Mar Neighborhoods United

Del Mar Art & CU Enhancement District

Dec 20, 2007

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Articles:

Shadow Theatre gets new place in the Sun.
Aurora seeking muse for ailing Arts District
The East Colfax project is lagging, but planners are pinning hopes on extra effort and Fitzsimons' growth.
Reborn District gets new name Downtown Aurora enclave is now known as the East End Arts District.
Sprouting from the Urban Jungle.

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Moore: Shadow Theatre gets new place in the sun
By John Moore. Denver Post Theater Critic,
Article Last Updated: 10/20/2007 11:55:39 PM MDT

The Aurora City Council unanimously approved a $250,000 loan to Shadow Theatre Company on Monday, sealing our only Black theater company's move to 1468 Dayton St.

The new, $583,000 state-of- the-art theater will double the capacity of Shadow's longtime home at the McGlone Center (where it does not even have a backstage) to 149 seats. The city of Aurora's Urban Renewal Authority expects the new theater to be occupied 40 weeks of the year and bring at least 12,000 people a year into its new arts district, located two blocks east of the Aurora Fox.

"Shadow is now poised to emerge into the light with an arts institution of its own," said an ecstatic founder, Jeffrey Nickelson. "What this means is, we are now going to be able to perform at the level we always aspired to." The new Shadow will tentatively open March 20 with the musical "Dinah Was" (about Dinah Washington).

Shadow must raise $113,000 for its share of the buildout of the now empty shell owned by Doug Adams. But the $250,000 the city is contributing is a fully forgivable loan, meaning if Shadow stays put for seven years, principal and interest will be forgiven.

"They have really bent over backwards to make this happen," Nickelson said.

Shadow will make undisclosed monthly lease payments to Adams (who is contributing $219,000 to the buildout), but 10 percent of the equity accrued over the life of the loan will be applied to Shadow's option to purchase after seven years. It's a one-of- a-kind financial arrangement that not only puts Shadow in the permanent facility it has sought for a decade, but Shadow also should be a catalyst for Aurora's lagging, 5-year-old arts district. It's a win-win for everybody.

"We really think this is going to boost our arts district, and boost Shadow's reputation nationally," said Andrea Amonick, Aurora's manager of urban renewal. She believes Shadow will attract new residents, visitors and other businesses to the district.

"If Shadow brings in 12,000 people a year - and that's conservative," said Amonick, "then that's about $4 per visit over the life of the loan, and that's really what we are paying for. We are paying to increase visitation to the area."

Shadow already has launched a $500,000 facilities campaign to pay for its share of the buildout and to prepare for significantly amped-up programming, which will include longer play runs and live jazz on Sunday nights.

"This is a landmark moment for us," said Shadow spokesman P.J. D'Amico.

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Aurora seeking muse for ailing arts district
The East Colfax project is lagging, but planners are pinning hopes on extra effort and Fitzsimons' growth. By Carlos Illescas, The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 10/06/2007 11:50:55 PM MDT.

Five years after its creation, Aurora's much ballyhooed Arts District on E Colfax Av was at a crossroads.

There were few parking areas and no major restaurants to visit along the 12-block Cultural Heart of the City. Vacant buildings were commonplace.

The concern was great enough that the City was asking for a full-time employee who would find ways to put "butts in the seats" in the District's showcase, the renovated Aurora Fox Arts Center.

And officials are hoping that new commercial development around the Fitzsimons Life Science District and more aggressive efforts to recruit artists will turn things around.

"The Arts District has been much slower than what we would have hoped for," said City Councilwoman Deborah Wallace.

Development plans imagined people going to a show at the Fox, then walking a block or two for a late dinner and cocktail.

That's impossible now. There is only one restaurant along the East End Arts District, La Cueva, which has been open for 25 years. Closing time was 9 p.m.

Profits preclude change

Pawn shops and other businesses don't fit in with the overall plan of an Arts District.

In 2000, when the Aurora created an urban renewal district on East Colfax Avenue, it had 3 goals.

The 1st was creating a Cultural and Civic core.

The 2nd was securing private money. The new Florence Square, a $32 million multi-use commercial and residential building was the 1st outside investment on East Colfax in 30 years.
Millions of dollars invested

In all, the area has seen at least $50 million in private and public funding, including a $10 million bond package and more than $5 million in grants.

Auroa created an Arts-District loan fund to attract artists and organizations to lease work and studio space.

But only 4 major galleries were housed there.

Locals have attended some functions there, but the Arts District wasn't attracting people from outside the Aurora.

Officials say more art galleries and a new emphasis on actively recruiting artists would change that. So should the recent opening of the Fitzsimons campus. Hotels, restaurants and other commercial development were all planned for the area, with the 1st project slated to break ground in 2008.

Officials also were talking about expanding the Arts District East so the area, 10 blocks away, woould be closer to Fitzsimons and providing shuttle service between the 2.

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Reborn district gets new name Downtown Aurora enclave is now known as the East End Arts District
By Carlos Illescas, Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 09/03/2006 10:45:27 PM MDT

Aurora - What's in a name? Plenty if you're a city trying to create a buzz about a fledgling arts district.

Aurora has changed the name of its arts district from the cumbersome Original Downtown Aurora Arts District to the more trendy, roll-off-the-tongue East End Arts District.

The reason the arts district has such a cool name now is "because it didn't come from a bureaucrat," said city spokesman Jeff Martinez.

In fact, he said, the artists themselves came up with the new name.

"They wanted a hip moniker but also one that was more creative and artsy," Martinez said. "It's part of the strategy. We wanted the artists actively involved in defining the area, the feel, the ambiance and name."

Some of the artists have already started using the new East End Arts District name, but it didn't get officially changed until last week.

There currently are four art studios in the East End Arts District, a 12-block area that runs from Clinton Street to Geneva Street and from East 14th Avenue to East 16th Avenue.

The "first fool" of the arts district is Walt Weinberg, or at least that's the name he gives himself. He was the first artist to move to the area and open up a studio eight years ago, four years before the district was even officially established.

Today, the 62-year-old sells pottery he makes at his Sunrise ArtWorks studio on Florence Street. The other three studios on the strip are Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, The Other Side Arts and Red Delicious Press. Each can have a few to 10 or more artists who either work or display their wares there.

Weinberg has been instrumental in helping the city turn around a previous blighted strip of East Colfax Avenue into a pretty trendy arts and cultural district, officials said.

"The area has a lot of positive aspects," Weinberg said. "I would like it if things were further along, but I think it's come a long way."

Aside from the studios, there is the renovated Aurora Fox Arts Center (a renovated theater now used for stage shows and concerts), the Martin Luther King Jr. Library and Municipal Center, and the $32.9 million commercial and residential Florence Gardens development. Florence Gardens offers the first new-housing units in the area in three decades. The eventual plan for the building also includes more art galleries, clubs and restaurants.

The district is aided by a $400,000 arts-district loan fund to attract artists and arts organizations to lease work and studio space.

Officials believe more artists will locate to the district because of the spaces available and the relatively cheap cost to move there compared with other art districts in LoDo and along Santa Fe Drive in Denver.

"We're seeing more and more people call us about space in the arts district," Martinez said. "We need to keep that momentum going."

And changing the name, he said, certainly won't hurt, either.

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Sprouting from the urban jungle. By Dana Coffield, Denver Post Staff Writer, Article Last Updated: 09/30/2006 08:53:22 PM MDT

East Colfax Avenue between Florence and Clinton streets is wound up tight in the tough vines of the urban jungle, so believing that the strip is home to Aurora's nascent arts district takes some serious seeing. But if you can look beyond storefronts filled by pay-day check cashing and liquor operations, you'll find the up-and-coming East End Arts District, where potters, printers, jewelers, furniture makers and performers produce work that gives Santa Fe Drive in Denver a run for the money. Anchored by the gloriously refurbished Aurora Fox Arts Center and Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, a vibrant art center for kids, little galleries and studios also have started to push through the neighborhood grit. Mark your calendar for Nov. 17 and plan to take a stroll - or a pedi-cab - during the Winter Art Walk, or go now and really see the East End Arts District for what it is.

Getting around: East Colfax Avenue is the main artery through the Denver metro area. Hop on at Interstate 25 and head east through the city of Denver, which ends at Yosemite. The East End Arts District starts six blocks into Aurora, at Clinton Street. It runs east to Florence Street and is bounded by East 16th Avenue on the north and East 14th Avenue on the south.

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