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| Of Dogs and Tricks |
 Colorado Creative Industries (CCI) has a new name, but we're holding onto the old logo for now. Similarly, our new strategic plan will carry on our most effective programs and services, but it will also incorporate new approaches to support Colorado's creative sector. Our clients will still include creatives like artists, filmmakers, dance companies, and orchestras, but we are broadening our reach to include all creatives (think designers, architects, publishers, and even game developers).
Our new strategic plan will be ready this fall, but our mission and program priorities are coming into focus:
Mission - to promote, support and expand the creative industries to drive Colorado's economy, grow jobs, and enhance our quality of life.
Program Priorities - Our programs and services will focus on five key ways we can help the creative sector thrive:
1. Increase access to direct financial support.
2. Expand and create professional development and networking opportunities.
3. Promote Colorado as a premiere creative hub.
4. Increase access to arts and creativity skills in P-20 education and workforce development.
5. Stimulate increased support for the sector by local governments and coalitions.
Our first new tricks: we've changed the format of our e-news. Below you'll find brief articles with links to more in-depth information, organized according to these priorities. We would also like to take a moment to welcome our new council members -Robert Clasen, former CEO of Starz, LLC, Commissioner Dwight Jones, Colorado Department of Education, and Sue Patterson, artist and art educator. We were sorry to bid farewell last year to Neil Peck and Vanessa Blacknall-Jamison. As always, we love hearing from you, and we'd like to incorporate more of your stories into e-news, especially if you have some new tricks of your own to share. And please follow us on Facebook and Twitter in between our monthly e-news, so you don't miss a beat! |
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Be Social With Us | |
We're posting lots of interesting information, articles and news on social media. Don't miss out!
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| Financial Support and Incentives
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Colorado Enterprise Fund (CEF) is a nonprofit community development financial institution providing financing and support for small businesses throughout the State of Colorado. They foster economic opportunity and create jobs by financing small businesses that are starting and growing. The new online application makes it faster and easier than ever. Visit www.coloradoenterprisefund.org.
Create Denver Revolving Loan Fund
 The Create Denver Revolving Loan Fund (CDRLF) offers creative enterprises in the City and County of Denver access to affordable and flexible business capital to increase income and build assets. Creative enterprises are defined as non-profit organizations and for-profit businesses producing or selling fine art, photographic and graphic art, performance art, handcraft and design and media.
CDRLF supports Denver's creative economy with small amounts of capital provided at reasonable rates, combined with technical assistance recommendations, resulting in the strengthening and stimulation the creative sector. Creative enterprises may apply for loans ranging from $5,000 - $30,000. Rates and terms vary depending on the loan amount. The CDRLF may be used for depreciable assets, working capital, and some space refurbishment/remodeling. The business or nonprofit must be established or retained in the City and County of Denver. www.denvergov.org/CreateDenver |
| Professional Development and Networking
CityOne Game Design Workshop: Using Videogames to Design Cities of the Future
Join us on September 14, 2010 at the Hyatt Convention Center Denver from 12:30 pm - 3:30 pm for CityOne Game Design Workshop: Using Videogames to Design Cities of the Future. Registration is $25 per delegate and available at www.CityDesign.com.
IBM's Smarter Planet campaign demonstrates how our planet is more interconnected, intelligent and Instrumented than ever before. How can serious games be used to explain the potential of these complex technical innovations on a city? CityOne is IBM's first city sim style game that showcases how industry solutions and their underlying technology infrastructures revolutionize industries and help businesses and organizations become smarter. Presented by Phaedra Boinodiris, Serious Games Program Manager, IBM. Watch the IBM CityOne trailer.
Creative Capitol Call for Entry to Artists in Metro Denver |
 Colorado Creative Industries and Denver International Airport are receiving submissions for artists to participate in the Creative Capitol Metro Denver Exhibition. Creative Capitol celebrates Colorado artists and images of the state of Colorado. Colorado artists who are residents of one of the following counties - Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson are eligible to apply.
The Exhibit will be on display at DIA from November 2010 to February 2011 and at the Colorado State Capitol from March 2011 to June 2011. We are looking for two-dimensional and three-dimensional creative interpretations of Colorado environments and culture. Entry deadline is Monday August 30 by 11:59 MST. All application materials must be submitted electronically through CaFÉ™, www.callforentry.org. Slides will not be accepted. Application closes promptly at 12 a.m. MST on August 31. For questions and additional information about the exhibition, contact (303) 342-2521 or erin.mulrooney@flydenver.com. Questions will be answered Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
NxLevel for Creatives
Create Denver and the Denver Small Business Development Center present NxLeveL for Creatives. NxLeveL for Creatives is a 10-session, 30-hour course that addresses questions every entrepreneur interested in launching a creative business or product needs to answer before starting their venture. Participants develop a business plan during the course to test the feasibility of their business concept and act as a blueprint for their venture.
The program runs from September 7 through November 9 and is held every Tuesday evening from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Classes are held at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce at 1445 Market Street in downtown Denver. Visit the Denver Metro Small Business Development Center website for more information. |
We're That Good - Colorado as a Creative Hub
Colorado Masterpieces: Harvest of Heritage Begins Tour in Fort Garland |
 Harvest of Heritage is a touring exhibit honoring over two dozen of Colorado's master traditional artists. Art work on view includes wheat art, leather and rawhide braiding, horsehair work, Mexican fabric art, and a special saddle made as a collaborative project by members of the Colorado Saddle Makers Association. An interpretive display features photographs and information about those and many other art forms including stained glass work, quilt making, painting and weaving. All of the artists have links to Colorado's rich agricultural heritage and their stories bring the state's history and geography to life.
Harvest of Heritage Tour Schedule for 2010
Fort Garland Museum: September 2 - 25
Old Town Museum, Burlington: October 1-30
Museum of Northwest Colorado: November 4-22
Cortez Cultural Center: November 29-December 11
Comment Period Underway for Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Over The River
 Over The River will be an incredible cultural and historical event for Colorado, and it will also have substantial economic benefits for the entire state. During its two-week exhibition period, the project is expected to be one of the largest visitor attractions in the state. In fact, the Bureau of Land Management's draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) estimates that the economic benefit for the state will total over $121 million. Consistent with their past works of art, Over The River is being funded entirely by the artists, so all economic benefits would occur without public subsidy or taxpayer support. The EIS is part of the permitting process for Over The River, and the document contains a comprehensive analysis of the project's potential impacts and benefits, as well as possible mitigation measures. Public comments will help to influence the BLM's final decision on the proposed temporary work of art. It is critically important that those who want to see Over The River become a reality submit their comments to the BLM before September 14, 2010. For complete details on how supporters can get involved, go to the Over The River website.
Psyche (the Butterfly) Installed on Auraria Campus  A butterfly 15 feet by 10 feet with the body made of test tubes has landed on the Auraria campus. Artist Donald Lipski installed the colorful sculpture in the new Science Building, located on Speer Boulevard and Arapahoe, to the delight of faculty and students who use the building daily. Psyche (the Butterfly) is suspended in the "knuckle" area connecting the old with the new building. To the ancient Greeks, psyche not only meant butterfly but also soul, inspiring the connection between the organic and the elevated aspirations of the heart. Through Lipski's rese  arch he discovered that the butterfly was also an important symbol to other civilizations, signifying rejuvenation, reincarnation, and love. Approximately 10,000 test tubes, the most basic and familiar tools of science, filled with pigmented acrylic suggest the individual cells of the wings. The "veins" of the wings are fabricated out of steel and the area in between is stretched with stainless steel mesh from which the test tubes are suspended. Film, Television and Media Unveils New Website  The Office of Film, Television and Media, which is part of Colorado Creative Industries, has launched a new website for the production community. The site features a clean and easy-to-navigate design focused on the essential information filmmakers need when considering shooting in Colorado. All the pertinent information such as the changes to the incentive program and production amenities and staffing are easy to locate. The site features a Production Inquiry Form which will not only ensure better responsiveness to filmmakers, but will allow the office to easily track the income and jobs that flow into Colorado through production activities. Please take a moment to check out the great locations across the state. www.coloradofilm.com |
| Arts Education and Workforce Development
Arts Education Partnership | |
 National Forum of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) will be held October 21-22 in Denver. AEP is a national coalition of more than 100 education, arts, cultural, government, business and philanthropic organizations committed to ensuring that every young person in America has an education in and through the arts. The Forums explore important issues, themes, and trends affecting arts education, and help position the arts as central to public education in America.
The theme for the Colorado AEP Forum is "Creativity Works: Arts, Education and the New Economy" and will focus on building 21st Century workforce skills in today's students. Invited speakers will include former U.S. Secretary of Education, Richard Riley and former chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jane Alexander. More information and registration is available on the web site.
Colorado's Imagination Conversation
 The AEP Forum will dovetail with an "Imagination Conversation," an outreach program planned by the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for each of the 50 States. The goal of each Conversation is to solicit innovative policy proposals that provide an action agenda for policy makers, educators and community leaders to make cultivation of the imagination a key element in our schools. The state-level Conversations will culminate in America's Imagination Summit, to be held at Lincoln Center in summer or fall, 2011.
Colorado's Imagination Conversation will take place Wednesday, October 20, from 7:30-9 p.m. at the Denver Botanic Gardens and hosted by Brian Vogt, Director. The Colorado "Conversationalists" will represent our leading creatives, including a nationally published writer, an innovative entrepreneur, an historian, and more. More information. |
Creative Communities
Fort Collins Working to Grow their Creative Businesses |  The City of Fort Collins is rapidly becoming a model for Colorado towns and cities that see the arts and the creative sector as a strategy for economic growth. In their Economic Action Plan they include "culture and the arts" as one of four primary keys to their unique identity and economic health. Among their strategies has been to identify a "Uniquely Fort Collins" economic cluster and target it for growth. The sector includes artistic, cultural and entertainment businesses, galleries and other locally-owned retail businesses, as well as microbrews and restaurants. Read more.
 An important partner for the City is Beet Street, a non-profit organization that was launched a few years ago with significant support from the Downtown Development Authority. The Beet Street mission is to be "a catalyst to develop Fort Collins into a nationally recognized arts and culture center and destination by distinguishing ourselves as an intellectually vital community that fosters, celebrates, and inspires human creativity." We encourage interested communities to check out Beet Street's strategic plan on their web site to learn more. |
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