{"id":92216,"date":"2019-10-11T23:37:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T23:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ignacio-leans-on-residents-to-grow-creative-economy\/"},"modified":"2019-10-11T23:37:43","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T23:37:43","slug":"ignacio-leans-on-residents-to-grow-creative-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ignacio-leans-on-residents-to-grow-creative-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignacio leans on residents to grow creative economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"LaTitia
LaTitia Taylor, Southern Ute Indian Tribe director of education, and Rocco Fuschetto, Ignacio School District superintendent, paste sticky note-suggestions during a community feedback activity last Friday at Ignacio Community Library. The Creativity Lab led the activity as part of the town\u2019s arts-based economic growth effort.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

IGNACIO \u2013 State officials and community leaders said Ignacio residents will be the key to success as the town tries to grow its economy through the arts.<\/p>\n

State officials visited Ignacio for the first time last week to offer support and resources as part of Colorado\u2019s Rural Technical Assistance Program. In August, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade awarded Ignacio a place in two RTAP programs<\/a>, one of which focuses on economic development through the arts. But to bring arts-based revenue to town, local leaders said they need the public\u2019s help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to really engage our community,\u201d said Sharon Craig, a town trustee on the RTAP award steering committee. Input from Ignacio residents would give the committee direction to steer the town\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need that input,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want it to be about the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arts and culture industries add $14.4 billion to the Colorado economy, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. That\u2019s 4.4% of the total state gross domestic product \u2013 more than transportation, mining and agriculture individually.<\/p>\n

Through RTAP, Colorado Creative Industries, a division of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, and The Creativity Lab, a nonprofit partner of OEDIT, Ignacio can tap into that market. By the end of the award process, the town will have a plan to market its unique identity, grow its creative economy and support its wider economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you the place that people are talking about?\u201d said Bill Marino, co-founder of The Creativity Lab, during a stakeholder luncheon last Friday. The town should try to be memorable so people passing through spread the word and invite others to visit, he said.<\/p>\n

The luncheon took place during the nonprofit and state division\u2019s multi-day site visit, an important first step in the RTAP process. Local business owners, school district representatives, town board members and others gathered to hear the Creativity Lab\u2019s presentation. Colorado Creative Industries also presented the town with a certificate at the Ignacio Harvest Festival during the visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it really comes down to is shared vision and shared leadership,\u201d said Margaret Hunt, executive director of CCI. \u201cIt\u2019s clear to me that that\u2019s happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n

RTAP could also help Ignacio complete the prerequisite steps it needs to become a certified creative district through Colorado Creative Industries. Although towns don\u2019t need to be certified to become a creative district, the state certification provides additional marketing, funding and technical resources.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Ignacio) is so well positioned for the path that it\u2019s on,\u201d Marino said. \u201cIt has a story to tell. It\u2019s got momentum that\u2019s building. All that\u2019s going to be required is people working together along the way to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, this is just the beginning. After the luncheon, Craig said the most overwhelming part is trying to choose how to approach the creative economy planning process when there are so many things to think about.<\/p>\n

Right now, the steering committee\u2019s focus is the community dinner Nov. 7, which they are planning, in part, to gauge residents\u2019 preferences, she said. The steering committee has to build a road map, and to do that, it needs community members to tell local leaders what they want and how they want Ignacio to grow in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to work together to create more business,\u201d she said, \u201cbut also use that art component to beautify our town, to make it somewhere special for our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

officials visit town to launch grant program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6012,5736,5735],"tags":[1235],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-92216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ignacio","category-local-news","category-news","tag-ignacio"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92216"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=92216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}