<\/p>\n
Art matters for Hayley Kirkman, and that\u2019s pretty evident around Durango.<\/p>\n
Murals popping up around town, first on the side of Durango Joe\u2019s on College Drive and now behind Kroegers Ace Hardware<\/a> facing Narrow Gauge Avenue, are the product of Kirkman\u2019s work and her passion for art.<\/p>\n While society can be less than encouraging to children about pursuing a career in arts, Kirkman never deviated from her passion and her pursuit of making a career in the arts.<\/p>\n She grew up in Albuquerque and graduated from Fort Lewis College with a degree in graphic design.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was young, I put on lipstick and kissed the wall all over,\u201d Kirkman, 23, said. \u201cMy mother scrubbed them all off except one, and, 10 years later, she showed me the kiss mark and asked me if I remembered. I\u2019ve always been a fan of making things colorful, rowdy and messy.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, she is creative arts and special projects coordinator for Local First Durango<\/a>, and the mural behind Kroegers likely won\u2019t be the last around town.<\/p>\n Local First is seeking business sponsors for more murals and is seeking funding for more projects. The group is also exploring establishing a state-designated Creative District in Durango that would provide recognition for Durango\u2019s community artists, help boost arts impact to the economy, and potentially bring in state money to support local arts.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re told to believe from society that there is not a place for arts anymore \u2013 science and technology is what\u2019s important. But I\u2019ve learned that isn\u2019t true,\u201d she said. \u201cArt has great importance. If defines our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n The mural going up behind Kroegers, she said, is an example of how art can enrich.<\/p>\n \u201cIt shows the love for our community, and its vulnerability, all plastered up for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Murals around town begin with an expression of interest from a business to Local First.<\/p>\n Kroegers employees approached Local First about an idea \u2013 to create a mural on its back-facing wall \u2013 that had been bouncing around the hardware store for years.<\/p>\n After a willing business is identified, Kirkman said a process begins to design a mural that works for the business, the space it occupies and the community at large.<\/p>\n A team of lead artists guide the mural, but Kirkman said it is important to involve the community, especially youth groups, to help finish murals.<\/p>\n Working with kids on the murals provides them with their first hands-on artistic experience. The broad swaths of colors on the unfinished mural behind Kroegers are by design. They give untrained youngsters an opportunity to participate, paint brush in hand. Later, more skilled artists will begin adding details to the mural.<\/p>\n At Kroegers, the mural will emphasize the environment and the landscape of the Southwest, and human activity will form the background.<\/p>\n Kirkman worked with Mountain Studies Institute<\/a> and Southern Ute Museum<\/a> to identify important plants and the traditional uses of them to integrate in into the mural. It is all done to reinforce the importance of the environment and the natural world to Southwest Colorado, she said.<\/p>\n Eventually, the mural project might even include a brochure that would identify plants in the painting and provide descriptions of the plants and their traditional uses by the Utes.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d be able to get a brochure, and say, \u2018Oh, number 10 is a yarrow plant.\u2019 We\u2019re not sure that (creating a brochure) is going to happen. We have all these ideas, and some come through and some of them you have to let go,\u201d Kirkman said.<\/p>\n Local First also is leading an effort to obtain a state-assigned Creative District<\/a> designation.<\/p>\n Monique DiGiorgio, managing director of Local First, said the designation would draw attention to Durango\u2019s creative community and present a message to locals and tourists that the community cares about the arts.<\/p>\n Definition of participants in the Creative District would be broad, to include not only artists involved in traditional pursuits, but the culinary arts, craft brewers and architecture as well.<\/p>\n Stakeholder meetings have been ongoing to generate a proposal to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade<\/a> to get a Creative District designation.<\/p>\n On Oct. 11, Local First will hold a meeting at Durango Community Recreation Center to ask residents what they envision for a Creative District and to examine what has been done in Mancos, Telluride and Ridgway, three of 23 designated Creative Districts in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cA Creative Arts District would create prosperity for the local economy and the world. We see economic development from a broad standpoint, not only from the local community but the planet,\u201d DiGiorgio said.<\/p>\n Christina Kirkman, Hayley\u2019s aunt, remembers \u201cthis thing\u201d she did with Hayley when Hayley was about 9 years old: They mailed a drawing back and forth, adding details with each mailing.<\/p>\n \u201cHayley\u2019s always been a creative individual. She\u2019s always been hardworking and driven, even as a little kid,\u201d Christina Kirkman said. \u201cShe knows what she wants, and she goes for it. The world hasn\u2019t brought her down.\u201d<\/p>\n parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The Durango branch of the American Association of University Women will hold its annual fall luncheon Sept. 29 at the DoubleTree Hotel, 501 Camino del Rio. Kirkman sees public art pieces as community enrichment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[374,2077],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-economic-development","tag-profiles"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97673","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=97673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97673"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}If you go<\/h4>\n
\n The event will feature guest speakers Allie Wolfe and Chynna Levaldo, who were 2018 National Conference for College Women Student Leaders recipients. Hayley Kirkman, 2016 NCCWSL award recipient, will also give a presentation at the luncheon.
\n A social time will start at 11 a.m., with lunch at 11:30 a.m. and presentations at 12:10 p.m.
\n Tickets are $20 without lunch and $45 with lunch. To attend, mail a check, payable to AAUW Durango, to: Grace Deltscheff, 56 Red Cliffs Road, Durango, CO 81301, by Thursday.
\n For more information, call Marcy Jung at 946-4510, or contact Judy Spolum at 247-0870 or judyspolum@aol.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"