Backyard Hero: Lisa Gedgaudas of Arts & Venues
by Tim Wenger
photo credit Claudine Rousseau
Lisa Gedgaudas works with Arts & Venues, the city department that runs such epic spots as Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre, the DCPA, and others. Their Imagine 2020 plan, a new cultural implementation set to boost and promote the arts in Denver, is kicking off under the watchful eye of Gedgaudas and her coworkers. We spoke with her about the plan as well as Arts & Venues’ overall workings and her place within them.
CMB: Give us a little background on Arts & Venues and what you do.
Arts & Venues operates Denver’s publicly owned venues, including the world-renown Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre, regional destinations like the Denver Performing Arts Complex and Colorado Convention Center, and historic event centers like the Denver Coliseum and McNichols Civic Center Building. Arts & Venues is also the city’s cultural caretaker, overseeing the Denver Public Art program, Youth One Book, One Denver literacy program, Create Denver, and dozens of entertainment and cultural events.
My role as Program Administrator for Create Denver, an initiative under Arts & Venues, is to help strengthen the overall health and vitality of Denver’s creative sector (includes creative entrepreneurs and enterprises such as film, fashion, music, artist, designers, art districts, etc). It is inspiring to be able to help enhance Denver’s quality of life through arts and culture programming or interventions that showcases the sector and business development initiatives to help them thrive.
CMB: How did you come to be involved with the organization, and what is your background in the arts? As a Denver native and an artist, it’s always been important to me to help connect, advocate and support the arts and to help grow, recruit and retain creative businesses in Denver. Over the last ten years Denver’s creative industries have grown tremendously (including of course our music scene). The most interesting part for me is the collaboration and crossover creatives have into all other sectors (tech, beer culture, food, etc) that truly shape the quality of life here and what helps put Denver on a national scale to live, work and play.
CMB: What are the key points of the “Imagine 2020” plan and how do you plan on putting them into action? Any info on the plan for our readers is greatly appreciated. I’ll put a link in the story as well.
IMAGINE 2020 is the city’s first cultural plan since 1989. It is based on the input of thousands of Denver residents who offered their ideas and aspirations for what the city’s artistic, cultural and creative future should be.
The work that was done to put together Imagine 2020 the new cultural plan for Denver, really came from the people that live here, partners and residents and their ideas for a robust future for arts and culture. From our research, we now have 7 vision elements and more than 50 long- and short-term goals including supporting Denver Public Schools arts education strategic planning.
Two of the vision elements that really stand out for Create Denver; the integration of arts, culture and creativity into our daily lives and cultivating our diverse artistic and creative professionals locally.
In the spirit of Denver’s new cultural plan, I’m very excited to launch a new pilot program this April called, P.S. You Are Here. a pilot city-wide creative placemaking and revitalization program that will cultivate community-driven, outdoor projects in Denver’s public spaces that are tangible in nature and help to shape, enhance, and strengthen our city in small and meaningful ways.
The matching-grant was designed to inspire innovative ideas by community members who themselves would be impacted by the projects. We encourage place-based, grassroots involvement from residents, artists, neighborhood associations, non- and for-profit organizations and businesses to claim, initiate and drive the creation of temporary, authentic demonstrations and activation of public spaces. These short-term, low-cost and scalable projects are intended to transform underutilized urban spaces, increase collaboration, honor heritage, build civic engagement, beautify neighborhoods, enrich communities and inspire long-term change.
A call for proposals for the P.S. You Are Here program will launch April 14, 2014 here on our website here:
http://artsandvenuesdenver.com/create-denver/ps-you-are-here/
CMB: Any big obstacles standing in the way?
The most important piece of the cultural plan or the work we will continue to do here at Arts & Venues will always be creating and supporting new partnerships with like-minded organizations, businesses, philanthropists and enthusiasts to help the future of arts and culture come to life.
CMB: What is happening this summer with Arts & Venues?
Something your readers would be interested in, Create Denver will be embarking on a update to our Listen Local music study with WESTAF that will be an analysis on the independent music community in Denver – helping us to better understand the strengths and challenges of our industry here.
The 11th annual Five Points Jazz Festival, celebrating the music, culture and roots of Denver’s historic Five Points neighborhood, will be held on Saturday, May 17. The FREE festival features more than 20 bands – including headliners Nelson Rangell and the Brad Leali Orchestra – playing live music on seven stages throughout the day on Welton Street in Five Points. More here: http://artsandvenuesdenver.com/events-programs/five-points-jazz-festival/
CMB: Where can we learn more about the organization?
To find out more about Create Denver, please visit: http://artsandvenuesdenver.com/create-denver
You can also learn about all of Arts & Venues programs and initiatives here: http://artsandvenuesdenver.com
Category: Buzzworthy
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
 |
 |
