A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Karl Isberg — the editor of Pagosa's occasional news source, the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN — made some thoughtful comments about Pagosa Springs' future as a possible "arts town".
As much as I hate to admit it, I agreed with much of what Mr. Isberg wrote. Click here to read that editorial.
Studies I've read over the years state that the economic impact of an active arts community — galleries, theater groups, concert societies, and other usually-non-profit organizations — can tally in the millions of dollars per year. The organizers of our local annual Labor Day Weekend music festival, the Four Corners Folk Festival, for example, claim that the $260,000 festival generates an impact of about $1.6 million in local revenues. The well-respected Creede Repertory Theatre company in the little town of Creede, Colorado (population 377) generates an economic impact of about $2.1 million a year, according to at least one arts organizer. That's more than a quarter of the town's total economic activity.
And it appears that the "arts town" model meshes well with a tourism-based economy.
Of course, nearly all of those "studies I've read" were written by avid arts supporters, so they may have been somewhat biased.
 In his editorial, Mr. Isberg makes note of these economic forces, and wonders aloud if Pagosa Springs wants to become an "arts town", now that our former economic model — the "second home real estate town" — has proven unable to maintain a consistent flow of income into the community.
Some of you may not be aware that Mr. Isberg is himself an inventive and prolific painter and draftsman — in my opinion, one of the most talented in the entire Four Corners region.
Strangely enough, I had never seen an example of Mr. Isberg's work exhibited here in Pagosa Springs until two years ago. I've don't recall seeing Mr. Isberg at an opening of any the monthly Pagosa Springs Arts Council exhibits, or at a performance of the Springs Theatre, or the Square Top Repertory Theatre, or the Pagosa Pretenders Family Theatre, or Music in the Mountains. I've never run across him at the Four Corners Folk Festival, or seen a submission from him at the annual Pagosa Photography exhibit.
In spite of his prodigious talent, I've never heard of Mr. Isberg teaching a drawing or painting class.
The "arts" do not exist in a vacuum. In order for Pagosa Springs to become an "arts town," we will require much, much more than some occasional government grants, tax incentives and infrastructure investments.
What the "arts" require is active support from the community — people actually attending shows and concerts, not just writing editorials about the arts. If the people of Pagosa are unwilling to leave their living rooms (or kitchens, perhaps?) to go out and support the arts — and even more importantly, to help create arts events — we will never have an "arts town" here, no matter how much the Archuleta Economic Development Association, for example, wants to see one happen here.
The other thing that an "arts town" needs — and which no amount of "economic development" is likely to create — is a good stock of affordable housing options. Artist — serious artists — are notorious for lacking business acumen, and are known more for refining their craft than for earning profits. So two requirements for a future "arts town" are affordable homes — and low-rent studio and performance spaces.
Luckily for arts fans, that part of the picture appears to be painting itself, all on its own, thanks to a continuing economic recession here. And any attempts by government to turn that dynamic around will actually work against the creation of an active arts community here, as counter-intuitive as that may sound on the face of it.
But the bottom line is this: without people — without artists willing to put themselves out in the public, and without members of the public willing to put themselves into the arts — there's little hope that anything can come of Mr. Isberg's thoughtful suggestions.
It's the people, not government planning and programs, that make the arts happen.
Or not happen. |