Arts Summit draws concepts for change

Thriving communities have thriving arts scenes. That's indisputable.

It may not be clear whether the arts community is always the catalyst for success or a product of that success. Nor is it clear about how to get there.

But the people at the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region, or COPPeR, took an important first step Saturday. They held an Arts Summit that drew about 150 artists, actors, directors, curators, educators and the like to the East Library to talk about how to raise the level of arts and create a cultural plan for the region.

This is part of the wider Dream City: Vision 2020 initiative, a project designed to involve a wide swath of our community in discussions about our future.

Some good ideas came out of it:

• Create a Pikes Peak or Bust Festival on Barr Trail and the summit of Pikes Peak, capitalizing on the natural and created beauty here. I think that's brilliant. (Kathleen Collins, who's on the boards of everything, came up with that one.)

• Revive the arts bus to take people to arts events and call it Van GO! (That wasn't their spelling and punctuation; I'm taking liberties.)

• Create an arts meter next to parking meters where people could donate "common cents" to the arts. (Homeless advocates recently came up with a similar idea, and I think it could work for both causes.)

• Create an Arts Pass that would give you a bundled, discount ticket to various local arts events.

• Work more collaboratively on the administration side. Plenty of arts groups do shows together, but this idea goes a step further. Many arts groups would like a paid staff worker who works 8 hours a week; but several groups could share one worker.

• Develop richer arts districts.

• Build arts/community centers throughout the region.

Another important theme was inclusivity. Local artist and writer Roberta Rand wrote a fine essay about that.

Here's an excerpt. (You can read her entire essay, as well as other comments on the Arts Summit, at the Colorado Springs Arts Blog: csartsblog.freedom blogging.com.)

From Diversity to Inclusivity:

A Sticky Wicket for Colorado Springs

Back in the heyday of Citizens Project, circa 1993, I was on my way to a meeting downtown when I came upon a long string of cars with "Celebrate Diversity" bumper stickers strategically placed on their left bumpers. Oh, the irony ...

Fast forward to last Saturday and the Arts Summit. I sat at a table with the best and the brightest of the Springs creative community. Our assignment: brainstorm a plan to re-brand Colorado Springs as an arts-centric city. We all agreed, at least in theory, that it's time to move beyond the "celebrate diversity" message to a new spirit of inclusiveness.

After all, we're all in this together.

And yet, the prevailing view was that the real arts and artists reside downtown and on the west side. Even then, attendees bemoaned the kitsch factor in Old Colorado City.

But it's precisely this "us versus them" attitude that presents the biggest hurdle to a true spirit of community among art lovers in Colorado Springs. Artists are a notoriously snobbish and opinionated bunch. Deep down we really don't want to get along; we'd just as soon annihilate the unenlightened hicks who collect G. Harvey prints and howling coyote figurines. The same goes for those who view any culture south of Briargate as dangerous, depraved and unfit for Christian consumption.

If we are to achieve authentic status as an "arts city" - and not just a series of bastions guarded by our own prejudices of what constitutes art - we must begin to relate to one another as worthy human beings connected by our shared humanity.