Until recently, Loveland artist Harrison Hand illegally lived in his rental office space. Another Loveland artist, Mary Waters, says she was “technically” homeless for the previous 10 months. But now both Hand and Waters live, and create, at the Artspace Loveland Arts Campus, an affordable live/ work housing project which opened to residents at the end of June.
“Here I get to sleep in my studio and not violate any zoning laws,” says Hand, a science-fiction/fantasy writer and illustrator and entrepreneur who has lived in Loveland for 12 years. He sleeps on a small cot, which he hangs up on the wall during the day to have more work space. “There’s two ways to look at this space — it can be an apartment that you do your art in or it can be a studio that you can sleep in,” he says.
Filmmaker Caryn Sanchez also lives at Artspace Loveland — in a one bedroom apartment that doubles as her film and editing studio. “I may only make a film every three years so whatever money I get from that has to last me for that amount of time,” she says. “Literally having this means I can work fulltime as a filmmaker and not have to work two other jobs to make ends meet.”
She has always benefited from the rich art community in Loveland, but Artspace provides the perfect living situation for her creativity to thrive, without worrying about disturbing her neighbors. “We all understand it; we are all artists that work odd hours, and we just have a different lifestyle,” she says. “It’s nice to know that within these walls there’s an acceptance, an encouragement, and we can do what we do and not feel like we’re bothering anybody.”
The Artspace Loveland Arts Campus already has a waiting list as all 30 units, ranging from studio to three-bedroom apartments, are currently leased. But it is just the first of many live/work artists facilities set to open around Colorado in the coming years. At a press conference at the new facility on Monday, July 27, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Space to Create, Colorado, the first state-wide initiative in the country to provide affordable housing for artists in rural communities.
“The more you can get creative energy into a community … that energy helps the entire business economy. It helps start-ups, it helps people considering starting a company, it helps bigger and older companies,” Hickenlooper says.
Space to Create is part of the Colorado Creative Industries Creative District Program, which certifies certain arts and cultural communities and provides funding through competitive grants programs. Since the program launched three years ago, 12 different communities have been certified, creating almost 10,000 jobs and $134 million in revenue, Gov. Hickenlooper says.
“We have more cultural visits in Colorado per capita in a given year than any other state in America,” Hickenlooper says. “I think that’s a big part of the economic vitality, this kind of resurgence, we’ve seen in the last five or six years.”
The idea of Space to Create came when Artspace applied to the Colorado-based Boettcher Foundation to fund the Loveland Campus. Boettcher Foundation president Tim Schultz not only supported the Loveland Artspace but also suggested the state-wide initiative. “The state was very receptive from the beginning and very excited about it. … It didn’t take a lot of convincing. Tim has a powerful persuasive voice, and he has a lot of connections in both the private and public sector,” says Wendy Holmes, senior vice president of consulting and strategic partnerships at Artspace.
Space to Create will specifically target rural communities, developing affordable housing facilities in nine different regions across the state in the next eight years. With the announcement on Monday, Hickenlooper also unveiled Trinidad as host to the first Space to Create demonstration project expected to launch by the end of this year.
Hickenlooper says the rural towns throughout the state, like Trinidad, are still struggling from high unemployment rates while more urban areas like Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and even Pueblo are showing signs of economic resurgence. “Trinidad is one of the most beautiful cities in the state of Colorado, and yet for a variety of reasons it’s kind of struggled over the last several decades,” Hickenlooper says. “I think if we can figure out some ways to get more cultural energy into Trinidad it could be part of that critical mass. …There’s a benefit to Boulder and Denver when our rural Colorado economy does well.”
After the initial project in Trinidad is completed, the other sites will be determined through a competitive application process. According to Hickenlooper, each project will cost an average of $5 million. The projects will be funded through low-income housing and historical building tax credits, regional Department of Local Affairs offices and philanthropic donations. “Philanthropic funding can help and will have to help bridge the gap to make sure that these projects are financially doable,” Gov. Hickenlooper says. “We’ll get the money, it may take awhile but we’ll get the money.”
The Loveland campus is one of approximately 30 similar affordable arts facilities across the country developed by the Minneapolis-based non-profit Artspace. Similar projects in Lakewood and the RiNo district in Denver are currently in development. Although not officially part of the Space to Create initiative, like the Loveland campus these urban projects will utilize low-income housing tax credits and historic tax-credits depending on location.
Whether in rural or urban areas, the Artspace facilities popping up around Colorado are intended to not only provide affordable space for artists but also help expand and grow the state’s economy.
“The future economy has to be creative,” concludes Hand. “A creative economy that provides opportunity for people to express themselves and connect with other creatives, I think, will benefit everybody. It will benefit the state economy but also the world. If we are creating things not destroying things, it benefits everybody.”
