On Monday, Margaret Hunt announced three new recipients of Community Revitalization Grants totaling $4.3 million, including $2.5 million to help Miners Alley Playhouse move into its new home in the shuttered Meyers Hardware store in downtown Golden.
This just a few days after a surprise (to some) listing was published accepting applications for Hunt’s job as Director of Colorado Creative Industries. That’s a fancy name for the state’s arts funding agency, which is operated through the Governor's Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
There has been no official announcement from the state that Hunt is leaving her job, but today she confirmed her retirement effective Oct. 31. According to the job listing, the Director is responsible for strategic planning, implementation and evaluation of all programs and services, while representing the agency to the public, media, cultural organizations and legislative bodies.
That the new job listing says the state is only accepting applications through Sept. 13 has caused some concern about whether the job search will be thorough and transparent.
“This is Colorado’s one crack at hiring the leader of a statewide arts agency that has to be responsible to communities statewide, and you simply cannot do a thorough and equitable search for this position in less than a month,” said Sheila Sears, the state’s retired Deputy Director of Colorado Creative Industries. Responded Hunt: “I want to assure you that there is a commitment from the Office of Economic Development that this will be an open process, and that if the right candidate does not come forward by Sept. 13, the process will simply be extended.”
Colorado Creative Industries is unlike any other state arts agency because it is simultaneously an economic development organization – which means it works with both the nonprofit for-profit communities to advance statewide creative economic strategies. It receives state funding and gaming revenues, among other sources, and distributes federal funding through the National Endowment for the Arts.
Under Hunt, Colorado Creative industries has awarded $100 million in community revitalization grants over the past two years, plus $23 million through the Colorado Arts Relief Fund. In the past five years, the agency has distributed $29.4 million in federal funding.
Hunt graduated from the University of Utah, Harvard University and Naropa University in Boulder, where she earned a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. She ran the Utah Division of Arts and Museum before being was appointed by Gov. John Hickenlooper to run Colorado Creative Industries in in 2013. Hunt described her tenure as “a great run,” and that she is looking forward to having “a little less responsibility and a little more time to play.”
Among her accomplishments, Hunt says she is most proud of expanding the number of state-certified creative districts from two in 2013 to now 30, with more in the pipeline. “These districts are locally operated, are supported by local governments, have paid staff, are based on the unique community aspects of each community – and more than half are in rural communities,” she said.
Margaret Hunt.
The Community Revitalization grants are intended to help creative districts, historic districts, main streets and neighborhood commercial centers across Colorado revitalize community spaces. The most recently announced grants will help Miners Alley Playhouse move a few blocks down Washington Street into a 300-seat performing-arts and community center that will include artist housing, classrooms, public spaces and a town square.
Another $1.6 million grant will go toward the renovation and expansion of the Gunnison Arts Center’s 139-year-old historic downtown building, the anchor institution for the newly certified Gunnison Creative District. Another $997,000 will go toward the renovation of the City of Aurora’s 1400 Dallas Arts building, which is a space used for emerging local artists.
Whoever fills Hunt’s job will oversee decisions that will deeply impact one of Colorado’s most active – and endangered – industries. One that still faces a steep recovery from the pandemic.
“Creative industries employed 92,000 Coloradans in 2020 and generated $12 billion in industry earnings,” said Hunt. “This represents an important contribution to Colorado’s economy, yet we know performing-arts organizations and the live-music industry are still working to restore pre-pandemic jobs and earnings.”