Introduction to Alan Walker

Speaker 1 0:00

My interview today is with Alan Walker. Alan is the president of the Grand Lake Creative District. This was such an amazing interview. I had no idea of all the things that this organization does for the community and for Grand Lake. They have some exciting new projects that they're working on this summer, some great workshops and just so much more. So sit back and enjoy my interview with Alan. Good morning, alan. How are you today?

Speaker 3 0:42

I'm great. How are you, Gaylene?

Speaker 1 0:44

I am good, no complaints.

Speaker 3 0:47

Good yeah, no me neither.

Speaker 1 0:51

Yes, well, especially since you guys got a new puppy.

Speaker 3 0:55

Yeah, yes, I did, we got a. Well, he's actually 14 months old, because at this stage in my life I didn't want to deal with eight-week-old puppy issues. So he's still got a lot of puppy energy, yeah, but he's a little more mature and a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 1:22

He's a golden retriever and so far, enjoying him a lot. They're great dogs and great companions enjoying them a lot. They're great dogs and great companions. Anyway, we're here today to talk about the.

Speaker 3 1:31

Creative.

Speaker 1 1:31

District in Grand Lake and give me a little bit of history about how this came to be in Grand Lake.

Speaker 3 1:37

Absolutely. Within the Colorado Office of Economic Development, there's an organization called Colorado Creative Industries, and within that they established criteria for becoming a creative town, to become a creative district, and back in 2018, grand Lake was certified as a creative district. We are now one of 30 throughout the state and we have to, every five years, recertify and show that we are truly doing things to help with economic development as well as cultural vibrancy in the town.

Umbrella Organization for Seven Groups

Speaker 1 2:24

So tell us some of the things that you guys have accomplished since you became a creative district.

Space to Create Housing Project

Speaker 3 2:30

Sure, always happy to brag Well. First, we are really the umbrella organization for seven creative organizations that already exist in town, including the Rocky Mountain Wooden Boat School, the Grand Arts Council, the Grand Lake Area Historic Society, shadowcliff, Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater, grand County Library District and the Rocky Mountain Folk School. So we act as a umbrella to those organizations, helping them in a number of ways. We help them with any new event that they want to put on that they're a little concerned about the financial aspects of putting on a new event, so we give them financial support. We give them marketing support, we do weekly advertising and sky-high news of upcoming events for these creative organizations and we also have an advisory group made up of a representative from each of these organizations and we meet in fact we're meeting tomorrow to just talk about what's going on, how we can, how we as the creative district can help the organizations and how the organizations can maybe collaborate a little more together. You know, historically these organizations tend to be by doing things on their own and what we're finding is, as we talk and have these conversations, there's a lot of common issues, challenges and opportunities that sometimes are better served by having one or more of these organizations working together. And then we are involved in a number of what we call infrastructure projects that are going on in Grand Lake. The biggest one is called Space to Create. That is a facility that will be built with approximately 18 units. These units are like workforce housing units but additionally each unit will have its own little space where the resident will be able to continue to pursue whatever creative endeavor they're involved in. So it's kind of a unique combination. It's been done in a number of other places around the country. It's an approximately $12 million project, of which we've raised 9.1 of it and feel comfortable that we'll get to the rest. We just agreed the town just agreed to the architectural consultancy to be done by MA Studios, which is run by Scott Munn. So that's an exciting project that we hope to break ground this year on.

Creative Hub Building Development

Speaker 3 5:29

Secondly, we're building a new facility called a Creative Hub. Our folk school, which the town gave us a building in town to use, has served as a wonderful venue for our pottery studio as well as lots of other arts classes that we hold there. But what we're also finding is in expanding that offerings. We need more heavy equipment for woodturning, woodworking, metalworking like silversmithing, leather shop etc. And those need bigger equipment. So we're building a 2,800 square foot, what we're calling creative hub in town on land that the town is leasing to us at a nominal rate. We're very grateful for that, and our plan is to break ground for that building in June. We've raised approximately 40% of the money needed for that, and so we'd love to get additional funding.

Year-Round Events and Programming

Speaker 3 6:35

We are, of course, reaching out to a variety of foundations for grants, and then we'll have a fundraiser in the spring and invite townspeople to that. So that's our second one. And then, thirdly, in town we're in the process of building a new town marquee right in town square, and that's going up as we speak, and in fact we, the creative district, have been involved in that process from the beginning, and we just created a banner that we put out front because there's still some opportunities for people if they want to sponsor one of the animals that are in this marquee. So, yeah, so those are some of the things that are going on in the town. Last year we had about 10 events new events that we helped to sponsor and support for the various organizations and they all went well. We already lined up Colorado Ballet and Colorado Symphony to come and utilize the Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater facility. We have concerts. We have concerts in the Parkville during the summer. We have concerts. We have concerts in the Park Hall during the summer. No-transcript as the end goal.

Speaker 1 7:57

Oh my word, that's a lot, Alan. I'm amazed.

Speaker 3 8:02

It is. A lot of people are involved. Obviously, almost everyone is a volunteer. The town has been awesome in their support of us, building this vibrancy in the town, and we have tried to focus a little bit more Gaylene on off-season. As you can imagine, grand Lake is pretty busy from May through October and it's after that we quiet down, even though we are doing more and more events. You know, we just finished pond hockey, ice fishing, we just had winter carnival. This weekend we have, for the first time, ski drawing event. So, yeah, it's going well, I think, and we're excited.

Speaker 1 8:48

Yes, well, as you should be. So, ellen, you mentioned this, the creative hub. Where are some of these buildings going in the town?

Speaker 3 8:58

The Creative Hub is going in part of what's called Pioneer Park, which is behind the town maintenance shop, behind the fire department, behind the car wash and the self-storage. So it's in town and it's I guess I describe it as Grand Lakes answer to an industrial park.

Speaker 1 9:22

Okay, yeah, that's good. So you're breaking ground on that this summer. Yes. And when do you hope to have that project completed?

Speaker 3 9:32

By September.

Speaker 1 9:34

Oh, wow, okay, Fairly soon.

Speaker 3 9:38

Absolutely.

Speaker 1 9:39

And what about the Create2Space? I can't believe you've raised that much money, but when do you expect to start breaking ground on that project?

Speaker 3 9:47

I'm not sure the exact timeframe, but I think we're looking at sometime this year and of course we wouldn't be breaking ground after October, November, so sometime between now and then. There's a lot of pieces that have to keep on moving, so we'll just see. But the fact that the momentum is being built, the fact that we now have the architectural firm on board, I feel pretty good that that project is going to definitely move forward and it'll be on Park Avenue, which is the street parallel to Grand Avenue in Maine, right in downtown.

Speaker 1 10:25

So, Ellen, it sounds like fundraising is a big part of what you guys do as well to make all of these organizations thrive. So how can people donate or participate so that we can reach those financial goals?

Speaker 3 10:43

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that segue. Certainly, if anyone's interested in being recognized as a sponsor of the Marquee, they can reach out to the town manager, steve Kujon, and ask to donate there If they're interested in helping us with our creative hub. Thank you very much. They can just reach out to grandlakecreativedistrictorg and there's a donate site right on there.

Speaker 1 11:15

Perfect. Well, Alan, there's so much more that you do than I even realized. I know you guys are all volunteer, but it seems like a full time job that you're doing.

Speaker 3 11:26

Well, again it's. I think for all of us it's a love, a love of the town and the love of trying to continue to build on it, as a is a great place to live.

Speaker 1 11:39

Yes, it is, I would agree. Well, alan, I appreciate your time today. This was fantastic, and let's get those funds raised and get these buildings built.

Speaker 3 11:51

Absolutely. And again, Gaylene, thank you so much for your time and for allowing me to talk with you this morning.

Speaker 1 11:58

You bet, you take care.

Speaker 3 12:00

You do the same. Have a great day.