The stuff that dreams are made of

What do you dream of, Laramie County?

That's the question asked in the lead editorial in the Nov. 19 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

Good question. Dreams should be big. Write the Great American Novel. Cure cancer. Become president (please, someone, anyone but T).

What is my vision for Cheyenne?

Develop downtown into a destination that reflects the soul of Cheyenne. This place is called The Magic City of the Plains because it is located in what used to be known as the middle of nowhere. Ask any twenty-something and they will say it still is the middle of nowhere. They will wave at you as they depart for Fort Collins or Boulder or Denver.

I am not advocating for some fake Wild West town such as the frontier village out at CFD Park. Cheyenne was founded in 1867 when the West was wild. It experienced its heyday in the 1880s, when Cheyenne was a beacon of civilization among the frozen wastes.

We are 150 years old now and it's time to act like a grown-up. Let's create a downtown that reflects the needs and tastes of 2017 and beyond. Breweries and coffee shops are great -- both beverages make the world go around. We also need reasons to shop downtown. People will then want to live downtown, sacrificing their suburban spread for a two-bedroom condo above a busy art gallery or bistro. To make that leap, people need a solid infrastructure within a walkable distance. They need reasons not to have their Nissan Sentra parked within feet of their front door.

Shelter. Food. Culture. What comes first? Downtown boasts galleries and shops but we need more. We need a grocery store. A wide range of activities to attend. We need more venues for those activities.

I know that Cheyennites are tried of comparisons with Colorado cities. But some examples are worth noting. Old Town Fort Collins was not always the community's busiest hub. When I lived there in the late 1980s, it was just showing signs of life -- Foothills Mall was the happening place. A few years back, developers tore down the semi-deserted mall and created a pseudo-Old Town in its place. The same sort of transformation is happening at our mall. The newest tenants occupy outward-facing stores to give it that downtown look. Now that Sears is gone, the mall has a lot of space to fill. Let's hope the owners thing creatively.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) was not an instance success when it opened. Its main promoter, Donald Sewall, was called names and tumbleweeds blew through the deserted DCPA plaza. Same with the 16th Street Mall. On a typical Saturday night, the mall was almost deserted because there were no reasons to wander downtown. In 1979, when I worked the night shift at The Denver Post at 15 and California, there were only a handful of dining experiences, most of them bars that also served greasy-spoon fare (Sportsman's, Duffy's), one lone Burger King and the Mercy Farm Pie Shop. A myriad of places that served locally-sourced ingredients in small portions at high prices was a thing of the future. Beer selections were Bud and Coors.

What happened? A population boom fueled by legal pot and a rootless generation looking for The Next Best Place. Jobs, too. Professional sports teams and the arts jockeyed for position. Downtown won with its many venues. The DCPA was deserted no more. When Chris and I go to touring productions there, I always run into people from Cheyenne. They would avoid Denver traffic if only The Book of Mormon played closer to home, say, at the Cheyenne Civic Center. We just don't have the facilities or the numbers here. We need more seats. More butts in the seats.

Big dreams come with a population increase. No way around it. Cheyenne is already the largest city in the state. Laramie County will be the first to reach a population of 100,000 some time in the next decade. We already are home to one in six Wyomingites.

It's not as if there isn't hope in Wyoming downtowns. You can see successful examples of thriving Main Streets in Laramie, Lander, Sheridan (its new WYO Performing Arts and Education Center is a gem), and Casper. You don't need a total eclipse to have people wandering downtown Casper. Its David Street Station, reminiscent of Cheyenne Depot Plaza, has sparked a downtown renaissance in what's called the Old Yellowstone District. Breweries, bistros, a performing arts center. Outdoor summer concerts on the plaza. What did Casper do that Cheyenne didn't?

I have no solutions. Lots and lots of ideas, but those are a dime a dozen. What we need is imagination and investment, two things sorely lacking in this burg.  The Dinneen family and the City of Cheyenne collaborated on the transformation of the former Dinneen auto dealership. It'snow home to businesses and one of the best restaurants in town -- the Rib & Chop House. It's a small chain, but it has invested heavily in Cheyenne, also spawning a brewpub to full the empty retail space in the historic Depot. My one-time colleague at the Wyoming Arts Council, Camellia el-Antably, and her partner, Mark Vinich, rehabbed an old building downtown and now it's home to Clay Paper Scissors Gallery and its fine arts shows. The arts play a crucial role in any dream of future prosperity. Arts Cheyenne gives us an organization and an events calendar to rally around.

Just a couple of examples. If I had the money to invest, I would put it into downtown ventures or the nascent West Edge Project. It's going to happen. The only questions is WHEN?

Wyoming scholarships available for National Main Streets Conference in Baltimore

As we've discussed at length here, Wyoming's downtowns have launched some innovative projects. I think of downtown Cheyenne's LightsOn! project and the arts-based redevelopment launched by Casper. There is the renovated Rock Springs downtown theatre, the roundhouse project in Evanston, the "living upstairs in downtown" program in Sheridan, and so on. But much more needs to be done. You can't have a great city or town without a thriving downtown. The Wyoming Main Street Program is leading the way. It is offering scholarships to the national conference:

The Wyoming Main Street Program is offering travel scholarships to a conference that will help participants revitalize and build vibrant commercial districts in Wyoming’s downtowns. Several scholarships are available for the National Main Streets Conference in Baltimore, Md., April 1-4, 2012. The trip includes a Wyoming Main Street sponsored pre-trip to Maryland and Delaware, March 29-31, to learn how Main Street principles are being applied in other communities. 

The conference brings together people from communities of all sizes to network, discuss issues, and learn new ideas and solutions for growing and developing downtown revitalization programs. This year’s conference will focus on taking Main Street to the next level by continuing to grow support, economic strength, and the national movement. The scholarships cover airfare to and from an applicant’s nearest airport and Baltimore, conference registration fees, and lodging during the pre-trip and conference. 

Scholarship applications are due to Wyoming Main Street no later than Feb. 3, 2012. Application packets must include a completed application form. Scholarships will only be offered to individuals who are residents of a Wyoming municipality and associated with, or supported by, one of the following organizations: local government, downtown association or its equivalent, downtown merchants association, urban renewal authority, downtown development authority, chamber of commerce, historic preservation organization, or other community organizations intended to revitalize a historic downtown. 

Notification of scholarship awards will be made from the Wyoming Main Street staff on or around Feb. 15, 2012. Recipients are asked to give a report to their local city/town council as well as the Wyoming Main Street Advisory Board about the information learned on the trip and how it will help their community. 

For more information, contact Wyoming Main Street Specialist Scott Wisniewski at 307.777.2934 or scott.w@wyo.gov. 

The Wyoming Main Street Program is dedicated to providing Wyoming communities with opportunities to strengthen local pride and revitalize historic downtown districts by utilizing the Main Street Four Point Approach. This approach means Wyoming Main Street strives to help downtown business owners improve the appearance of downtowns, build cooperation between downtown groups, help downtowns market their unique qualities and strengthen the economic base of downtown.

Applications available here. For information, contact Kim Kittel at 307.287.2170 or kim.kittel@wyo.gov.

Public-private partnership aims to accelerate "creative placemaking" all across the U.S.

I, for one, like terms such as "creative placemaking." It heats up my blood, embiggens my hopes for a better America.

Some big foundations have joined with the National Endowment for the Arts (and several other federal agencies) to establish ArtPlace, a nationwide initiative "to accelerate creative placemaking across the U.S."

ArtPlace believes that art, culture and creativity expressed powerfully through place can create vibrant communities, thus increasing the desire and the economic opportunity for people to thrive in place. It is all about the local.

ArtPlace invites Letters of Inquiry from initiatives involving arts organizations, artists and designers working in partnership with local and national partners (in fields such as economic development, transportation, neighborhood development, entrepreneurship, sustainability, health, etc.) to transform communities. 

To apply: http://www.artplaceamerica.org/loi/. Requests must be submitted by November 15, 2011.

Here are some examples of some cool creative placemaking projects already underway:

Creative Work Fund in northern California

Lakota Art Market at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in S.D.

Farm/Art DTour in Sauk County, Wisconsin

And this Whirligig Park in Wilson, N.C.

The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park Project from Gerret Warner on Vimeo.

Creative industries in the West: Rural rail autos, energy-based tourism and small-town creatives

We couldn't have said it any better. The renovation of the WYO Theater sparked Sheridan's downtown  revival. That will be one of the topics at Convergence Wyoming.

In advance of Convergence Wyoming Oct. 6-8 in Cody, I've been reading voraciously on the following subjects: the creative class, creatives, creative placemaking, creative economy, historic placemaking, and creative industries. It's exhausting.

On the positive side, there is an incredible amount of creative energy going into solutions for global warming, infrastructure decay and economic malaise. On the negative side we have our paralyzed American political structure. But the revolution in creativity may have some of its genesis in the terrible fact that government structures are inept or at least painfully slow in catching on to the new reality. And the fact that Congressional Republicans want to push the country back, way back, instead of forward into the future.

My first searches were for speeches and position papers by Convergence Wyoming presenters such as Steven Tepper and Anthony Radich. I've discovered some great stuff. More importantly, I've uncovered plenty of blog fodder. When it comes right down to it, isn't that what life is all about?

I've known Anthony Radich for almost 20 years. He's a move and shaker in the arts administration world. He directed the Missouri Arts Council for eight years, created its cultural trust fund, and took over the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) in Denver in 1996. Much to this dismay of the arts-funding world, he revamped WESTAF, making it a leaner organization, but also one that embraced technology and new ways of doing arts business.

One of the first things he did was move this regional arts organization from the stuffy confines of Santa Fe to Denver. I love Santa Fe for all the reasons people love Santa Fe: great food, fine art ogling, the Indian Market, cool old buildings, high and dry mountain air, etc.

But Denver? My hometown is a city known more for its sports teams and big-time hustlers (Bat Masterson, Soapy Smith, Denver Post founders Bonfils & Tammen, Neil Bush) that it is for its arts. When I covered the arts and entertainment scene in the early 1980s, you could count the good contemporary galleries on one hand, public art barely existed, the symphony was dying, tumbleweeds blew through an almost-deserted Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and the indie music scene centered around the Mercury Cafe and a couple of funky bars on Broadway.

It's a different city now. Apparently Denver was waiting for me and my family to leave before it blossomed into an arts destination, one that boasts more money generated by arts and culture than by its professional sports teams. Yes, the Broncos suck but the south stands are still filled during every home game.

So maybe that's what Anthony Radich foresaw when he moved WESTAF to a renovated warehouse in downtown Denver. He did see that Denver was a transportation center with a new airport courtesy of another big-time hustler, Philip Anschutz, and light rail was coming and Coors Field was the newest venue in MLB and tourism was huge and there was good coffee and fine microbrews within walking distance.

Some of the craft brews were at Wynkoop Brewery, John Hickenlooper, prop. As you know, he went on to become Denver's very popular mayor and now is the state's governor who is popular in places other than right-wing Colorado Springs.

There are more people in Denver proper than in the state of Wyoming. There are five times as many people in the Denver metro area than in Wyoming.

Backstage Theatre --
Breckenridge ain't just
for skiing anymore.

Wyomingites hate Denver traffic. But we sure love attending Rockies games and hanging out in LoDo. Ditto Broncos, Av, Nuggets, Six Flags Elitch Gardens, Colorado Opera, traveling shows of Les Mis, DIA, Denver Zoo, and so on.

Denver rakes in the Wyo dough. It's an arts and culture and sports destination for us. The airport is our international way station.

No Wyoming community will be another Denver. So what can we do to form our own home-grown creative economies?

For one thing, our city planners can stop spending money on zero-sum investments such as call centers. We all know this game. A big company wants to build a windowless building wherein low-paid locals can call you during dinner to harangue you about late credit card payments and the superiority of aluminum siding. The call-center company gets tax breaks on the land and possibly the building. The call center brings no economic development to a community save for the few shekels that its employees bring home. They do nothing to enliven a community. They do nothing for tourism, Wyoming's number two industry. They do nothing and they are nothing.

Here's what Anthony Radich said about the subject during a visit to Savor Albuquerque last summer:

Instead of being one of 50 contenders for a call center, think about the assets and infrastructure you have to do something unusual.

That could be any number of things beside call centers and distribution centers or any number of traditional econ dev targets: 

“You here in Albuquerque and New Mexico are competing with people across the country for the creative economy, and you have phenomenal resources to do that,” Radich said. Building the creative economy is often a matter of creating an economic cluster around existing assets, he said. It provides legitimacy to the sector, especially among elected officials.

Albuquerque is not as big as Denver but is doing some similar things.

BTW, I was conceived in Albuquerque, a byproduct of what happens when two young marrieds in love imbibe the brewer's arts, consume the culinary arts and dance to the artistic sounds of local musicians, all on an Old Town Friday night, February 1950. The arts and creativity are nothing new to Albuquerque.

Radich is not only talking about the West's big cities.

Take Moscow, Idaho, for instance.

Jazz great Lionel Hampton, namesake
of IU's music department and
annual festival. 

This town of 23,000 -- with student enrollment of 12,000 -- is now home to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival each February. The city is 92 percent white and adjacent to Idaho's crazy zone in the Panhandle where the white supremacists hang out. It is finding ways to make Moscow the coolest arts town in the Northwest. The Portlandia of the Palouse.

The Lionel Hampton Orchestra was one of the hottest big bands in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. His name had almost disappeared from the scene when University of Idaho invited him to headline its jazz festival in 1984. In 1987, UI named its music school after Hampton, the first university music school in the country to be named for a jazz musician. Now every winter, the jazz world comes to Moscow.

Most towns and cities that desire "creative economy" status have a university.

But not all.

Sometimes they have breathtaking landscapes and ski areas. Jackson, WY, for instance. And Park City, UT; Aspen, CO; Sun Valley, ID.

According to the Creative Vitality Index compiled by WESTAF, Jackson may be the best arts town in the U.S. See the facts at www.westaf.org

Teton ArtLab, Jackson

The birth of cultural heritage tourism has already led to German tourists paying big money to work on a ranch for a week. College students are now taking a year off to tend veggies on organic farms. We have an organic farms in Wyoming, notably Meadow Maid in Yoder, which provides me with veggies and chickens and grass-fed beef.

What about tours of mining operations, such as open pit coal mines in Campbell County and trona mines in Sweetwater County? Tours of railroad yards in Cheyenne and Laramie? When I was in Casper this weekend, Casper College just dedicated a training tower for students in the wind energy program. Seems to me that both locals and tourists would love to get up and close and personal with a wind turbine. On a nice day, you can view dozens of propellers spinning on turbines arrayed north of town. Soon there will be hundreds. And we've all read articles about how energy companies seek out technical rock climbers as technicians. Hey -- it's a long way up and a long way down. Climbers know that territory.

Just a few examples of cool stuff happening in the world of creative industries.

Convergence Wyoming features a “Bright Spots” session from 10-11:45 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 7, at the Cody Holiday Inn.

It will feature these community efforts:

·         Saturday University and Teton County Poetry Box in Jackson

·         Gillette’s AVA Center

·         Washakie Museum and Cultural Center in Worland

·         the Historic Preservation Commission in Douglas

·         the Roundhouse restoration in Evanston

·         downtown rehabilitation projects in Cheyenne

·         art galleries in downtown Lander

·         Main Street projects in Dubois and Rawlins

·         Sheridan’s growing recognition as an “exciting and livable community” through its cultural initiatives

And there's more, much more...

While reading the Albuquerque paper, I came across this recent story about the big IDEA conference coming to the city in 2012. Creatives and creative thinkers from across the globe will be coming to town at the behest of the International Society for Electronic Arts. Get more info at http://isea2012.org. One of the cool arts tech projects set for the convention is shown below.

Where art and technology meet -- As part of the Latin American forum of ISEA2012 in Albuquerque next summer, artists Ivan Puelig and Andrés Padilla Domené will bring their custom-made car that can ride on rails to Albuquerque, and their video stories and photos of residents  from northern Mexico towns isolated when rail service ceased and no roads were built  to replace it. Photo from UTEP.