3 decades of collaboration
Denver’s nationally unique arts district ponders success, future
When Deborah Jordy compares the Denver metro area of three decades ago to today’s bustling Front Range corridor, her mind immediately goes to the number of people now living in Colorado.
“It’s amazingly different,” said Jordy, the former director of the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA) and, before that, the modern art curator at the Denver Art Museum. “We had a population of 1.8 million, and today we’re at 3.1 million.”
But that’s just context, Jordy said. More to the point of her current job, as executive director of the sevencounty metro area’s Scientific & Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), is the growth of Denver’s arts and culture scene. And for that we can thank, in large part, SCFD — and the metro area’s willing voters.
“In 1989, which is the first year we distributed funds, we had about 135 nonprofit arts and culture organizations in six counties,” said Jordy, who will mark two years as head of SCFD in December. “Today we’ve doubled that with approximately 280 organi-
zations, from small, all-volunteer nonprofits to internationally recognized ones like the Denver Art Museum. That’s pretty extraordinary.”
From $14 million in funds in 1989 to $58 million last year, SCFD has pumped countless in-person cultural experiences into the metro area, despite the occasional squabble among organizations over what constitutes a first- or second-tier company.
And when voters reauthorized SCFD in 2016, people from a wide swath of Front Range towns and cities further reaffirmed their commitment to spending a one-tenth of 1 percent sales and use tax on funding museums, plays, live music, arts education, scientific research and more.
SCFD and its supporters will celebrate the district’s 30th birthday — following approval from 75 percent of voters in 1988, and popular reauthorizations in 1994, 2004 and 2016 — with SCFD’S Community Celebration & Awards on Nov. 28. The public party will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Mcnichols Civic Center Building (144 W. Colfax Ave.; RSVPS for it closed on Nov. 14).
Between the hors d’oevers, cocktails and live entertainment, organizers plan to hand out awards to former Denver Mayor Federico Peña and others while reflecting on the role of SCFD in supporting and creating new art, culture and science.
“The latest study released in early November showed a substantial increase in economic impact in just the last two years, now reaching $1.9 billion, up 8 percent with 11,820 cultural jobs,” wrote pollster and founding SCFD consultant Floyd Ciruli on his website, citing the CBCA’S recently released study, which has been conducted every two years since 1992. “The Scfd-supported organizations attract 15 million people and 4.3 million school children, who mostly attend events free due to the cultural subsidy.”
While those numbers track with other population-fueled growth in Colorado, for Jordy, the arts-education piece is not automatic. And there are many other hard-won victories, she noted, such as when the Denver Center Theatre Company won a Tony Award in 1998 for Best Regional Theater, or when the Butterfly Pavilion became the nation’s first standalone invertebrate zoo.
Whether or not SCFD was directly responsible for that — the district doesn’t dictate how funds are used within the organizations — Denver’s arts and culture scene is the envy of many cities that Jordy visits, she said, given that SCFD is nationally unique. It’s also been mentioned as a contributor to organizations like Platteforum or Downtown Aurora Visual Arts receiving the National Arts & Humanities Youth Program Award at the White House, as they did in 2011 and 2014, respectively.
“Those are some of the highest honors in the arts,” said Jordy, who also pointed to the Arvada Center becoming a full-equity theater (meaning professional in the eyes of the industry) in 2001 — about a year after she stepped down as executive director. “SCFD allows organizations to do what they see fit, whether it’s taking risks and doing more innovative programs, or even just keeping the lights on.”
The resource sharing and camaraderie among organizations is another success voters shouldn’t forget, said SCFD board chair Rob Johnson.
“What has made SCFD special and unique nationally is the collaboration and access,” Johnson said in a press statement, which noted a project between the Butterfly Pavilion and the Colorado Ballet called “Metamorphosis Moves” in which students from first to sixth grade “dance and move to learn about the life cycle of a butterfly.”
“With our focus on access,” Johnson said, “many across our region can afford to visit attractions and experiences they might not otherwise be able to afford.”
Gov. Roy Romer signed the legislation creating the district on July 1, 1987, Ciruli said. The supporters who were gathered around his desk could hardly have imagined that SCFD would this year be on track to distribute $60 million in taxpayer funds exclusively for arts, culture and science.
“It’s becoming baked into our DNA, because its success is a reflection of the community,” Jordy said. “But for me, the future is about ‘How do we continue it?’ With so many new, young people coming here, how do we help them understand and participate in this? I think our organizations can keep that top-of-mind by providing excitement and wonder and education. We’re like no other city in the country when it comes to this, and it’s important to remember that.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or @johnwenzel