State remains committed to a vibrant creative niche
By: Development Research Partners, Inc.
Colorado is a magnet for creative enterprises and creative workers, with support from its existing ecosystem of entrepreneurs, arts and cultural nonprofits, media and entertainment companies, and universities and academic leaders.
The creative industries sector includes a variety of sub-fields ranging from film and media, design and heritage tourism to literary and publishing, performing arts, and visual arts and crafts.
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Colorado’s creative industries employ more than 165,400 workers, representing 5 percent of total employment in the state. Colorado ranks sixth in the nation in the percentage of its workforce in creative class occupations, totaling 35.9 percent. These jobs are well-distributed across the state; in fact, Colorado has 18 non-metropolitan counties with high concentrations of creative occupations.
The state also has the fifth-highest concentration of artists, second-highest concentration of architects, and seventh-highest concentration of writers, designers, entertainers and performers.
The state is home to 12 “creative districts,” a program created in 2011 to attract artists and creative entrepreneurs to the state, and further develop magnets of concentration to attract an innovative workforce. The state’s creative districts are located in Telluride, Longmont, Salida, Ridgway, Lakewood, Trinidad, Denver (2 districts), Colorado Springs, Greeley, North Fork Valley and Pueblo. The state’s creative districts are capitalizing on Colorado’s creative assets to grow their local economy and to improve the quality of life for their residents.
Colorado has some of the largest and preeminent cultural venues in the nation. The Denver Art Museum is one of the largest art museums between Chicago and the West Coast and maintains a collection with over 70,000 works of art. The Denver Performing Arts Complex, the largest performing arts complex under one roof, contains 10 performance spaces on a 12-acre site.
The state has a vibrant film and media industry. Since 2000, over 130 movies and videos have been filmed in Colorado and another 12 are in production. In addition, a number of film festivals are held annually throughout the state, located in Denver, Boulder, Aspen, Durango, Telluride and other
smaller cities.
The state is also home to a growing music community. For more than 40 years, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival has been the premier bluegrass festival in the nation. Some of the best music venues in the nation are in Colorado, including Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, which was named as Rolling Stone magazine’s best amphitheater in the U.S. in 2013. A variety of other music venues, including the Bluebird Theatre, the Grizzly Rose, Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Pepsi Center, and the 1STBank Center, and many more support the state’s growing music scene.
Colorado’s commitment to the creative industries has been a part of the state’s history for years and will continue to grow for generations to come.
SOURCES: Alliance for Creative Advantage, The State of Colorado’s Creative Economy, December 2008. https://rtsinc.org/publications/documents/ColoradosCreativeEconomy.pdf • Colorado Creative Industries, 2015 • Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, 2015 • Colorado Symphony, 2015 • Colorado Tourism Office, 2015 • Denver Art Museum, 2015 • Denver Botanic Gardens, 2015 • Denver Performing Arts Complex, 2015 • Development Research Partners, www.developmentresearch.net • Economic Modeling Specialists International, 2015 • Film in Colorado, 2015 • Rolling Stone. “The Best Amphitheatre’s in America.” 2013. www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-best-amphitheaters-in-america-20130620 • U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2007-2011. www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/creative-class-county-codes.aspx • U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, 2015
