CREATE Quintessential Colorado Art Centers

Along America's Lonliest Highways are the most diverse art centers and Colorado's stretch of Highway 50 has some of the most intriguing. It is in our name that the "wonderful world of Color" with the red earth soil and diverse cultural traditions and folklore can be curated and shared with locals and tourists. The art of storytelling, songs, sculpture, drawings, paintings and theater weave it all together in a fabric of life.

Art of a Common Union

The title of "Artist" is applied freely these days, as much as the word "community." In reading the yearning for a return to the Art of storytelling and songwriting that Bruce Springsteen experienced in his minamilist singer-songwriter album, "Nebraska" I identified with the spirit of going it alone. Not the subject matter. The lack of collaboration is stark and dark, which is why it has a creepy air to it that is difficult to listen to. On the other hand, I had another experience in the stories from Dick Jones, and the art of Andy Mast, that inspire quintessential creation that is an old form of storytelling, songwriting, literature and songs that speak to the common ground of art, words and music. "Walking the Same Ground," is like a Gallery, studio and café, that creates an experience of home, work and community.

Reflections of Community

It isn't that we want to go back. Part of it is that those people lived life in the valley, fully and "neighboring." And yet there is a loss and gain to our small town life. There is a sense of the common union through tourism and serving, and yet the next generation for the last 7 decades have graduated and moved on. The art of community is fragmented by political, social, ecological and economic lines.

MAIN Street Economics

We tell the stories, and write the songs of a Valley that underneath the veneer of strength of over 70 not for profit organizations, is in need of 70 "pass it on" entrepreneurs whose campus is our canvas and mission is innovation in the challenges that face our state. A willingness to be "neighboring" to those in the hour radius in Salida, Walsenburg, Canon City and Pueblo. The Art of Colorado is there. At the Cayote Den in Penrose, at Andy Mast Gallery in Westcliffe, at Music Mountain Instruments, and the down at the Bluffs on Main Street.

I had a town official tell me, "We don't want Main Street to change." Yet what happens when the kids leave and we die? It was not a worldview question. The answer is blowing in the Westcliffe Wind. Do you see a vibrant community of all ages gathering together in community, or do you see a gathering of frozen Tumbleweeds stuck between abandoned store fronts?

Richard Arnold Beattie is President of Colorado Chapter of the Leadon Family Foundation who are dedicated to building strong communities through recreation, education, art and media, travel and transportation, and entrepreneurship. Our mission is CREATE Daily. Find out the benefits of being a member, email Richardbeattie809@gmail.com for more information.