Our Stories: Downtown Fort Collins Creative District
We have a unique community of artists, creative businesses, and history with a "New West" approach to innovation, and friendly, inventive people. Our story started as a crossroads for Native American tribes symbolized by The Council Tree , then along the Cache la Poudre River our town filled with characters like Auntie Stone and architect Montezuma Fuller, was "dry" and now produces a majority of Colorado's beer, and is one of the most successful revitalized downtowns in the nation. We have a vibrant music scene; festivals almost every weekend, 20+ craft breweries, a 60+ year old Fort Collins Symphony and outstanding Art in Public Places programs. And our story is just beginning...
Read our Stories of Creativity on our news blog and If you have stories you think need to be told - let us know! (Send us your ideas)
Fort Collins is rapidly growing and maturing as a city and the creative sector is a key part of enhancing and celebrating our quality of life, maintaining and attracting a qualified workforce, and giving a voice to our cultural heritage and identity. The Downtown Fort Collins Creative District is designed to act as a steward and voice for continued revitalization and beautification of the heart of the city, improving the vibrancy, diversity, interpretation and the attractiveness of our downtown Fort Collins community through arts and creative placemaking. This means making sure arts and the creative sector are “at the table” for the planning, visioning and engineering of downtown’s future, and bringing awareness to the industry’s needs within downtown. This includes work towards downtown's infrastructure, ordinances and regulations designed to invite artistic approaches and expression, creating a sense of place through art and creative experiences, and telling our stories by sharing the economic impact that culture, creative industry and arts have in our everyday lives.
Arts and the Creative Industry impact our city’s and businesses’ bottom lines, attract visitors and affect the economy, not to mention provide jobs through established and new businesses.
Get involved in your community by letting us know what the creative industry needs and how you might contribute to its' success!
A Fort Collins Creative Industry Example: CRAFT BEER
The Fort Collins brewing industry is a perfect example of creativity and passion leading business success and innovation. Something that today is so rooted in the Fort Collins community’s self-identity, beer and brewing is a huge economic driver with more than 20 breweries citywide and one that serves to bring Fort Collins to the entire nation’s attention.
This is a creative business filled with talented brewers, passionate craftsman, journeymen, graphic designers and marketers who bring their passion for craft beer to the city’s forefront. Fort Collins is the largest producer of craft beer in Colorado, proudly producing over 70% of the state’s beer. This is just one example of the way creative industry can impact a community’s brand, lifestyle and economy. Head out to sample some today at our brewery tours!
What does our Creative District do?
It is designed to serve as a hub for creative economic activity, thereby enhancing the Downtown Fort Collins area as a desirable place to live, visit, conduct business, and develop economic activity. We are the hub for downtown arts and culture information providing the Downtown creative industry connectivity to audiences, resources and collaborators. We work to brand Downtown Fort Collins as a arts and creative hub through creative placemaking, being a storyteller of Fort Collins’ unique arts, culture, and history. Each year we help program and produce ARTup Week Fort Collins as part of Startup Week Fort Collins with over 50 creative industry specific business sessions, workshops, and peer networking events. We provide connection for artists and creative businesses to current city planning efforts; collaborate with centers to offer business development workshops and culturally diverse events; create pop up art experiences in our district and promote the thousands of the wonderfully unique concerts, events, festivals and classes happening in the Downtown FoCo Creative District each year!
Place – Connection – Story
Fort Collins, CO Creative Industry Stats
Creative Jobs
Creative Industries Sales
Cultural Non-Profit Revenues
Creative Industry Earnings
Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.