AURORA — What’s in a name? Plenty if you’re a city trying to create a buzz about a fledgling arts district.
Aurora has changed the name of its arts district from the cumbersome Original Downtown Aurora Arts District to the more trendy, roll-off-the-tongue East End Arts District.
The reason the arts district has such a cool name now is “because it didn’t come from a bureaucrat,” said city spokesman Jeff Martinez.
In fact, he said, the artists themselves came up with the new name.
“They wanted a hip moniker but also one that was more creative and artsy,” Martinez said. “It’s part of the strategy. We wanted the artists actively involved in defining the area, the feel, the ambiance and name.”
Some of the artists have already started using the new East End Arts District name, but it didn’t get officially changed until last week.
There currently are four art studios in the East End Arts District, a 12-block area that runs from Clinton Street to Geneva Street and from East 14th Avenue to East 16th Avenue.
The “first fool” of the arts district is Walt Weinberg, or at least that’s the name he gives himself. He was the first artist to move to the area and open up a studio eight years ago, four years before the district was even officially established.
Today, the 62-year-old sells pottery he makes at his Sunrise ArtWorks studio on Florence Street. The other three studios on the strip are Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, The Other Side Arts and Red Delicious Press. Each can have a few to 10 or more artists who either work or display their wares there.
Weinberg has been instrumental in helping the city turn around a previous blighted strip of East Colfax Avenue into a pretty trendy arts and cultural district, officials said.
“The area has a lot of positive aspects,” Weinberg said. “I would like it if things were further along, but I think it’s come a long way.”
Aside from the studios, there is the renovated Aurora Fox Arts Center (a renovated theater now used for stage shows and concerts), the Martin Luther King Jr. Library and Municipal Center, and the $32.9 million commercial and residential Florence Gardens development. Florence Gardens offers the first new-housing units in the area in three decades. The eventual plan for the building also includes more art galleries, clubs and restaurants.
The district is aided by a $400,000 arts-district loan fund to attract artists and arts organizations to lease work and studio space.
Officials believe more artists will locate to the district because of the spaces available and the relatively cheap cost to move there compared with other art districts in LoDo and along Santa Fe Drive in Denver.
“We’re seeing more and more people call us about space in the arts district,” Martinez said. “We need to keep that momentum going.”
And changing the name, he said, certainly won’t hurt, either.
