Vickie Willis realized South Suburban Parks and Recreation’s cultural enrichment was lacking because if often didn’t reach people with little or no money for the arts.
So the now-former supervisor of cultural arts and enrichment created the Creativity Lab, where residents of all ages can come in and create art projects for free.
It’s also right in line with the use of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, which collects one-tenth of 1 percent of sales tax to bring arts, culture and science to the masses for reduced fees. The Creativity Lab receives part of the $21,000 allocated to South Suburban’s Cultural Enrichment Division.
The county allocated about $1.5 million earlier this year to several organizations in the county or organizations that have programs that benefit county residents.
“We wanted to share arts experiences free or for very low cost,” said Carolyn Laymon, cultural and enrichment coordinator at the Sheridan Recreation Center, where the lab is located.
She said it’s important to expose children, who are the main users of the lab, to the arts because it stirs creativity and innovation at an early age. She said that’s something for which top employers will look.
“When kids aren’t getting that, it’s setting them behind because they’re not problem-solving and being creative and coming up with new ideas,” Laymon said.
Rhetta Shead, chairwoman of the Arapahoe County Cultural Council, which decides how much organizations get from their requested amounts, said they had a little extra to work with from last year because of leftover money.
“I think the people of our community are in a great position because we are the second-largest for funding for SCFD (in the Denver metro area), so we are making sure things are happening on a daily basis,” Shead said.
They interviewed each organization every Thursday evening starting the first week of April to find out what their needs are. Based on those interviews and other research, they give what they can of what the organizations requested. They allocated money to 78 organizations in Arapahoe County or organizations whose audiences include county residents.
“From the smallest organization to the largest organization, we’re making sure every interest of our community is being met,” Shead said.
Skot Latona, supervisor of South Platte Park, said the park that’s part of South Suburban received $14,900 this year. He said the money is used mostly to offset the costs of school programs and a little for general staff operating costs.
“If we didn’t have SCFD funds, we’d have to charge quite a bit more for programs or stop offering them at some point, so it’s probably about 20 percent of our program’s budget,” Latona said.
He also said in the world of field trips they’re competing with tier I and tier II organizations like the Museum of Nature and Science and Denver Zoo, so they need to keep costs low for school groups. He said they hosted 80 school groups in 2012, reaching about 2,800 children.
“If we can make these tickets available to the free-lunch kids, it gets them to the concert and exposes them,” said John Leininger, board member of and viola player in the Arapahoe Philharmonic, which received $65,300 in SCFD funds this year. “It’s an opportunity to expose kids to what we do.”
He said they do a large amount of school outreach, including a conductor competition in which a young person is selected to conduct music written by the philharmonic.
He said kids who learn and have an appreciation for music can become scientists or engineers, as he was.
“They understand how to interact with kids, and that’s helped me all my life,” Leininger said.
Clayton Woullard: 303-954-2953, cwoullard@denverpost.com or
