Space will also be home base for supercharging Durango’s art scene

Durango Creative District Executive Director Kathryn Waggener, right, and Marketing and Projects Manager Jared Reed stand in the downtown gallery. (Scout Edmondson/Durango Herald)

The Durango Creative District opened its new public art gallery at 1027 Main Ave. with a promise: to showcase, support and seek out artists from around Durango.

The gallery’s July 22 grand opening showcased the “Portrait Lotto” exhibit, where 38 artists from Durango came together to create portraits of each other, all with their own unique spin and through the medium of their choice.

A smattering of oil paintings, wood burns, sculptures, ink drawings, mosaics and fused glass covered the gallery’s shining white walls. Katheryn Waggener, executive director of the DCD, walked through the gallery, pointing out various portraits and talking about the artists who created them.

The Durango Creative District’s downtown gallery on Main Avenue. (Scout Edmondson/Durango Herald)

“I don’t think any of us realized just how many artists of such vastly different media are actively working here in Durango, and how much all of us have in common,” she said.

Waggener said the DCD was created in 2019 as a nonprofit under the Durango Chamber of Commerce. Since then, it has helped dozens of artists get funding for and showcase their art; started an ambitious citywide art mapping project; worked with the city and private property owners to secure space for art; advised the city on public art calls; and aided art programs.

This is the first time in the district’s history that it has a space of its own, Waggener said. Before the space on Main Avenue was offered to the district by the owners of 11th Street Station, the organization had operated out of a tiny, windowless office in the Smiley Building and put on exhibitions in Stillwater Music.

What sets the district’s new gallery apart, she said, is that it does not act as a typical gallery focused on selling art; it is a platform for showcasing local art, not selling it for a profit. It allows people who want to make art to do it without their finances getting in the way of their creativity.

Portraits are displayed as part of the “Portrait Lotto” exhibition in the new downtown gallery. (Scout Edmondson/Durango Herald)

“We don’t have a gallery scene in Durango that is necessarily very encouraging for local artists,” Waggener said. “We’re working with our artists for equitable pay for artists, which is super, super important.”

In 2021, she said, voters approved to increase the Durango lodgers tax from 2% to 5.25%, with 14% of the money raised going to arts and culture. According to a study conducted by the Fort Lewis College Katz School of Business, $1,550,928 was awarded to local artists from 2022 to 2024 through lodgers tax grants, which the district helped secure. Outside of the tax, DCD connects local artists and creative nonprofits with scholarships and donors, she said.

Roger Seliner, whose portrait of fellow artist Nancy Byers is displayed in the exhibit, has been making art in Durango for the past 30 years. He said the work the DCD is doing to give creatives a pathway to creating art is important, and that he was excited when the district announced its new gallery space. As soon as he heard about “Portrait Lotto,” he knew he had to get involved.

“It was one of the most authentic, community driven, wholesome, cool things I’ve ever seen or been a part of,” he said.

Seliner, who works as a tattoo artist, is all about supporting burgeoning artists in the community. Now that the DCD has its own gallery, he said, it makes the district more visible, and hopefully will inspire more people with creative talent to come out of the woodwork. That way, he said, Durango will continue being a place that can support artists from all walks of life.

Durango Creative District Executive Director Kathryn Waggener, right, and Marketing and Projects Manager Jared Reed discuss a portrait in the downtown gallery. (Scout Edmondson/Durango Herald)

“It makes such a crazy amount of sense and just seems so necessary,” he said. “I feel like, in a weird way, this is like the front lines of the battle to make sure Durango holds onto its soul.”

There is already a demand for what the gallery can offer in the future. Jennifer Fernandez, a Native American Cultural Education Liaison with Park Elementary, is working with the district on Native American Heritage Month celebrations in November, including an Indigenous comic book exhibit in the gallery.

Fernandez said Waggener and the other people at the DCD are working to help the community work together on new and exciting projects, with the gallery being the focal point of that connection. Particularly in a time where money is becoming harder to get for artists and the people who support them, collaboration between community members is vital.

“It really is the hub of collaboration,” Fernandez said. “I think collaboration is key, especially in the times that we’re in right now, when funds are depleting, when grants aren’t as abundant as they used to be. We are all on the same mission is to support our community and the growth of Durango.”

sedmondson@durangoherald.com

The view from the downtown gallery looking out onto Main Avenue. The space is meant to be inviting to encourage people to enjoy local art. (Scout Edmondson/Durango Herald)

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