The seeds have been planted and the Aurora Cultural Arts District is starting to grow and blossom. The soil is rich with theatre, culinary arts, visual arts, and cultural diversity. It’s a great recipe for creativity and imagination.

Designated in 2012 as a prospective Creative District, the ACAD’s mission is to encourage artistic and cultural creativity through advocacy, promoting programs and activities, supporting multicultural urban communities, and providing opportunities for diverse expression.

Headquartered at 1400 Dallas, the ACAD building is also home to 14 creative studios.

So, as the managing director of the ACAD, Tracy Weil is very busy.

In his May 2 presentation to Business for the Arts, Weil shared many of the exciting things ‘breaking through the surface’ in the District, including:

• Reaching 150,000 visitors to the District in 2017 (doubling the 2013 75,000 visitors)
• The ACADIA Project – which identifies refugee and immigrant artists in Aurora and helps them build creative businesses
• Colorado Immigrant Festival (immifest) – A series of 4^th Saturdays during the summer, celebrating the immigrant communities in Aurora, with themed art, music, and food (Begins July 22, 2017)
• Summer Leadership Camp
• Pasternack’s Art Studios and Gallery
• The People’s Building – a performing art building at Colfax and Florence
• A feasibility study to explore additional artists’ space in the District.

The District also has a pop-up space in the Stanley Marketplace, highlighting artists with connections to Aurora, as well as some Stapleton artists. In fact, the ACAD is helping to procure some of the murals in the Marketplace.