A Community Resource

HOW THE CRESTED BUTTE CENTER FOR THE ARTS TURNED PANDEMIC LEMONS INTO LEMONADE

By Kendra Walker

Like most organizations and businesses in the community, the Crested Butte Center for the Arts faced a lot of challenges this past year. With the coronavirus knocking on Crested Butte’s door in early 2020, it seemed a performing arts center that relies heavily on events, fundraising, and community participation would not thrive through the pandemic. The newly built, state-of-the-art building seemed doomed to stand empty as the rest of Crested Butte sheltered at home. Or was it?

“We were in mourning along with the rest of the community,” says Brooke MacMillan, director of Literary Arts & Lectures. The board had made the tough decision to lay off most of the staff, leaving a very small staff to run the ship. Luckily the Center was in the hands of three powerhouse females passionate about bringing the arts to Crested Butte: Brooke MacMillan, Jillian Liebl, and Melissa Mason.

“In the midst of trying to keep our doors open, the stress of COVID and facing so many questions around the pandemic, we were really asking ourselves what can we do for the community? How can we help in this?” says MacMillan.

And almost serendipitously, the Center found a way to keep its doors open. Many organizations had lost their spaces during the pandemic and were in need of a home, a safe space for meetings, classes, and rehearsals and still be able to follow the county’s social distancing protocols. The Center had room.

“With this new space, we’ve been able to keep the building safe by dividing it into different zones and people can really spread out,” says Jillian Liebl, associate director of development. Throughout the pandemic, the Center created partnerships with nine organizations it had not worked with before, and worked with a total of 18 different local non-profit or government organizations. “We would have never made those relationships if not for COVID,” she says.

“It’s been so cool to see how we were able to pivot from mostly our own programming to really serving the community. The silver lining here has been that people have really needed it. We’ve been able to step in and fill that gap,” says Liebl. “We’re seeing the Center step into that role that we had envisioned it to become, to be a true community center of Crested Butte. That’s what this building is for. It’s for everybody and it’s been amazing to see it come to life.”

Additionally, the Center’s small team was able to come up with a plan to create thoughtfully curated events that were small and safely distanced, pivoting to online classes and workshops. “It was kind of wonderful,” says MacMillan. “We were poised to really do things right and work with the community. It felt really good to keep people connected with the arts and cultural activities, which are so important in times of stress.”

Over the past year, only 6 percent of the events taking place have been Center-specific programming, compared to 57 percent in 2019. From the Crested Butte Yoga Co-op, to Crested Butte School of Dance, to the Trailhead Children’s Museum, and other local organizations holding meetings, events, and programming, the Center is bustling with activity every day of the week.

“I’m amazed at how many people are in and out of here every day,’ says Carrie Wallace, the Center’s new performing arts coordinator.

“The Center definitely pulled through for us at the Crested Butte Snowsports Foundation this year,” says LIV Sotheby’s agent Jill Matlock. “We worked with them to do our ski and snowboard swap fundraiser in the fall through all of the COVID regulations, and it was great and amazing that they worked with us to make it happen. They helped us continue to fulfill our mission to serve the community and help the youth in this valley.”

The Center is slowly starting to regrow its staff, and the board of directors is focusing on a search for a new executive director. “We have an incredibly talented team and it’s a very resilient organization,” says Liebl.

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In the meantime, the team is dedicated to bringing an exciting 2021 lineup of summer events and festivals to the community, including the beloved Alpenglow summer concert series. “We’re all incredibly excited for Alpenglow,” says Liebl, reflecting on how difficult it was to make the decision not to hold the free outdoor concerts in 2020, due to finances and COVID event capacity restrictions. “The spirit of Alpenglow is that it is for everyone. It’s that magical place where long-time locals and part-time residents and visitors and young and old can all come together. If it weren’t free and accessible to everyone it wouldn’t be Alpenglow,” says Liebl. “We didn’t want to turn people away.”

But Alpenglow is back in action, and it will be a cathartic experience for everyone, notes Liebl. The Alpenglow concerts this year will focus primarily on local bands. “Our local musicians and local artists have also had a tough year and we wanted to support them first and foremost,” says Liebl. “What a great way to introduce Alpenglow back into the mix.”

The Center’s summer lineup this year has a little something for everyone; from an inaugural Watercolor Symposium in June, to the ever-popular Wine and Food Festival in July, to the Murder in the Mountains genre fiction festival in September, back by popular demand.

Additionally, the Center has made a commitment to hire at least 50 percent of all its performers, musicians, and writers from underrepresented backgrounds. At the beginning of the summer, the Center had already hit 40 percent. “It’s something our community is really interested in and hungry for, is these different perspectives and voices,” says MacMillan. “We want to present voices of authors and performers of different cultures throughout the year.”

This summer the Center will be hosting a Pride Month film series, and also worked with the Crested Butte Black Lives Matter Community Coalition and the Melanin Mountain Project to host a Juneteenth event. “There has never been a formal Pride event in Crested Butte before. We’re trying to provide a space for that,” says Wallace. “Those people in our community need something like that to give them representation and acceptance. I’m so excited to work here with a community that is supporting underrepresented groups and bringing in performers with different backgrounds.”

MacMillan says the Center also plans to continue some virtual opportunities to work with artists and authors from other countries. “It’s nice for people to be able to drop in on a workshop and programming that’s online. The convenience of Zoom is phenomenal and we’re glad to be able to incorporate that moving forward.”

In planning for events for this summer and beyond, Liebl has felt a shift in optimism as indoor gatherings and concerts are becoming a possibility again. “I can’t tell you how freeing that’s been,” she says. “Our staff hopes to produce as much programming for the community as it possibly can moving forward.”

“I dream of the day when we can have 400 people rocking out to live music here,” says Wallace. “I’m constantly in awe of my coworkers and how much they’re doing to include everyone at this space. It’s hard logistically sometimes, but we’re doing our best to make it a place where everyone feels at home. We’ve got a really great team who cares about the community and hopefully we’ll be back fully in action soon.”

“It’s so important for the community to have an arts center,” concludes MacMillan. “It’s a place to come together and be renewed and inspired by the arts, to feel connected to the community, to get to experience outside voices and cultures, and to be able to really live our best lives by exploring creativity through the arts.” •