What We Do
Our Mission
Create Boulder inspires, advances, and connects Boulder’s arts, culture, and creative communities with public and private support to strengthen and enhance the character, quality of life, and economic prosperity of Boulder.
Challenges to Arts and Culture
Boulder is a magnet for artists, entrepreneurs, tech leaders, and other creative professionals. Our city is home to one of the highest concentrations of artists, arts and culture organizations, and creative professionals in the country. Yet high living costs and historically low public and private financial support make it increasingly difficult for artists and creative workers to thrive here.
Our community also lacks essential cultural infrastructure. Decades of underinvestment and a complex, often challenging regulatory environment have left artists and organizations scrambling to find affordable spaces to create, rehearse, perform, exhibit, teach, and gather.
Recovery from the pandemic is still uneven. Some artists and organizations are seeing audiences and revenues return; others have left Boulder for more affordable places. As the costs of living and working here continue to climb, the creative community is under increasing pressure.
Our Role
Create Boulder addresses the challenges to arts and culture and works to build a stronger creative ecosystem and future for Boulder. Our board:
Advocates for strong arts and culture policy and sustained public and private investment
Convenes artists, cultural organizations, and business and civic leaders to align around shared priorities for Boulder’s creative ecosystem
Channels funding to artists and arts organizations strategically, to leverage arts and culture investments
Champions cultural infrastructure and affordable workspaces so creativity has room to grow and thrive
The City of Boulder’s Arts, Culture & Heritage Tax
In November 2023, 75 percent of Boulder voters approved the Arts, Culture & Heritage Tax (Ballot Measure 2A), a campaign initiated and led by Create Boulder.
The Arts, Culture & Heritage Tax extends a 0.15 percent sales tax for 20 years, starting in 2025, and allocates 50 percent of revenues to arts, culture, and heritage. The tax is expected to provide $3.5 million annually in arts and culture funding, a significant increase from the previous arts budget peak of $1.8 million in 2023 and a more stable source of arts funding, which had been subject to annual appropriations.
The dedicated tax revenues narrow the gap between Boulder and peer cities in per-capita municipal support and lay the foundation for a flourishing creative future. They also serve as a bulwark against funding cuts during times of budget pressure.
Create Boulder brings together artists, arts and culture organizations, community partners, and business leaders to speak with a clear, powerful voice to ensure that arts, culture, and creativity have a consistent, coordinated champion in Boulder’s civic life.
One way we do this is by convening City Council Candidate Arts Forums. These nonpartisan forums, co-hosted in recent years by the Boulder County Arts Alliance and Boulder Chamber, educate candidates and voters about the value of arts and culture to our community and policies that affect the creative sector. The intent is to build a City Council that supports the arts.
Create Boulder’s advocacy has also helped to:
Restore threatened City of Boulder arts grant funding during the pandemic
Direct a portion of the City’s federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to arts and culture recovery
Win voter approval for the Arts, Culture & Heritage Tax, a once-in-a-generation opportunity that provides long-term, dedicated arts funding (see sidebar).
Arts & Culture: Boulder’s Growing Economic Engine
In 2023, the City of Boulder’s nonprofit arts and culture sector generated over $115 million in economic activity, supported 2,451 jobs, and produced $22 million in local, state, and federal tax revenues, according to the Americans for the Arts’ Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6) study. This economic impact was four times greater than that of other cities of Boulder’s size. As the Sundance Film Festival relocates to Boulder in 2027, bringing an annual estimated economic impact of $132 million to the city, the overall economic footprint of arts and culture is expected to grow significantly.
Create Boulder believes funding should help artists and organizations focus on their work—not on paperwork. To provide support, Create Boulder:
Contributes to existing grant programs to increase their giving power
Seeks a seat at the table in local and regional grantmaking to promote equity and enhance support for Boulder’s artists and arts and culture organizations
Encourages streamlined applications and reporting so grantees can spend more time creating and serving the community
A Track Record of Response
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Create Boulder responded quickly with local and regional partners to stabilize Boulder’s creative sector—supporting artists and arts and culture organizations through relief funds, work projects, and mini-grants that leveraged additional public investment. From 2020 to 2025, Create Boulder invested in funding programs and advocated for additional City investments that helped deliver $875,000 in pandemic relief for operating and project support that benefited Boulder’s artists and arts organizations. Responding nimbly to the arts community is central to our work as needs and conditions evolve.
Visit Boulder-Create Boulder Events, Arts & Culture Grants
Since 2021, Create Boulder has committed $25,000 annually to augment Visit Boulder’s Events, Arts & Culture Grants, which support events that enliven our community, showcase Boulder’s creativity, and contribute to economic vitality. Visit Boulder provides an additional three to four dollars for every dollar contributed by Create Boulder—leveraging our $25,000 into $100,000 to $125,000 in total support. For additional information about this grant program, click here. For a list of grant recipients in 2025, click here.
Create Boulder works with civic and business leaders and other partners to address critical arts and culture infrastructure needs, including:
Performance and rehearsal venues
Studios and classrooms
Offices and shared creative workspaces
Flexible spaces for community celebrations and cultural events
Create Boulder’s Facilities and Venues Committee has been working to identify opportunities for new development and adaptive re-use and renovation of existing buildings in Boulder for arts and culture purposes. Composed of architects, developers, City arts and culture staff, and Create Boulder board members, the committee is helping to advance potential projects that could expand Boulder’s arts and culture infrastructure.
Imagining What’s Next
In late 2022, Create Boulder convened the Boulder Arts Complex Visioning Workshop, bringing together national and local development experts with our arts community to imagine Boulder’s next-generation arts complex. Key recommendations included:
Create an umbrella organization to provide arts leadership and shared services
Repurpose existing buildings to meet immediate arts and culture space needs
Develop a long-term vision for a performance complex and arts and culture hub
To learn more about the Boulder Arts Complex Visioning Workshop, click here.
Create Boulder is actively advancing this vision through our support for new “creative placemaking” around the arts. One project that was inspired by the visioning workshop is the Pearl Arts District, a potentially transformative development project that includes a 2,500-seat venue, an 8,500-square-foot flexible community arts space, 150 hotel rooms, and 500 new homes.
Create Boulder is working with community leaders to understand and prioritize facility and venue needs. We’re working with the business community to activate vacant commercial spaces for arts uses—helping to fill storefronts, drive foot traffic, and support nearby retail and restaurants. We’re also researching options for a new