Boulder Arts Blueprint Phase 1

Introduction

Boulder has long been a place where creativity shapes the way we live, work, and connect with one another. From murals that animate our neighborhoods to performances that bring us together in moments of joy and reflection, the arts are essential to who we are as a community.

The Arts Blueprint builds on this legacy, charting a vision for how creativity can help us meet the challenges of today while imagining the Boulder of tomorrow. Phase 1 represents the foundation of this work. Over the past eight months, thousands of community members, creatives, cultural leaders, community partners, and staff have contributed their voices through questionnaires, focus groups, pop-ups, and one-on-one conversations. Their input reflects both pride in Boulder’s cultural spirit and urgency to ensure that the arts remain accessible, equitable, and resilient for generations to come.

This is a plan for the whole community. The Blueprint invites us to see our roles within a larger frame:

• Our office will lead where we have direct scope and responsibility.
• The city will integrate the arts into policies, planning, and investments.
• The community of creatives, artists, organizations, residents, and businesses will carry forward ideas and energy that fall beyond government’s reach, with the city as a partner and supporter.

Phase 1 establishes the broad themes and guiding framework that will shape the work ahead. It integrates community input, city planning efforts such as the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan, national best practices, aligning Boulder’s cultural future with the city’s Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience (SER) Framework to ensure that creativity is fully embedded into the city’s long-term goals for safety, health, livability, access, sustainability, responsible governance, and economic vitality.

The following summarizes Phase 1 of the Boulder Arts Blueprint planning process outlining:

1. Focus areas of the Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience (SER) Framework, as adopted by the City of Boulder
2. The SER Framework in regard to the arts, each in two ways:
   1. Arts in service of Boulder’s broader goals: how arts and creativity help the whole community reach its generational Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience target
   2. Boulder’s goals in service of the arts: how those same targets apply within the arts community.
3. Community desires as conveyed through data and engagement

Progress to date

The input is informed by and aligned to:

• Discovery Report of initial impressions
• Local and national landscape review
• Benchmarking with similar cities
• National best practices
• Consultation with an Advisory Committee
• Guiding plans like the Citywide Strategic Plan, City Council Priorities, Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan, and SER Framework
• Research such as the Artist Census, Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6), and Boulder Arts Commission General Operating Support grantees annual reports
• Engagement including:
  • Nearly 1,200 community questionnaire responses
  • Focus groups with working artists, youth, venue operators, grantees, contemplative and emerging artists, alternative creatives, and cultural leaders
  • One on one interviews with stakeholders
  • Pop-ups at Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan engagement events, Boulder Arts Week, Bike to Work Day, Rec Centers, NoBo First Fridays

Thus far we have:

• Conducted extensive community engagement and a literature review
• Developed a 2026 Cultural Grants Program direction
• Developed a preliminary framework oriented to the community’s long term goals (the SER Framework)
• Review with the City of Boulder Race Equity Rapid Response Tool and by Community Engagement teams

City of Boulder Sustainability, Equity and Resilience Framework (SER) goals

The Boulder Arts Blueprint adopts the City of Boulder’s Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience (SER) framework as its guiding set of goals. This ensures that the arts are fully integrated into the city’s broader planning, policy, and service direction, and contribute meaningfully to a more just, adaptable, and sustainable community.

The SER framework provides long-term, generational goals for the Boulder community. These goals then offer a strategic planning foundation for the policies, programs, and projects of the City of Boulder. It also serves as the organizing tool for the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan, annual budget, and organizational planning processes by providing consistent goals and objectives necessary to achieve Boulder’s vision of service excellence for an inspired future.

Adapting SER Framework to the community’s Arts, Culture, and Heritage goals

There are seven key elements of the SER framework: Safe, Healthy and Socially Thriving, Livable, Accessible and Connected, Environmentally Sustainable, Responsibly Governed, and Economically Vital. Within the Blueprint, these goals are applied in two ways. On one hand, the goals ask how the arts can help the community reach its generational goals. For example: how does creativity enact, support, and encourage a better Boulder community? Also, it considers how these goals pertain specifically to the arts community. For instance, how do we encourage a safe, healthy, economically vital creative community?

1. Safe

SER goal: A welcoming and inclusive community that fosters positive neighborhood and community relations and ensures that all residents are secure and cared for during emergencies and natural disasters. Public infrastructure is well-maintained and reliable, and natural resources like water, air, and land are protected.

Arts connection to the SER goal: Boulder’s creative life fosters welcoming, inclusive public spaces, building trust across differences, translating critical information in ways people absorb, and helping neighborhoods prepare for and recover from disruptions. Creative practice turns safety from a top down directive into a shared civic habit.

Artists and cultural spaces are protected and accessible, with conditions that allow creative work to flourish without risk of harm or displacement.

2. Healthy and Socially Thriving

SER goal: All Boulder residents are able to meet their critical needs, enjoy high levels of social, physical, and mental well-being, and have access to abundant recreational, cultural and educational opportunities in an environment that respects and celebrates human rights.

Arts connection to the SER goal: Boulder is filled with inclusive cultural experiences which strengthen social ties and support mental and physical wellbeing. Through representation, access, and everyday creativity, artists and cultural spaces help residents meet human needs for belonging, expression, and joy while advancing equity across identities and neighborhoods.

Boulder’s creative sector is itself healthy, connected, and resilient. Artists, cultural workers, and organizations have access to resources, affordable spaces, and support systems that sustain their practice and well-being. The arts ecosystem reflects the city’s diversity, advances equity within its own structures, and provides safe, inclusive environments where creative professionals can flourish, collaborate, and grow.

3. Livable

SER goal: High-performing, safe, and well-maintained buildings and infrastructure that accommodate a diverse set of community needs for working, learning, playing, and living.

Arts connection to the SER goal: The arts make Boulder more livable by turning buildings, streets, and services into places of connection, attachment, and care. Creative practice animates infrastructure, supports housing solutions, and embeds everyday access to culture within walking distance. By weaving art into development, social services, and neighborhood design, the city nurtures environments where people can work, learn, play, live with belonging, and express themselves.

Boulder ensures that artists and cultural workers can afford to live and create here. Safe, high-performing cultural spaces, affordable housing, and well-maintained venues allow the arts community to thrive.

4. Accessible and Connected

SER goal: A safe, accessible, and sustainable multimodal transportation system that connects people with each other and where they want to go. Open access to information is provided both physically and digitally to foster connectivity and promote community engagement.

Arts connection to the SER goal: The arts advance an accessible and connected city by turning mobility routes into cultural experiences, using creative tools to bridge digital and physical divides, and inviting all residents regardless of language, ability, or location into civic life. Through artful wayfinding, inclusive storytelling, and hybrid engagement platforms, cultural practice helps people navigate, meet, and participate more easily in Boulder’s public realm.

A connected city ensures that artists, organizations, and cultural audiences can easily access one another. Safe, affordable, and multimodal transportation options link people to cultural venues and events, while digital infrastructure expands opportunities for creative production, collaboration, and participation.

5. Environmentally Sustainable

SER goal: A sustainable, thriving, and equitable community that benefits from and supports clean energy; preserves and responsibly uses the earth’s resources; and cares for ecosystems.

Arts connection to the SER goal: The arts advance Boulder’s sustainability goals by weaving ecological awareness into everyday civic life. Through creative expression, the arts invite residents to see the natural world with renewed curiosity, celebrate resourcefulness, and co‑create solutions that protect the planet for future generations. Arts organizations are leaders in climate adaptation by modeling sustainable practices, integrating resilience planning into their operations, and inspiring their communities to embrace environmentally responsible choices.

Creatives, artists, and cultural organizations are embrace environmentally responsible practices that model resilience and inspire collective action.

6. Responsibly Governed

SER goal: A local government that provides an excellent customer experience, responsibly manages the city’s assets, and makes data-driven decisions informed by community engagement inclusive of those who have been historically excluded from government programs and services. The city organization exemplifies an employer of choice with policies and programs to support employee inclusion and well-being.

Arts connection to the SER goal: The arts strengthen a responsibly governed city engaging residents in civic processes and embedding equity-centered creativity into policy design and service delivery. When municipal leaders integrate cultural assets into governance through public art commissions, creative economy programs, residencies, and inclusive cultural planning, they generate richer data, deeper trust, and more resilient cross-sector partnerships.

Fair and transparent cultural grantmaking, clear policies, and accessible processes ensure that artists and organizations can participate fully in civic life.

7. Economically Vital

SER goal: A healthy, accessible, resilient, and sustainable economy based on innovation, diversity, and collaboration that benefits all residents, businesses, and visitors.

Arts connection to the SER goal: The arts power an economically vital Boulder by sparking innovation, anchoring small businesses, and attracting visitors and talent while ensuring that creative opportunity and the benefits it generates are shared across communities. Culture and creativity are treated as core economic infrastructure.

Affordable workspaces, equitable funding, and policies that support creative entrepreneurship allow artists, cultural organizations, and creative businesses to thrive.

Themes from Community

The following section summarizes key community desires gathered through an extensive and inclusive engagement process. Input was drawn from multiple, diverse focus groups, questionnaire data, the Boulder Artist Census, hundreds of one-on-one conversations, email correspondence, and other forms of community outreach. These insights reflect a wide range of thousands of perspectives from artists, organizations, and community members, and are organized by theme to highlight shared priorities and emerging needs.

In no particular order, themes that emerged during Phase 1 engagement include:

Funding and sources of support

• Increase and stabilize funding for arts organizations
• Make funding more equitable and accessible, especially for smaller and underrepresented groups
• Encourage fair pay for artists and arts workers
• Sustain anchor institutions while supporting emerging organizations
• Diversify funding sources beyond 2A, including public-private partnerships

Spaces, places, venues

• Address space and affordability gaps
• Invest in cultural infrastructure, including studios, rehearsal spaces, and exhibition venues at a range of price points
• Activate downtown and other neighborhoods as creative hubs
• Address long-term sustainability of existing venues through capital investment and maintenance
• Encourage adaptive reuse of city-owned and underutilized properties for creative use
• Support affordable artist housing and live/work opportunities

Youth and lifelong learning

• Support emerging artists with mentorship and professional development opportunities
• Offer lifelong, affordable arts learning opportunities
• Increase access to arts for young people through in-school, after-school, and summer programs
• Partner with CU Boulder and local schools to bridge education and professional arts careers

Communication and connectivity

• Improve communication and engagement with artists and community members
• Build a unified vision for the arts that can be clearly communicated to the public and funders
• Position and promote the arts as part of Boulder’s identity
• Align arts strategies with broader city initiatives
• Develop a centralized events calendar and information hub

Public art and public expression

• Expand public art across neighborhoods, including temporary and rotating works
• Update and strengthen the Public Art Policy, including enforcement and cross-department collaboration
• Increase opportunities for community-responsive and experimental projects
• Integrate art into public spaces, infrastructure, and capital projects

Accessibility

• Reduce financial barriers for artists to participate in city programs and processes
• Simplify application and permitting processes
• Improve grant access and direct support for artists
• Ensure equitable access to cultural facilities and programs

Established institutions

• Center equity in cultural investment decisions
• Foster collaboration between large, mid-sized, and small organizations
• Leverage resources, mentorship, and infrastructure from legacy institutions to benefit the broader arts ecosystem

Parks and public spaces

• Activate the Bandshell and other public gathering places for arts programming
• Partner with Parks and Recreation to integrate art into park design and programming
• Encourage use of outdoor spaces for performances, installations, and festivals

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

• Prioritize support for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and underrepresented artists and organizations
• Reinforce DEIA as a core cultural value in funding, programming, and policy
• Advocate for artistic freedom and safety for diverse expression

Events and cultural experiences

• Expand and diversify arts and cultural events
• Showcase local and emerging talent
• Create signature, inclusive cultural experiences that reflect Boulder’s creative spirit
• Activate unconventional and outdoor spaces for performances and installations

Experimental artwork

• Encourage bold, innovative, and “weird” creative projects that reflect Boulder’s identity
• Provide low-barrier opportunities for risk-taking in artistic practice
• Support emerging institutions and experimental work through grants and visibility

Next Steps

The next step is to align these themes with the city’s SER Framework, prioritize, and build actions, goals, and recommendations. For the Office of Arts and Culture, this means ensuring our programs and scope match our resources, identifying where we can lead directly and where we can inspire, connect, and support the community to take action. To align to the city’s budget cycle, many of these themes are reflected in the proposed 2026 grant program, including commitments to impact-focused funding, accessibility, lifelong learning, climate adaptation, and experimentation. Some themes such as affordability, accessibility, equity, sustainability, and cutting‑edge or experimental work, stand as guiding principles that will inform all we do. We also recognize the need to navigate trade‑offs among these priorities while upholding the core values embedded in our programs today.

Special thanks to all those involved in the Arts Blueprint Phase 1, including Progressive Urban Management Associates (PUMA), Public Sphere Projects (PSP), Boulder Chamber and the many arts organizations and arts leaders from our community.