An astute, innovative and versatile community requires an intricately woven social fabric that supports a culture for learning and experiencing life – off the couch and out of the box.
Our community is rich in resources and amenities, from the nature that surrounds us to the people, interactions and offerings of community and cultural institutions.
It “takes a village” to raise a child and, more importantly, to raise the bar and strengthen our social sustainability and increase cultural capital. We all should be paying attention to the community conversation about arts and culture, from topics as divisive as the Arc of History to those that more directly affect our community, such as the recent temporary closure of the Powerhouse Science Center.
The term cultural capital refers to nonfinancial social assets that promote social well-being and mobility beyond economic means, such as education, intellect, expression or even a community’s appearance to visitors. Cultural capital is accrued through grassroots endowments of time, energy, money and human capacity.
Cultural capital is bolstered by people actively participating in the richness of community activity, civic engagement with governing bodies and simply by having a voice and a hand in projects that support our social fabric.
Cultural capital is about enhancing our lives through the arts, humanities, history, sciences and technology. It’s about supporting each other when times are good and bad and exploring the vast potential in our bubble and beyond.
You can enhance our community’s cultural capital simply by walking the streets of downtown, visiting galleries and alternative art spaces, patronizing our museums and historic sites, purchasing a ticket to community theater productions, attending important public forums, supporting your child’s wonder and curiosity and, most importantly, having a voice in conversations about things that matter. Each of us has something to contribute!
At Durango Arts Center, we contribute to the cultural coffer by providing small but impactful investments of space, time and money to support artists and for others to experience their art in areas including our gallery spaces, on the Diane Panelli Stage, in our Education studio and in our local schools. Cultural capital is rooted in our next generation, and at DAC, we welcome children ages 4 to 18 and adults of all ages into the world of visual and performing arts.
On June 11, DAC will host an open house and annual meeting for our membership to present important information and to convey our appreciation for the support of the community. It is with our own experience that DAC offers compassion and encouragement to the Powerhouse Science Center, as its board navigates a new financial and strategic plan to operate efficiently, serve Durango’s youths and reinvest in our community’s cultural capital.
elsa@durangoarts.com. Elsa Jagniecki is the marketing coordinator for the Durango Arts Center.
