The arts challenge us to see and to feel and to learn. To appreciate and expand. To reach out and to search within. But today, the arts in Boulder County present us with a different kind of challenge. Many of our best resources in the arts community need help financially.

The challenge is to help secure the future of the arts in Boulder County. The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, along with major cultural groups, is establishing a unique endowment.

The arts are an essential sector of the economy. Arts and cultural events in Boulder County and the other five Metro Denver counties draw 7.1 million visitors per year - more than the combined attendance of home games of the Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets and Colorado Rockies. They also pay more than $8.3 million in taxes.

The arts play other important roles in Boulder County: they build bridges within a diverse county. This area is special to each person in a different way. But there is one thread that helps keep Boulder County what it is: creative solutions and partnerships. The arts here are an essential resource toward enriching and fostering those community values.

Now, The Community Foundation and several major arts groups in the county are working together to build that resource.

The Community Foundation recognizes the ongoing contributions of the arts and is committed to ensuring a solid future for the many groups in the community. The Community Foundation will manage the ArtsTrust endowment, and will award multi-year unrestricted grants based on a competitive application process. Beneficiaries such as the Arts and Humanities Assembly of Boulder, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the Boulder Philharmonic, the Colorado Dance Festival, the Colorado Music Festival, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the Dairy Center for the Arts and many other organizations will also be eligible for grants.

By supporting the ArtsTrust you will:

• Provide long-term unrestricted support to high-quality Boulder County arts organizations whose programming is enjoyed by diverse and expanding audiences.
• Recognize the contribution of arts organizations to the civic and economic vitality of the county.
• Encourage artistic risk taking while at the same time supporting organizational stability.
• Enable selected organizations and artists to leverage additional funding from local, regional and national sources.

The ArtsTrust offers you a unique and simple way to give broad support to the arts in Boulder County.

Use your resources creatively and give to the ArtsTrust today. Your creativity will have a lasting impact on the community. Help us take on the challenge: become part of the future of the arts in Boulder County.

Help secure the future of the arts. Please send us e-mail at info@commfound.org or call The Community Foundation office at 303-442-0436 (toll free: 1-877-744-7239) if you have questions.