Creativity flourishes in Silverton
Small mountain community gaining reputation as artists' hub

Silverton stained-glass artist Lisa Richardson prepares another piece of glass for a new window, which she said was inspired by a cathedral in France. Silverton’s San Juan County ranked 10th out of the top 25 most creative counties in the Rockies according to Colorado College’s recent 2005 “State of the Rockies” report./Photo by Jared Boyd.

by Shawna Bethell

Sociologists, economists, theorists and speculators are just finding out what artists and other creative souls have known all along: mountains breed creativity. And mountain towns breed enough lifestyle indifference to allow artists to live in a way conducive to producing their work.

With the publication of his 2002 best seller The Rise of the Creative Class and How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, and Everyday Life, Richard Florida has spawned a wave of research studying the creative classes of big cities, small towns and yet even smaller mountain towns. Colorado College recently picked up the study and applied it to its annual “State of the Rockies Report Card.” Using Florida’s criteria to define the “creative class,” which includes occupations such as architecture, education and visual artists, Colorado College found that the creative class accounts for more than 27 percent of employment in the Rockies. Or more clearly, creative people are drawn to the mountains.

Remote from academic studies and formal artistic discussion, sitting at 9,318 feet, the residents of Silverton find little surprise in the study. Full of what many on the “outside” consider quirky and sometimes unsavory characters, Silverton’s San Juan County ranked 10th out of the top 25 most creative counties in the Rockies, from Montana down to the Arizona border. Ruth Ann Caitland, who has owned a gallery in Silverton for the past 24 years, sees a direct correlation between artists and the landscape.

“It’s because we live on the edge up here,” she says, sitting at her battered wood kitchen table surrounded by windows and mountain views. “It pushes you mentally, physically and imaginatively. It is elemental living, nothing to distract you.” Aside from these aspects, Caitland also believes that the “live and let live” attitude found in small mountain towns is also conducive to creative work. No one judges how you live. They may talk about you for entertainment purposes – the reality of a small town – but no one really cares how people live their lives.

Across town, and newer to the community, sculptor Alex Spencer feels much the same way.

Spencer came to the San Juans not for the inspiration but for the recreational activities. He sees, however, that Silverton and other small towns like it promote the creative drive.

“Art is somewhat inherent to these kinds of towns,” said Spencer, who has been producing marble sculpture for the past 10 years. His themes, those reflecting Mezo-American cultural influences, don’t depict the mountains around him, but4

the community plays a role in the creation nonetheless.

“It is the adverse conditions of these towns that promote creativity,” he said. “Maybe it is that art forces you to explore yourself just as you explore the mountains themselves.” Spencer also believes in Caitland’s “live and let live” theory of being in a community such as Silverton. His drills are noisy and it affects the neighbors. On the other hand, his neighbors may be cutting wood with a chainsaw that reverberates up and down the alley. No one gets mad. It’s just how people need to live. Live, yes, but sustain themselves financially? As artists? Not quite yet, it seems.

Sculptor Alex Spencer’s “Face.” Spencer moved to Silverton for the outdoors but found the “live and let live” attitude conducive to his art, as well./Photo by Jared Boyd.

“It is the adverse conditions of these towns that promote creativity,” he said. “Maybe it is that art forces you to explore yourself just as you explore the mountains themselves.” Spencer also believes in Caitland’s “live and let live” theory of being in a community such as Silverton. His drills are noisy and it affects the neighbors. On the other hand, his neighbors may be cutting wood with a chainsaw that reverberates up and down the alley. No one gets mad. It’s just how people need to live. Live, yes, but sustain themselves financially? As artists? Not quite yet, it seems.

According to Colorado College, Florida’s study reveals that creativity leads to higher innovation, new business formation and economic growth, and he claims that the creative class will be the principal influence on economy and ingenuity in contemporary society. How does this transfer to a community of 450 in such a remote region of our country, whose base economy relies on tourism, T-shirts and shot-glasses? “It is a financial risk,” says Amy Grogan, who has operated Grogan Fine Arts for the past year.

Opening her own gallery has always been a dream of Grogan’s, and she decided to take the risk in Silverton. A longtime resident of the “funky little town with dirt streets,” Grogan sees a new resurgence of artistic dedication in the community. “There is so much potential here, and there has always been a strong

artistic community,” says Grogan. She has seen an ebb and flow in activity in the local arts councils and guilds, but she has always seen the artists as vital to the community. She decided if she were ever going to take the chance, now would be the time. Grogan has been joined by letterpress printer Dan Garner, who opened Bird in Hand Studios in the past year, and Lisa Richardson, of Grenadier Glassworks, who has slowly garnered a reputation for fine, stained-glass windows and glass tiles. None of these artists has “given up their day jobs” or at least walked away from more commercial work such as commissions or nonartistic print jobs, but all hope to blend their passion with commercial viability.

Also new to the community is Eileen Fjerstad, who has opened Sand and Snow Studio with the idea of bringing in visiting artists for workshops and classes. “If I had to make a living solely off my painting, I’d be starving by now,” laughs Fjerstad who decided to relocate to Silverton from Durango because of the mountain inspiration. “Commercially, I would do better being closer to Durango, but in Silverton I can walk the lower river road or along the Shrine and return home with three new paintings in my mind. I can sit in my studio and have a view that encompasses all aspects of my art.”

There are also weavers, a filmmaker, a graphic designer, an architectural designer, wood workers, potters, jewelers, chefs and a variety of other talented individuals who qualify for the creative class mantel but whose businesses are so small they fall under the radar of the predominately tourism-based economy. These artists agree that their businesses might be more

prosperous if they worked as a unified force to promote themselves, but they also agree that by the very nature of the reclusive Silverton artist, they struggle to even communicate among themselves. But that may be changing.

The Silverton Handcrafters and Artists Guild has taken a huge step in the right direction by deciding to focus on local artists (as opposed to supporting the Blair Street Arts Festival which featured visiting artists), says Grogan, and she is hopeful that the community will come together to form a new visual arts center. “The locals are who have supported me so far,”

she says of her customer base, and she is grateful for the support, but she is hoping that Silverton’s increasing reputation as an art community will draw a broader base of tourists who will be interested in purchasing fine art.

Ultimately, according to the Colorado College report, the saving economic grace for small mountain communities will be their ability to “complement the tourist economy with the creative economy.” It appears that Silverton, quirky characters and dirt streets aside, may be forging its own path along the country’s rocky economic road. •

Durango transplant Eileen Fjerstad discusses her art in her Silverton studio. Fjerstad recently opened Sand and Snow Studio with the idea of bringing in visiting artists for workshops and classes./Photo by Jared Boyd.