City of Farmington Plans Arts and Cultural District 

The City of Farmington's downtown area may soon become a certified arts and cultural district. You're watching the Farmington Local News, brought to you by Northern Edge Casino, the Big Idea Makerspace at San Juan College and the Local News Network. I'm Ryan Simonovich. The Arts and Cultural Initiative began several years ago when the city designated downtown as a starter district. Then last year, the city formulated an arts and cultural economic development plan to complete the next step towards becoming a fully certified district.

A lot of people don't think of art when they think of Farmington. At least not they used to. But we're really pushing that to the forefront with things like our art in the Public places, program here with a sculpture program downtown. The Arts Council has been putting murals down the Alleys Art in the Alley program, and we're just continuing to have more programming around art as well. And so we're really seeing it take off, become more visible, and we want to reinvest in that and really bring it to the forefront of our community.

The New Mexico legislator established the Arts and Cultural District initiative to expand the state's creative economy by attracting creative talent and using art to improve the quality of life for residents. District benefits include assistance and cultural plan development and tax credits for the rehabilitation of historic structures

To really shine a light on our local artists. You know, we've got some studios downtown. There's lots of local art that you can find in the downtown area. And again, we have programming. You know, the, the Arts Council puts on an art walk every few months. We have the Maker's Market also put on by the Arts Council, but we're really just trying to, again, find ways to shine a light on it, make it more visible, make it more part of the DNA of our community. That art and culture is something that you can find here in Farmington.

Although the district encompasses much of the downtown area, UNS Sicker said, it benefits the whole community. The City of Farmington recently gathered public input on the plan through meetings, focus groups, and a survey. Next, the plan needs approval from City Council and then the state.

They can contact us, they can go to our website, farmington nm.gov, and look at our downtown core and, and we will be posting details as the project progresses there as well.

Learn more@fmtn.org. Thanks for watching this edition of The Local News Network. I'm Ryan Simonovich.