Artists discuss their takeaways from the city’s lodger tax projects
Durango artist Maddie Sanders touches up her mural on Aug. 2 at Manna soup kitchen. The Mural was funded through the Durango Creates! grant. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald file)
Jerry McBride
All over Durango, residents can experience various murals painted by local artists.
Drive downtown to see the serpent mural, painted by Maddie Sanders, at the intersection of Camino del Rio and East 14th Street.
Need some milk from City Market in north Durango? Shoppers can see the mural on Mac’s Liquor, painted by Hannah Wilson, commemorating Durango’s craft brewing industry.
But while these murals beautify the city and make it an attractive place to visit, what benefits do the artists take away from these projects?
The obvious answer is exposure. The world of marketing is now almost exclusively focused on social media and web traffic, but having a mural painted on notable city buildings and street corners are also hard to ignore.
In the April 2021 election, Durango voters approved an increase in the lodgers tax from 2% to 5.25%. The 3.25% increase devoted 14% to arts and cultural events, programs and facilities. Other areas include sustainable tourism marketing and transit service.
Since the program’s inception in 2022, there have been in 72 projects partially and fully funded, and $1 million went toward arts and culture funding, according to the city’s website.
More recently, the city has been trying to commission an artist to paint a mural on the Santa Rita Administration Building and Water Reclamation Facility. The municipality is also trying to commission an artist for an art project in Schneider Park.
Wilson was granted about $8,500 from the city and took home close to $5,000 for about 70 hours worth of work on the Mac’s Liquor mural project.
The artists get to keep what they don’t spend on the project.
Wilson said it’s a competitive and tough process to be awarded the grant, especially if an artist is not an experienced grant writer.
“I think having somebody who has experience with that type of stuff was important. So I was able to actually get the funding,” she said. “But it’s challenging. As an artist, you just have to wear a lot of different hats like with any type of entrepreneurial work. Grant writing is not my forte.”
Wilson hired a friend who had grant writing experience, which took about $2,000 out of her take-home pay for the mural.
She said there are normally two rounds of lodgers tax funding for these types of projects: one at the beginning of the year and one in May.
Normally, the city tends to favor artists during the second round in May and bigger nonprofit projects during the first round, she said.
For Wilson, one of her goals was to paint a mural for the city.
“I definitely got some decent money for it. But like what I asked for, I didn’t fully get,” she said. “And so we did end up doing some fundraising.”
Wilson received a combined $2,000 in donations from Carver Brewing, Ska Brewing, Steamworks, Animas Brewing Co. and Anarchy Brewing.
Durango artist Maddie Sanders touches up her mural on Aug. 2 at Manna soup kitchen. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald file)
Jerry McBride
Sanders has become a well-known muralist from the city’s projects after being awarded the lodgers tax grant for the serpent mural. She was later awarded a Durango Creates! grant for a mural painted at Manna soup kitchen.
She has also painted a mural for Fort Lewis College.
She received $10,000 worth of funding for the snake mural and netted a total of $5,000. She was awarded $5,000 for the Manna mural, netting about $2,500.
Sanders echoed Wilson’s sentiments about applying for the grant, saying it was a highly competitive process.
“I could see how it (the grant application process) is kind of difficult from an art perspective, especially someone that isn’t necessarily used to having to write all of this information about their art,” Sanders said. “As artists, a lot of the time, we just want to make the art, but having to go through this process is necessary.”
While the pay is a bonus, Sanders and Wilson said the city’s mural projects helped create opportunities for them.
Wilson said she had more people recognize her because of the mural once it was finished, in part because of local media coverage.
Artist Hannah Wilson works on a mural commemorating Durango’s brewing industry on the side of Mac’s Liquor. (Courtesy of Hannah Wilson)
“It was definitely worth it,” she said. “I’ve had a couple of businesses reach out since then.”
For Sanders, she had numerous parties who were interested contact entities like the Durango Creative District or the city about her work.
She said it was a much easier way for her to showcase her work than participating in art shows.
“I actually got the Manna mural because the Walls Project, a nonprofit organization based out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; their CFO lives here in Durango,” she said. “And he did the same thing. He reached out to the city of Durango and was looking for potential mural artists for a project.”
Wilson believes the reason she received a significant amount of funding was because of the significance of craft beer in Durango.
Hannah Wilson painted a mural celebrating the craft brewing history in Durango on the side of Mac’s Liquor store near north City Market on Main Avenue. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald file)
Jerry McBride
“The fact that we were able to collaborate with six breweries in town and with the brewing history and culture in this area – incorporating all of that into the application really helps,” she said.
Both Sanders and Wilson encouraged other muralists to apply. However, Wilson said she would like to see more businesses in Durango allow artists to paint murals through Durango Arts and Culture funding.
“There’s so many great walls in this area, and a lot of businesses don’t want murals,” she said.
Sanders said she wished the application process included having the city contact businesses rather than her.
“Maybe with the application process, it could be where we submit our proposal and the city reaches out to that person or that company that owns the building and shows them our proposals, and then says ‘Somebody might want to do this, what are your thoughts?’” she said.
She also said Durango Economic Opportunity Manager Tommy Crosby was a great help when it came to these details.
