“Something that I often hear from our neighboring rural towns is that Mancos has a strong character and identity that shines because Mancos grows from the inside out,” said Chelsea Lunders, executive director of the Mancos Creative District.
That mentality – the community’s identity being shaped from within by its own residents – has organically guided the town’s growth for decades and is now a core facet of its future.
In 2015, the Mancos Creative District was formed out of a need to support the many artists and creative entrepreneurs who found inspiration by calling the town home.
“The impact has been enormous. Mancos is a regional destination where cool things happen,” said TJ Zark, founding member of the creative district and current board president. “Our events have fostered record-breaking sales days, even for businesses that have been here for 50+ years.”
Even with the success, the pandemic brought about change for the town of Mancos. For one thing, Lunders moved home to Mancos after working as an anthropologist and qualitative researcher in the healthcare industry. She felt drawn to her hometown, its diversity and its prioritization of creativity. Soon after, she began volunteering for the creative district, which eventually led to her taking on the role of executive director.
“After the pandemic, we decided to revisit the creative district’s strategic plan and goals and formed a new set of objectives based on interviews with community members,” Lunders said. “This led us to a new guiding framework centered around three core values – creativity is good business, creativity is connection, and creativity is our community identity.”
Those core values have guided the Mancos Creative District’s work until a unique opportunity cropped up in 2024 – the opportunity to purchase and become stewards of the Mancos Opera House.
The previous owners spent many years restoring the building from near collapse. So, how can the Mancos Creative District continue the restoration and transform it into a space that’s lively, creative, and serves the Mancos community?
To ensure that the community had an opportunity to participate in the envisioning for the Opera House, the Mancos Creative District knew the answer began with listening.
“In the same way we did in 2015, we believe community participation is central to cultivating this downtown space,” said Lunders. “It can become a hub for creativity, education and a space for all to feel welcome and connect.
Thus, the Made in Mancos Initiative was born. The goal of the initiative was to solicit input on how the Opera House can add to the vibrance of downtown Mancos, what the residents hope to see in their town, and how they can make it a place for people of all ages to feel welcome.
“We were lucky to receive a grant to help us gather the community perspective,” said Lunders. “The grant is supporting us in taking a placemaking approach to the process. It is allowing us to collectively imagine and shape a space that serves the unique character of the community within.”
In short, the Opera House and its role in honoring and supporting the already-established Mancos Creative District will be designed by and for the local community.
Leveraging her research and anthropological background, Lunders has began conducting listening sessions. So far, more than 50 people have engaged in the process.
Moving forward, Lunders and the Mancos Creative District Board will develop a comprehensive plan that includes finalizing the restoration, partnering with local nonprofits, enriching the creative community, and activating a model that allows the Opera House to be financially sustainable.
“Our downtown real estate is populated with viable businesses, quite alive with shops, restaurants, art spaces, and more,” said Zark. “Made in Mancos should really help regional visitors understand the breadth and quality of craftsmanship found in the Mancos Valley and give those makers more visibility. The Opera House is an important state asset that should remain a historic performance venue and community gathering center well past our lifetimes.”
To further ensure the success of the Made in Mancos Initiative, the Mancos Creative District Board encouraged Lunders to apply for the Boettcher Foundation’s Doers & Difference Makers Fellowship; she was recently named a 2024-25 Boettcher Fellow.
Now in its fourth year, the fellowship supports rural community champions – like Chelsea Lunders– who are bridge-builders and have a reputation of bringing people together to solve local challenges.
From the program, Lunders hopes to learn new perspectives and tools that propel her organization’s success. She also hopes to gain tools that allow her to authentically lean into her leadership style.
“I think of myself as a sensitive person and sometimes that can be hard in a leadership position. How can I use my sensitivity as a strength and lead with who I am? Just like the town of Mancos, how can I grow from the inside out?”
Honoring its history while investing in its creative future is at the core of the Made in Mancos Initiative. Guided by the community, Mancos aims to celebrate its ever-evolving character and embrace a sustainable future.
“I hope we can serve as a model for positive-community-minded growth,” Lunders said.
As Zark rightly notes, receiving a creative district designation is “just a door, and how you walk through that door matters. If your team is guided by principles that are rather timeless, like how we put the community’s well-being at the center, then we are more likely to have results that make measurable impacts.”
That’s the spirit of Boettcher.
