Heather Leavitt, Durango’s “arts community” champion, has begun a new chapter

DURANGO, Colo. – Heather Leavitt is taking up the challenge of programs and exhibitions at the Durango Arts Center. She will fill some old shoes and establish a niche of her own at the DAC beginning Sept. 8.

As the news began filtering around town, it’s caused folks to pause… “She’s doing what?”

Leavitt is widely known as the publisher of Arts Perspective, a quarterly publication she founded back in 2004 to promote Durango’s expanding arts community. She’s also a commercial graphic designer and a photographer creating fine art using alternative processes. Few, however, have known of her experience as program, events and gallery director at the Carnegie Arts Center in her hometown of Leavenworth, Kan.

“I really think that Heather has a great connection to the artists in this community, and with her previous experience, I think she’s going to be a great fit with the Durango Arts Center,” said Carson Jones, DAC executive director. “She’ll be a tremendous asset.”

When the job search for Jones’ position was underway, Leavitt had her eye on the job. Having worked with the artists in town for nearly four years through Arts Perspective, she did indeed have an understanding of the “perceptions” – be they good, bad, correct or incorrect – as well as some of the issues facing the organization.

“I kept trying on the position (in my mind) and thinking about it,” said Leavitt, who knew programming (rather than administration) was much more her forte, and ultimately she didn’t apply for the position. “But when Carson was hired, and after talking with her, the more I knew I wanted to work with her. I wanted to be part of the changes.”

Leavitt is a self-described “opportunist” with an ever-evolving creative vision. A graduate in Studio Art, with an emphasis on photography and ceramics, from Baker University n Baldwin City, Kan., Leavitt was determined to always maintain her employment in “the arts” even if she wasn’t necessarily producing her own.

She moved to Durango to “be in the mountains,” and worked a variety of graphic design positions and as an assistant to a number of artists to garner experience. She returned to Leavenworth, however, taking the job as assistant to the program and exhibitions coordinator for the Carnegie Arts Center – a facility similar in size to DAC, but set amidst quite a different community, as Leavenworth is a prison and army town.

“”That’s where I really fell in love with being at an arts center,” said Leavitt, who during that period secured additional management and non-profit training through the National Guild of Community Schools in Austin, Tex.

“At the Carnegie Arts Center we had every discipline for every age group,” she continued, referencing the gallery, dance studio, small theater, music rooms for private lessons, a dark room, computer lab, clay studio and more. “And it was in a community that wasn’t bigger than Durango and had maybe 20 artists who were working. And we used all of those artists to teach classes.”

Though Leavitt was being groomed as the director, a job opportunity in Mancos brought her back to Colorado – primarily because she wanted to return to the mountains. The job, however, took her further away from “art” than she wished. She was missing the Leavenworth “art center” job.

“So I thought, what can I create that gets me back into the arts community?” said Leavitt. “I was taking a totally unrelated class in Ortho-Bionomy in Santa Fe and I picked up a THE Magazine and I carried it around for weeks.”

A cutting-edge publication, THE prompted Leavitt’s inspiration. She researched ad rates, began doing the math and thinking about opportunities. She holed up in her studio for days building a business plan and a direction for an arts publication.

“I put it all in a binder and gave it to my partner Ray Martinez and said, is this possible?” said Leavitt. “He looked at it and asked, can you sell the advertising?”

At the time she didn’t realize the challenges of ad sales, but she took it on as her way to reconnect with the arts community. She now readily admits her ignorance, and if she had truly known all that publishing a magazine entails, she might have thought twice, but at the time, Leavitt plunged ahead – and succeeded.

Arts Perspective is designed to support and reflect the fine arts communities in Southwest Colorado. After more than four years and 18 editions, the publication has established itself as distinctive among the publications in town.

“”We’re trying to build an arts economy,” said Leavitt. “I think what it’s done has created a sense of an arts community that I don’t think was here before. Building the arts community is good for everybody.”

But what of Arts Perspective as Leavitt moves to the DAC? While she did entertain selling it, it seemed logical, as the scope of her DAC position evolved, to take the magazine with her.

“It’s already bigger than I am, but now it’s going to be bigger for the community as it gets out there further,” said Leavitt. “It can become part of the program and we can run it. It can also be income for the Arts Center. I want to watch it grow into something else without me.”

Looking forward to DAC, Leavitt knows if so much could be done in Leavenworth, in a town that placed “culture” lower on the priority scale than Durango, much is on the horizon – indeed she calls the future for DAC “unlimited.” But ultimately, Leavitt’s goal is still to be the artist, and she has a show of her work scheduled for November, arranged before the DAC opportunity came along.

“That is who I am,” she said of her core passion, including cyanotypes, platinum palladium, ziatypes and additional alternative photography processes. “But I made the decision when I took the job at the Arts Center – maybe I can make art when I retire.””

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