Colorado: Colorado Blueprint

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, of which Colorado Creative Industries (CCI) is a division, has released Colorado Blueprint, a strategic plan for advancing economic development. This new plan integrates the arts, culture and creative industries into the state’s vision for the future and in the strategies the state will pursue to foster economic growth. Encouraging localities to draw on the arts, the plan articulates as an outcome measure that at least five Colorado municipalities will “specify growth of creative industries and arts and cultural activities in their long-term economic development strategic plans.” The Colorado Blueprint is the latest step the state has taken to incorporate creativity into its economic development portfolio. The creative industries have joined aerospace, renewable energy, biotech and tourism as targeted industries in the budget documents of the Office of Economic Development for the past two years. To learn more, contact CCI Director Elaine Mariner.