RANGELY I The Rangely Networking Group will host a presentation on the Rio Blanco County Cultural Heritage Center and the Meeker Arts and Cultural Council on Tuesday at noon, hosted at the Colorado Northwestern Community College Weiss Center.
All are welcome.
Ellene Meece, president of the Rio Blanco County Historical Society, will provide a program on the Rio Blanco County Cultural Heritage Center program, and Meeker Arts and Cultural Council officers will discuss a variety of programs utilized to bring performing and fine arts opportunities to the youth and adults of rural communities.
These programs are aimed at increasing tourism and economic development in rural counties. Tourism, and, in particular, heritage and agri-tourism, are top economic engines for sparsely populated rural Colorado counties, and they have brought outstanding improvements to their economies of those counties.
These rural sites have also reportedly become internationally known destinations for domestic and international visitors rather than just a “pass through on the way to” other destinations.
Delta County’s North Fork Valley Creative and Heritage Agri-tourism programs are flagship examples of such success.
Other Colorado rural communities with similar programs, include Salida, Carbondale, Crested Butte, Breckenridge, et al.
The innovative Rio Blanco County Broadband Project, which will greatly enhance world-wide information access to such resources and attractions in the county, likely will also enhance the ability to market such resources and attractions internationally.
Cultural and performing arts programs relating to the lore of the “Old West” are of great interest to international and domestic visitors, and Rio Blanco County has an abundance of such attractions.
