The Arts are being celebrated in Grand Lake, Colorado!

What used to be a one-live-theatre town now has a new building that will no doubt attract more artists and artisans — as well as generate new ones.

The Rocky Mountain Folk School hosts a leather-working class where participants learned to make leather sandals.

Grand Lake now can boast being the third "Space to Create" community in Colorado, thanks to a multi-faceted new building that will support intergenerational learning of woodworking, leather working, metal and fiber arts and other traditional crafts.

A boat-in-the-works as part of the Rocky Mountain Folk School's Wooden Boat School.

Materials and tools for creative artisan minds

The campus in downtown Grand Lake also has apartments to promote creative workforce development where artists can live and work. Each apartment contains a storefront just one street off Grand Avenue, where residents will sell what they make.

One affordable rental for a place-to-live-plus-storefront in a vibrant tourist town — that is quite invaluable.

The storefronts located on fresh new Grand Lake boardwalks, on Park Avenue, where artists can sell their creations. *Photo by Jennifer Baukman*

Public funding helped to support this vision. Grand Lake Space to Create Project was funded by grants received from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and Colorado Creative Industries.

The building includes a large 'maker space' allocated to the Rocky Mountain Folk School for classes in leather smithing, woodturning, silversmithing, and other 'lost arts.’

The Rocky Mountain Folk School's maker space. *Photo by Jennifer Baukman*

The facility includes a large outdoor work area for wooden boat building, welding, and a community gathering space supported by nine residential units allocated to creative individuals.

The structure includes economical construction technology to address the requirements of a highly restrictive budget.

MA Studios’ Principal J. Scott Munn and MA's Architect Gabe Bellowe were instrumental in this project to deliver an excellent design on a fast-paced schedule, for an on-time, on-budget result. Dave Decker, MA’s specialized Construction Administrator, was also key in the overall success of this project.

And in Fall ’26, just several days in advance of the town-hosted Grand Opening of the Space to Create, J. Scott Munn was able to experience the makerspace building firsthand with his own children.

During a Wooden Boat School course, they all helped to build and stain a wooden paddle board — an intergenerational experience that proved the power of the human will to keep the creative and tangible arts alive and within reach.

Instructors from the Wooden Boat School guide J. Scott Munn and his children, of Grand Lake, on the construction of a paddle board

A paddle board made with care and curiosity.

Now, Scott’s son is hoping to one-day build his own canoe.

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Grand Lake's Space to Create Project: A home for Artists and Artisans

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