Covington Arts District receives state recognition

The Behringer-Crawford Museum, the Frank Duveneck Arts & Cultural Center and The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center and other galleries populate the Covington Arts District, which was one of five Kentucky cities awarded certification by the state to help market its arts collectively. 

 

Out of 26 applicants, Covington was one of five cities chosen by the Kentucky Arts Council (KAC) for the state-wide honor. 

 

“Covington Arts is in the midst of creating a new marketing campaign that will align with a city-wide the mayor is putting together,” says Katie Rentzke, interim art director for the city of Covington. “We will also be working with the KAC to reach specific benchmarks and they will help us utilize our assets and collaborate with the state-wide initiative.”

 

The opportunity to be certified at a state level coincides with the city's decision to rid itself of the pre-existing Art District zoning boundaries that were initially created to encourage art and technology businesses to take root in the core of downtown. Those boundaries were challenged because of rigid land use zoning restrictions. In contrast, the new state certification calls for mixed-use development. As a result, the city has defined the new Arts & Cultural District to encompass the entire downtown of Covington, spanning from the riverfront to 12th Street and from the Licking River boundary to the 71/75 interstate, and including all of Devou Park.

 

Since the program is still in its early stages, it hasn’t yet been decided if funding will be given to certified communities and exactly what kind of marketing approaches will be used, but Rentzke thinks it will help bring more tourism to Covington. 

 

“Covington has already had a long-standing support of the arts, this just acknowledges that and lets everybody in the state and country know,” says Rentzke. “It will also increase cultural tourism, which will bring people to the city to spend money. Cultural tourists tend to stay long and get more involved because they want to see what makes the city special.”