Meet the artists, entrepreneurs and innovators driving ARTup Week 2018!

ArtupWeek Speakers

You may already be counting the days to Techstars Startup Week Fort Collins — a free, 5-day celebration of ideas, ingenuity and collaboration. Adding to this year’s excitement is Create Places ARTup Week, a brand new companion celebration of creative people building up the creative industries, creative environment, and creative community.

Get to know a few of the artists, marketers, collaborators and speakers that make up ARTup Week 2018!

Kit Baker

Kit BakerTate Gallery. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Cunningham Dance Foundation. Any arts administrator would be lucky to name one of these arts institutions as clients — Kit Baker can claim them all, having raised millions of dollars for these and many others. Kit is an arts administrator, writer and producer who has worked in New York, London and beyond.

Born in Fort Collins, Kit’s exemplary career took him around the globe before he settled back in Colorado three years ago. “I would come back every few years to visit my family,” Kit says, “then started seeing possibilities for creative entrepreneurs that I hadn’t seen before.” He would love to see Fort Collins continue to develop a robust arts scene and an inclusive culture.

What can attendees expect from Kit’s ARTup Week sessions? “I hope to guide Startup Week artists and scientists to each other to create new cross disciplinary collaborations large and small, and Startup Week music theater artists, producers and enthusiasts to new production models that can support home-grown musicals and opera projects.”

He recommends attendees take in as many sessions as possible. “The more sessions you go to, the more the momentum will take you places you never thought you’d reach.”

Learn how Kit follows his bliss in these sessions:

Cori Storb

Cori Storb“It is so important to surround yourself with quality people who are supportive or helpful or inspiring,” says ARTup Week guest Cori Storb. “It is easy to lose momentum if you try to do everything yourself. Seek out powerful comrades.” Cori took her own advice when creating her local escape room and treasure hunt game, Somewhere Secret. Says Cori, “I hope people will become more aware of escape rooms as a potential art form and a venue for new experiences.”
Cori calls herself is a creator of worlds, an artist, photographer, writer, business owner, and professional burier of treasure. She is deeply invested in Fort Collins’ arts community, and hopes it will continue to grow — “but not at the expenses of the small businesses and little venues that are so amazing.”

Discover the treasure of Cori’s unique perspective at these sessions:

Chris Bates

Whether you realize it or not, you may already be familiar with Chris Bates’ artwork — Chris has completed over 30 murals across Northern Colorado. Chris works at two local galleries (Lincoln Center, Carnegie) and teaches mural workshops to grade school students.

A Fort Collins lifer, Chris is interested about finding ways to “balance in the cost of living and find ways to truly value the contributions of our creative community. We have been getting better, but we still have a long way to go.”

Chris credits “good communication, collaboration and accountability” to his success as an artist. His advice: “Stay on your path, don’t let discouragement stop you — be flexible and adaptable.”

Pick Chris’ brain at these sessions:

Sari Kimbell

Sari KimbellSari Kimbell’s career has touched nearly every sector of the food industry — including directing the largest CSA in the country, serving as a founding member of the NoCo Food Cluster, and working as the Marketing Director of Whole Foods Fort Collins. Sari is passionate about food and the way it connects all of us, leading her to start her own business, Cultivate Consulting LLC, helping the local food industry reach its goals. “I hope to see people in the food business push the envelope more into ethnic food and truly local or scratch made menus and products.”

“Be sure to attend some happy hours,” Sari recommends to ARTup Week attendees. “I am very excited about the Women Who Succeed Happy Hour at Scrumpy’s… This will be a celebration of woman entrepreneurs and leaders in our community as well as the amazing men supporting women.”

Meet Sari at these sessions:

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