Aurora Opens 1400 Dallas Arts, a Rehearsal Home for Performers

For years, Aurora’s performing artists have shared a common frustration: finding rehearsal space that’s affordable, flexible and actually designed for the work they do. This month, that gap narrowed with the opening of 1400 Dallas Arts, a new city-owned rehearsal and teaching facility dedicated exclusively to music, theater and dance at 1400 Dallas Street, just off East Colfax in the Aurora Cultural Arts District.

Operated under the mission of The People’s Building, 1400 Dallas Arts is not a performance venue and isn’t trying to be one, according to Aaron Vega, project manager for Library & Cultural Services and curator/facilities manager of The People’s Building and this new venue. Instead, it’s designed as a behind-the-scenes engine for the region’s creative ecosystem, offering hourly rental studios for artists to rehearse, teach classes, record self-tapes and create.

“Over the years of renting at The People’s Building, the reason I chose this use for 1400 Dallas Arts is because we were seeing a lot of requests for rehearsal space,” says Vega during our tour of the space. “There seems to be this zeitgeist moment where people need access to rehearsal space.”

Housed in a mid-century building that once served as a police station, 1400 Dallas Arts has gone through a significant transformation. “Since it was a police station, 1400 Dallas has always been used as a visual arts studio,” Vega says. “So a lot of people don’t know about it, but this is the next corner of the Cultural Arts District.”

Grant funding, which Vega notes was largely secured during the Biden administration, supported HVAC upgrades, new lighting, fresh drywall and paint and the installation of wood floors across multiple studios. According to Vega, the total renovation investment was between $200,000 and $250,000, which was almost entirely funded by grants and the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority.

Walking through the building now, the shift in purpose is unmistakable. Upstairs studios with higher ceilings are already popular with dancers, with wall-length mirrors being installed to meet growing demand.

Smaller rooms are designed for voice lessons, instrumental instruction, table work and play readings, while a dedicated self-tape studio offers actors professional lighting, microphones and acoustic treatment for just a few dollars an hour. There’s even a small shop space with a bay door, which Vega hopes will one day be used by creatives to build sets for their shows.

“This is where I think cities and municipalities can be of best use,” Vega says. “They’re providing, similar to libraries, what artists actually need to do their work … This space creates a great environment and resource for artists. It’s very New York in that way, and I think Denver is ready for that kind of experience where performing artists have access to dignified rehearsal space.”

Downstairs, larger concrete-floor rooms cater to movement-heavy rehearsals, contemporary dance and devised theater, complemented by breakout rooms and storage areas. While the lower level is not ADA-accessible due to the lack of an elevator, a limitation the city is transparent about on its website, all upper-floor studios and restrooms meet accessibility standards, with future elevator installation framed as a long-term fundraising goal.

The space quietly went live about three weeks ago after Vega conducted a soft launch with a few groups to test operations before going public. Even without advertising, Vega stated that the facility met its initial financial targets, which included utilities and basic operating costs, within two weeks.

“Without even advertising the space, we did hit those marks, which was great, and we’re doing it, you know, $20 at a time, which is awesome,” he says. “But I will say now that’s why articles like this and getting the word out about it as quickly as possible are important, which we just started doing this week. I’m really curious to see how use increases. I think we’re probably at about 10 percent capacity right now, so we definitely have room to grow.”

Early users reflect a cross-section of Aurora’s performing arts scene. School Of Breaking, a hip-hop break-dancing program for young people, is already using the space multiple days a week. Local theater companies have followed quickly, including Shakespeare in the Wild for its summer production of Romeo and Juliet, Third Side Theatre Company for Princess and the Goblins and Two Cent Lion as the company develops new work under artistic director Olivia Buntaine.

By separating rehearsal from performance, Vega believes 1400 Dallas Arts also creates ripple effects across the district. Companies rehearsing off-site free up stages at venues like Vintage Theatre or the Aurora Fox Arts Center, opening new revenue opportunities for those organizations while easing scheduling bottlenecks.

The opening of 1400 Dallas Arts arrives amid broader momentum in the Aurora Cultural Arts District, where new cultural spaces, food businesses and creative enterprises continue to cluster along East Colfax. Vega sees the facility as one more piece in a neighborhood-driven approach to development that prioritizes local ownership, cultural specificity and walkability over national chains or market-rate everything.

“We’re doing it the Aurora Cultural Arts District style,” Vega says. “All these great things are shifting, but with local food, local entrepreneurs and locally owned businesses that reflect the neighborhood. And then this space, rather than having it just sit empty, we’re making sure that we have room for people to truly do what they need to do creatively in a way that is affordable and accessible.”

Open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends, 1400 Dallas Arts offers hourly rentals at rates intentionally kept low because the building is city-owned. Booking is handled online through the People’s Building website, and as demand grows, it is expected to shape future investments, such as sprung floors and additional sound treatment.

Vega, who has worked in the neighborhood for over seven years, sees the project as a reflection of a larger belief about how cities can support artists without displacing them.

“Not everything needs to be market rate,” he says. “If we’re in the Arts District — and the city plays a big part of the Arts District, because we own a lot of the properties in the neighborhood — I’m of the opinion that we should be using them for public good in the arts, and I think we are, which is exciting to me.”

1400 Dallas Arts is located at 1400 Dallas Street in Aurora. Learn more about the rehearsal space at thepeoplesbuilding.com/1400dallas.