Are they two wildly different worlds with nothing in common? Aurora Cultural Arts District director Tracy Weil doesn’t think so. Instead, he sees Stanley as a bridge between them, and Atown Art, a temporary ACAD pop-up gallery space in the bustling marketplace, is his way of connecting contrasting neighborhoods that lie only blocks apart. “Aurora’s got ‘perceptions,’” says Weil, with a smile, of the cultural gap separating neighborhoods. “We’ve been trying to help change that by calling it ‘A-town’ lately. It sounds a little more cool.” It’s always been his goal to raise awareness of Aurora’s multicultural charms, and this is a direct attempt.
For the gallery’s first show, the Atown Artists Group Exhibition, Weil reached out to several artists he knows who are working in Aurora, and a few from Stapleton reached back, too; the exhibit opens on Thursday, March 30, and will be open during dinner hours on Thursdays and Fridays, and all day on Saturdays and Sundays. Along with a large selection of artists reaching out across the Stapleton/Aurora boundary line, Corky Scholl’s Save the Signs Colfax will contribute one of its neon treasures: The “Crazy” portion of the refurbished sign that once adorned Sid King’s Crazy Horse Bar in Denver.

Save the Signs adds classic Colfax neon to the pop-up exhibit at Atown Art.
Aurora Cultural Arts District
In the meantime, Weil invites the public — from Stapleton and beyond — to view A-town culture from a front-row seat at Atown Art and learn to see beyond their limited comfort level. And the next time you head to Stanley for shopping and a bite to eat, be sure to explore that neighborhood to the south, where things are more down to earth but no less exciting.