Listen: Why Does Art Matter in Rural?
Can a recording studio and events management business create an arts and culture scene in Rocky Ford?
When Dominque Robbins arrived in the rural town of Rocky Ford, Colorado, the culture shock was real. Where was the Starbucks? And latenight burrito joints? A lifelong musician, Dominque also quickly discovered another Big City ammenity was missing: an art scene. A few months after arriving, Dominque founded Art Matters Productions, a recording studio and events management enterprise. His goal is to pave the way for more artists, musicians, and creatives in the Rocky Ford area.
We visited Dominque in his studio to learn how... and why... he chose to open an arts and entertainment business in a rural area.
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Meet Dominque Robbins
Dominique Robbins is the founder of Art Matters Productions in Rocky Ford. He's a musician, radio host, as well as a writer. In 2021, he founded Art Matters Productions, a recording studio and events management business. Since opening, Art Matters Productions has organized concerts in the Rocky Ford area including the Melon Valley Music Fest and Clean Valley Recycling Talent Show.
Transcript
This is Startup Colorado, a podcast about the rural entrepreneurs changing the state’s business landscape. From the mountains, to the plains, and everywhere in between.
Dominque: Hey, what's up everybody this is Dominique Robins, aka DMINQ, and I am the founder and owner of Art Matters Productions, the first arts and entertainment production company and recording studio in Rocky Ford, Colorado.
Margaret: You just put your radio voice on…
Margaret: I’m Margaret Hedderman. This week on the Startup Colorado Podcast, we’re headed to Rocky Ford, a town of roughly 4,000 people about fifty miles southeast of Pueblo on the Eastern Plains. Chances are, if you’ve heard of Rocky Ford, it’s because of the numerous melon farms in the area.
The main road through town, Highway 50, splits in two, dividing the downtown business district. On either side of the highway, you’ll find lots of service-based businesses like automotive stores, banks, and a mercantile. There are a few restaurants, a nice little coffee shop, but definitely not many arts and entertainment businesses.
As Dominique said, Art Matters Productions is the first of its kind in the region. And that’s why we’re talking to him, to better understand the role businesses like his have in the art of placemaking.
His office/studio is located in downtown Rocky Ford, conveniently positioned across the street from the local coffee shop. It’s a tight, dimly lit space jampacked with audio equipment, speakers, an editing bay, and of course, plenty of artwork. There’s John Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol prints.
Dominque: This other photo of the of a girl with a cigarette of a young black woman with a cigarette this is amazing. This was actually done by a local artist in Colorado Springs, Mamo Expo.
Margaret: Dominique has been in this space since 2021, gradually converting it from a storage bay into a recording studio and office. Since launching Art Matters Productions, Dominique has organized several events in the Rocky Ford area.
Dominque: We've put on like four or five concerts already. We've partnered with Cruising into Fun, we did that we brought the entertainment and for that we even did Melon Valley Music Fest in July, we did the Clean Valley Recycling Talent Show.
Margaret: He’s also worked with musicians like Search of X to record, mix, and master songs.
Dominque: We're working on another project, where basically like three artists, totally different styles coming together to form a band.
Margaret: Dominique has always been a musician, a drummer in fact, playing with Christian and gospel groups. Before founding Art Matters Productions, Dominique worked in Colorado Springs as a nursing assistant. But…
Dominque: The day of the day, I got fired from my job. I found out I had COVID and I was down for like two and a half weeks.
Margaret: Kind of around that same time, he started having trouble with his landlord. So, staying in Colorado Springs was starting to feel a bit untenable. His fiancée at the time —now his husband—is actually from Rocky Ford. And he was like…
Dominque: Just come down, chill out for a bit, you know, get your head right. You know, and get back on your feet.
Margaret: It was supposed to be a temporary situation. The couple was originally planning to move to Denver, but as Dominique said, “life happened.”
Dominque: …started working at one of the local prisons in Las Animas and basically just kind of, you know, saved my money a little bit.
Margaret: He eventually quit his job at the prison to start Art Matters Productions.
Margaret: So you had said that you're an army brat.
Dominque: Yeah.
Margaret: And you know Colorado Springs is significantly larger than Rocky Ford. What was like… what was your first impression when you showed up here?
Dominque: Culture shock because like I will say so all the little luxuries like you really don't notice that you miss certain things until you don't have it…. so little luxuries like going to Starbucks, going to Dutch Bros, having the luxury of being able to wake up at 2am and go get a burrito. Things like that it was like, I couldn't do none of that I was like, this is crap, this is horrible.
Margaret: There was also the general accessibility of local art.
Dominque: I'm a big city kid. So I'm used to, you know, going downtown, and like, finding cool art galleries, finding cool little hip hop shows, or pop up, you know, folk shows or whatever. There's not that here. It is no offense to Rocky Ford, or any of the small towns here it’s just it's not a thing. And so, now I'm like, okay, we're slowly getting ready to create those.
Margaret: That’s one of the overarching goals of Art Matters Productions, is to create an environment where local art can take root and grow.
Dominque: I'm pretty sure people would love to go to the coffee shop. And, you know, see some of the young people out here, you know, reading poetry, you know, or out here with playing guitars and just jamming out at the coffee shop.
Margaret: Have you run into any resistance at all, like trying to change that culture a little bit? Or maybe not change? But introduce a new new culture?
Dominque: Of course, of course. I mean, I've been met with resistance from a few people. You know, I've met people who disliked me simply because I'm here. You know, and it's not even you know, has nothing to do with racist racism or anything. It's just, you know, I'm there are people who look at me like, oh, you're this big city kid who just came here.
Margaret: Another thing he said, and I thought this was really interesting, was there were a lot of people who were envious of what he was doing. Because they’d wanted to do something similar, but didn’t.
Dominque: You know, it's one of those like, the door was open, you cracked, like, okay, you crack the door open, you saw what was over there, and was like, nah, you know, you didn't, you didn't push forward. So then, so then every time every person that passes the door up, it just moves on to someone else. And so it finally, you know, I'm gonna say finally, but it got to me, you know, the door open, the space was available. And so, I said, why not?
Margaret: That kind of opportunity – the door that’s slightly open – is something that’s characteristic of rural places. Dominique said it’s an opportunity that he might not have had in an urban environment like Colorado Springs or Denver.
Dominque: So for me to have brought a business that is completely nothing like what everyone else is doing. First of all, it's just crazy. Because it's like, well, how can you be successful? Well, the thing is, the market is open. There's, there's no one hit like I'm literally in competition really with myself.
Margaret: I asked him how he got buy-in from a community that had never supported a business like his.
Dominque: You have to become part of the community. You can't just open like, especially with this type of business that we do. You can't just open up a business and be like, Hey, I'm here where, you know, come come by, come see us. Like, that's not how that works… so, doing events like Cruising into Fun, where people can see us where people, you know, can see the type of entertainment that we can offer to this community like the artists that we've brought so far to the community has been amazing like they put on amazing shows.
Margaret: Dominique also formed a partnership with Ark Valley Entertainment, a DJ service, in the nearby town of La Junta.
Dominque: We figured we are better together than we are just trying to go head to head.
Margaret: That type of collaboration is essential to the art of placemaking and creating an environment where more artists or entrepreneurs can try something new.
Dominque: I hope in 10 years, we have we have put enough foot work in to where people will not just support it, but they'll become a part of it. And we'll start to see you know, bands on the corner. I will start to see, you know, coffee shops packed every Friday.
Margaret: That is “Let Me In.” To celebrate their first year in business, Dominique is organizing a battle of the bands in Rocky Ford. He’s also planning to launch a new album in March. You can find more info about all of that on the show notes page at StartupColorado.org. You can also join our free peer to peer network to connect with entrepreneurs like Dominique as well as mentors, funders and business support agents, again at StartupColorado.org.
Margaret: The Startup Colorado Podcast is produced and edited by me, Margaret Hedderman. Our theme music was written and produced by Erin Roberts, of Porlolo Music. Additional research and support was provided by our podcast research assistant Elise Ertl.
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