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Aurora Cultural Arts District
Action plan 2026 - 2029
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By Kyla Pearce | The Denver Gazette
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By Kyla Pearce | The Denver Gazette *
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What’s New?
Aurora Opens 1400 Dallas Arts, a Rehearsal Home for Performers
A former police station finds new life a a city-run creative hub in the Aurora Cultural Arts District | Toni Tresca
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.”
Ollin Cafetzin
The story of Ollin Cafetzin began in 2020, when a group of individuals came together with a shared social dream: to create a space where people of color could gather for critical conversations, connection and collective growth. From that vision emerged a community-driven space rooted in culture, education and belonging.
Ollin Cafetzin offers a rich cultural experience by pairing coffee sourced from Indigenous collectives in Latin America with an extensive collection of ethnic studies books. Grounded in the belief that representation matters, the café’s mission is to reclaim comunidad through cafetzin, conexión and educación—providing a welcoming space where neighbors can see themselves reflected in both the offerings and the conversations.
This unique coffee shop and ethnic studies library is collectively run by a team of social workers, teachers and youth organizers. The founding team envisions Ollin Cafetzin as a place where activists, creatives and community members can gather to exchange ideas, build solidarity and plant seeds for transformative change.