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Aurora named one of the best places for creators

downtown aurora arts center cropped
Yvonne Boose
Artists and community members coming together, in 2020, to paint mural located on a wall of Tortas Guadalajara located at 5 S. Lake Street.

 

A northern Illinois city has landed a top ten spot for best location for creators.

Aurora placed sixth in the nation out of 200 on marketplace website Creative Fabrica ’s list of best cities in the nation for makers and creators.

Jessica Duplessis, the director of education and community engagement for Paramount Theatre and Paramount School of the Arts, said the support of community members helps the city stand out as a center for arts and culture.

“If you go into many of the restaurants, if it's a visual artist,” she explained, “they'll display some of their works right there in their businesses, giving those artists, artists an opportunity to have their medium of art, whatever that chose to be, visible to possible future patrons or clients of theirs.”

She said landing on this list gives Aurora prestige.
“I think it solidifies our place as an artistic center,” Duplessis said. “I think it gives us the opportunity to reach people beyond our own city technical limits.”

A spotlight video can be found here.

Yvonne covers artistic, cultural, and spiritual expressions in the COVID-19 era. This could include how members of community cultural groups are finding creative and innovative ways to enrich their personal lives through these expressions individually and within the context of their larger communities. Boose is a recent graduate of the Illinois Media School and returns to journalism after a career in the corporate world.