Denton Jazzes Up Arts Corridor

Denton is enhancing its downtown experience with the addition of an arts corridor.

The Hickory Street Arts Corridor will stretch from the Center for Visual Arts at Hickory Street and Bell Avenue to the Campus Theatre at Hickory and Cedar streets.

City leaders said the slice of the city will represent the identity and culture of Denton.

"We are who we are," said Julie Glover, city economic development administrator. "We don't want to copy anyone else. We want to be us."

"Denton is about all the arts," said Warren Hooper, who owns Oxide Art Gallery.

Glover said the corridor has blossomed in the past two years, and the coming A-train has played a large role in this development.

"Hopefully, the people from Dallas will see what an incredible arts scene and music scene we have here and get on that train and come to Denton," he said.

"People are going to want to hop on the train, start at the bottom of the arts corridor and go all the way to the top, and you can do so many things," said Mike Barrow, Denton Community Theatre managing director.

From restaurants and retail to clubs and galleries, the corridor is a blend of old and new. It's a mixture of all the arts.

"It is important that our artists be able to show in the town that they live in, in the town they are working in," Hooper said.

"We are not at the pinnacle of this, but it is exploding. It is starting to happen," Barrow said.

The city's vision is for the corridor to include wide sidewalks and outdoor cafes -- a destination location for visitors.