Becca Spiro graduated college facing a dilemma common among those in the field she studied: What am I going to do with an art degree? 

Options were limited and ranged from being a starving artist, coveted positions like a museum curator, continuing art education or having a different primary career with an art-related side gig.

The community aspect of art always intrigued her, but at the time she wasn’t quite sure how to execute that vision because she didn’t yet have one. So, she decided on continuing education. She ended up getting an internship in the Art Institute of Chicago’s education department before ending up at a graduate school in London. Sandwiched in between those life events was her time spent utilizing her college minor, Spanish, which she taught on the East Coast and abroad. 

By the time she left London, she still didn’t have a set vision for a career involving the community aspect of art, but she did know what she didn’t want to do. 

“My graduate experience in London was wonderful, but I also saw the side of the art world that was very elitist,” she said. “I realized that was the side of the art world I didn’t want to be a part of.” 

She found her way back to teaching in the years following before a friend invited her to live in a place she’d neither been to nor heard of — Breckenridge. While this was her self-proclaimed “quarter-life crisis,” it was also the time where she began figuring out what a career involving the community aspect of art could look like.

Spiro worked ski patrol and eventually made her way to Breckenridge’s art nonprofit, Breck Create. She said the work helped give her a better idea of what community art as a career could look like — and what she wanted it to look like. Her ability to speak Spanish came into use during Breck Create’s Dia De Los Muertos festival, and for classes taught to local businesses with Spanish-speaking staff. She said she found a lot of validation in changing the minds of people who were at first resistant to arts and crafts, and this was something she wanted to be able to do all the time. 

By the time 2018 came around, she had years of experience in art education, community connections and, finally, an example of a business she wanted to model her own after. Upstair Circus in Denver, an arts and crafts hub with cocktails, had numerous elements she wanted in her business. This spot had crafts adults were interested in like woodworking, leather making and do-it-yourself projects. 

“I loved that they had something for everybody and that concept of making art more playful and more social,” she said

Spiro began drawing up a business plan that included aspects like a bar combined with a craft space and a mobile art studio. Her dad, also a business owner, reviewed the plan and recommended just starting with the mobile art studio. Then, Frosted Flamingo was born. 

She kept an eye out for a storefront opening, checking Airport Road in Breckenridge perhaps the most, while her business on wheels began to gain traction. Things began to fall serendipitously in line. During a hair appointment she would land a gig with Keystone Neighbourhood Co. doing arts and crafts for all their summer festivals. People began taking notice of the van sporting a pink flamingo with a scarf. Towns like Silverthorne began contracting her to bring the truck to town events, and she began teaching classes out of their art center, the Art Spot Market Place. 

Then one day, she was driving down Airport Road and did a double take. Was that a for-rent sign hanging on an empty store front? She called the number on the sign and got cleared to move into the space in March.

On April 20, she held her grand opening party for the Frosted Flamingo’s first brick-and-mortar location. She plans to use the space mostly for reoccurring monthly events including date nights, special collaborations, like one with Danielle’s Delights, a cafe on wheels geared toward families and private events. She also will be offering afterschool programming for Upper Blue Elementary School next year.

Frosted Flamingo is located at 1905 Airport Road, Unit B. For more information, visit FrostedFlamingo.com.