Cultural District led by Moore

Danielle Gibbons

Angela Moore, executive director of the Main Street Cultural District, is back and loving it more than ever.

Moore was hired as the executive director in August of 2004 and held the position until March of 2007. Moore then moved to a position with the Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau, but now she’s back home. Moore was rehired as the executive director in March and doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.

“Main Street is my home and my family. When the position came open, I knew it was time to come back,” Moore said.

As the executive director of the Main Street Cultural District, Moore oversees the four major committees within the Main Street Cultural District: business improvement, organization, design and promotions.

The business improvement committee works to recruit and retain businesses, as well as business investors and friends of Main Street. The design committee promotes building facade improvements, historic preservation, well-designed window displays and visual merchandising. The promotions committee works to plan and promote retail selling events, special events and festivals.

Along with overseeing these committees, Moore also works on bringing in investors and marketing them.

“We do all kinds of marketing for Main Street. One example is our Facebook page,” Moore said.

The Main Street Cultural District Facebook page has a “deal of the week.” Every Thursday they put a deal on their page for all of their fans.

“Thursdays are the days that the Main Street shops are open later, and we have some great deals that go on,” Moore said.

This is a way to come see the stores downtown and get great deals at the same time.

Along with their weekly deals, they also have free events for the community.

“My favorite part about my position is the events. I love seeing families come and enjoy what we planned,” Moore said.

One of Moore’s favorite events is Snow Magic on Main.

“At this event we have tree lighting, horse carriage rides, Santa and much more. It’s a really fun event,” Moore said.

Along with Snow Magic on Main, some other great events for students are the MusicWalk and ArtWalk.

The MusicWalk is 5 – 8 p.m Sept. 16. There will be 25 downtown businesses that will have some sort of live entertainment from concerts to juggling. There will also be food, wine and other types of entertainment, and it’s all free.

“This is a great opportunity to do something different for a change, have fun, listen to live music and browse our downtown stores,” said Moore.

The ArtWalk is basically the same thing, only with art. The businesses will have artists and different art work available for viewing along with food and beverages.

“Most of the events that we have downtown are free to everyone,” said Moore.

Another favorite part of Moore’s position is working with all of the people and businesses downtown.

“The flavor of people downtown is never boring,” Moore said.

Moore is very pleased with her decision to come back to Main Street Cultural District.

“We have a lot of great things going on here and even more to come,” Moore said.