FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 1, 2019) — The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College is excited to present the special exhibition Notes from the Musick Collection, on view Aug. 3, 2019 – Feb. 9, 2020.
Archie L. Musick (1902-1978) was a prominent American painter and instructor in Colorado Springs during the glory years of the Broadmoor Art Academy (BAA) and Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center School (FAC) studying under the art school’s highly influential director and instructor, famed artist Boardman Robinson. Over the years, Musick assembled an astonishing collection of lithographs as a result of collaborative efforts and trades with colleagues. With the assistance of guest curator Pat Musick, the artist’s daughter, Notes from the Musick Collection will feature selected prints from the family collection presented alongside informal notes from friends and ephemera from the printmaking process. This exhibition offers a personal glimpse into the friendships and artistic collaborations between Musick and his peers, lifelong relationships that began at the BAA and FAC. It also includes rare examples of the artist’s preparatory sketches for the fantastical mural commission he completed in 1936 for the opening of the John Gaw Meem building, still on view in the FAC’s basement lounge.
Musick, a lively figure in local history with close ties to many prominent figures at the BAA and FAC, shares colorful recollections and a view of the art world in the Pikes Peak region from the 1920s to the 1950s in his memoir, Musick Medley: Intimate Memories of a Rocky Mountain Art Colony. In the memoir, the amusing stories recall memories of friends, contemporaries, and acquaintances including Charlie Bunnell, Spencer Penrose, Boardman Robinson, Jackson Pollock, Lawrence Barrett, Adolf Dehn, Randall Davey, Ernest Lawson, Jenne and Ethel Magafan, and Eduardo Chavez, among many others. Musick Medley continues to be one of the few primary sources of the 20th century Colorado Springs art scene. Long out of print, vintage copies of the memoir are now available for purchase in the FAC Museum Shop.
Notes from the Musick Collection is opening in conjunction with the 100th Anniversary of the opening of the Broadmoor Art Academy in 1919, a national magnet for arts and culture in the early 1900s. At its’ inception, the BAA, which evolved into the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 1936, energized the region and created a modern movement to elevate artistic expression for residents and visitors to the Pikes Peak Region. A century after the founding, the FAC celebrates the ingenuity of the artists and patrons who helped to shape the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College into the museum, performing arts theatre, and community art school it is today, and how the BAA’s visionary roots are setting the stage for the next generation of arts and cultural enthusiasts. For more information on the 100th Anniversary, exhibits, and events, visit devfac.coloradocollege.edu/100-years.
Notes from the Musick Collection
When: Aug. 3, 2019 – Feb. 9, 2020
Where: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, 30 W. Dale St.
Admission: $10 ($5 military and seniors 55+); FREE for members, kids 12 and under, students, and teachers (with ID)
Something else: Save the date – Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. Join us for an open house celebrating the Broadmoor Art Academy’s official birthday. (Free and open to the public)
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