Fine Arts Center

Free Art Car Painting Events
2022-10-15 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Denver) | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Have you ever seen an art covered car driving around town and wished you could create mobile art? Well now’s your chance to learn the steps to creating art on wheels with Cheyenne Teague! Come paint a car with us — all supplies provided!
The first morning session will help prep the car for spray painting, and the following morning session and both afternoon sessions will be focused on painting the car. Join us for one session or all of them!
Event is free but registration is required. Space is limited.
Dates & Times
Saturday, Oct 15, 9 a.m.–12 p.m. and/or 1–4 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 16, 9 a.m.–12 p.m. and/or 1–4 p.m.

Yoga at the FAC
2022-10-15 10:30 - 11:30 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Join teacher Amanda Smolinski from Soulshines Yoga for a one-hour yoga class in our beautiful glass-walled Smith Family gallery. Participants are invited to stay and enjoy the museum for free after class. All experience levels welcome.
Please bring your own mat. Water is allowed during class, but not in the museum galleries. Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Fine Arts Center (you’ll also have the option to donate at class).
SPACE IS LIMITED, PLEASE RSVP

Recon Watchmen Raku Press Mold Masks with Visiting Artist, Virgil Ortiz
2022-10-10 12:30 - 2022-10-14 15:30 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Using visual storytelling and sculpture, you’ll learn about the central cast of characters from Virgil Ortiz’s screenplay Revolt 1680/2180 and how they shape the fantastical world he’s creating through clay and multimedia art. Ortiz takes the participants of this workshop on a journey through the processes he used to create his latest characters—the Recon Watchmen. Using a raku clay body, press molds, and as many hand-carved details and embellishments as wanted, you will create your own version. Supplies and raku firings will be provided.
Level A – All levels welcome. Ages 16-Adult

Action/Abstraction Redefined tours
2022-10-08 14:00 - 15:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
In celebration of CC Homecoming & Family Weekend, join Learning and Engagement Intern Katie Norton for a tour of Action/Abstraction Redefined. Action/Abstraction Redefined is the first major traveling exhibition that analyzes modern Native American art from the mid-1940s through the 1970s that was inspired by Abstract Expressionism, Color Field, and Hard-edge painting. Discover how the artists in this exhibition, including George Morrison, Fritz Scholder, and T.C. Cannon, challenged stereotypical expectations of Native American art by experimenting with American modern art movements combined with art influences from their own cultural heritage.
Action/Abstraction Redefined is organized by IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM. Action/Abstraction Redefined was co-curated by Dr. Lara Evans, Professor of Art History, IAIA Research Center for Contemporary Native Arts Director; Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer, curator of collections, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts; and Dr. Manuela Well-Off-Man, chief curator, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.
Support for this exhibition and its national tour is provided by Art Bridges.
Image: Mike Medicine Horse Zillioux, (Akimel O’odham/Cheyenne/Pawnee), The Day Jackson Pollack Became Christian (detail), 1974, acrylic, rawhide, salt on canvas, MoCNA Collection P-22

FAC Member Tour: Breathe into the Past: Crosscurrents in the Caribbean
2022-10-01 12:00 - 13:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Join Katja Rivera, Curator of Contemporary Art, for a tour of our newest exhibition, Breathe into the Past: Crosscurrents in the Caribbean. The twelve featured artists in this exhibition hail from the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, coastal Colombia, and beyond. Their artworks offer insights into the complex histories that have influenced the present—sometimes on grand scales, at other times in subtler yet still undeniable ways.
Not a member? Sign up now for as little as $5 a month!
Register for OCT. member Tour
We ask for your precaution when visiting this exhibition. Many of the works are fragile and some contain explicit material, including references to violence, sounds of gunfire, nudity, and images of self-harm. Please be mindful of your needs when entering the space. A printed list of mental health and other related resources will be available.

Square Plates and Mugs
2022-09-23 09:00 - 12:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Classes for ages 16-adult. Get square! Explore the exciting possibilities of building square plates and mugs. Learn to handbuild with soft pre-textured clay slabs using flat patterns that fold up into 3-dimensional forms to create dynamic and self-expressive plate and mug sets. Glazing for textured surfaces will be taught. Supplies will be provided.

Libation Lecture: Unearthing Ancestral Knowledge
2022-09-21 17:30 - 18:30 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Unearthing Ancestral Knowledge: natural elements narrate the past and present
Coincides with with Breathing into the past: Crosscurrents in the Caribbean, on view in the museum from Sept. 9–Jan. 29.
Fabrics, corals, fruits and herbs connect the physical world with ancestral spirituality. Learn some of the ways we can look to natural materials to understand our current state of affairs and unearth buried histories from our colonial past and unfolding present.
This will be a multi-sensory experience where we will explore examples from the current exhibition, listen to music, and touch some of the natural elements that shape our sense of reality. You may be called to dance, taste, or smell in ways that you have not done before!
Themed drink: Cuba Libre
Lecturer: Dr. Naomi Pueo Wood,
NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities
Department Chair of of Spanish and Portuguese and Program Director of Feminist and Gender Studies at CC
Co-Director of CC Mobile Arts
All lectures are from 5:30-6:30 p.m. (Bar opens at 5 p.m.)
$10 for FAC members, $15 for non members, includes your first drink.
Purchase tickets
Also, join us for the Libation Lecture in October, Dancing Paintings: An Interactive Guide to Abstract Expressionism

Where the Saint Lives: Artist Talk with Delilah Montoya
2022-09-17 14:00 - 15:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Join us for an afternoon artist talk with Delilah Montoya, Chicana Photographer and featured artist in Where the Saint Lives. Event is free with museum admission and open to the public.
Delilah Montoya is a self-identified Chicana artist, works and lives in the U.S. Southwest of New Mexico and Texas. As an activist artist, she poses herself questions about identity, power, land, borders, gender, community, family, that she then explores through her art practice. She is an investigator of histories and lives; her primary subject is the human condition through time and territory as expressed through the lens of being a mestiza, a Chicana, someone who claims a hybrid identity and place both in terms of lineage and culture.
Delilah’s work is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Los Angeles, CA; Houston Museum of Fine Art; Houston, TX; Mexican Museum; San Francisco, CA; The Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY; and the Smithsonian Institute; Washington DC. Her awards include the USLAF Latinx Fellowship, Artadia Award and the Richard T. Castro Distinguished Professorship. She is a professor emeritus from the University of Houston, College of the Arts.
Reserve your seat now!
Image: La Guadalupana (detail), Delilah Montoya, 1998, exhibition copy of photo mural, altar, courtesy the artist

FAC Happy Hour at Rico's Cafe & Wine Bar
2022-09-14 17:00 - 19:00 | Rico’s Cafe & Wine Bar, 322 N Tejon St, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Join us for the next stop in our new FAC happy hour series celebrating the “liquid arts.” No formal programming involved, just a casual gathering of FAC supporters getting out to socialize in new and different venues across our beautiful city. Highlighting local bars and restaurants in town, we hope to see you at Rico’s Cafe and Wine Bar located at Poor Richard’s downtown.
FAC members and theatre subscribers will receive special tapas menu and happy hour deals during the event.
No RSVP needed. Event location: 322 N Tejon St. We’ll also be handing out museum admission passes, so bring a friend! Stop by the FAC table to say hi!

Breathe into the past: Crosscurrents in the Caribbean Opening Performance
2022-09-09 17:00 - 19:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Experience an Afro-Cuban dance performance by Yesenia Selier accompanied by the Cuban Bata drummer Miguelo Valdés to celebrate the opening of Breathe into the past: Crosscurrents in the Caribbean.
Performance begins at 5:30 p.m.
Event is free, please RSVP
Photo: Yesenia Selier

Breathe into the past: Crosscurrents in the Caribbean
2022-09-09 - 2023-01-29 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
The land that touches the Caribbean Sea has long been a space shaped by its relation to oceans, empires and colonization. The result is a region that is now inextricably intertwined with the rest of the globe, including parts of Africa, India, China, Japan, Europe, the United States and elsewhere. The nature of these histories and relationships have shaped much of the Caribbean’s ecology, economy, and culture.

Community Free Day
2022-08-28 10:00 - 16:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
In honor of the Inauguration of L. Song Richardson, Colorado College’s 14th President, join us for an extra Museum Free Day this month. This day will include hands-on art activities and speed seminars. Find details here: coloradocollege.edu/inauguration.
Let us know you are coming!
See what’s on view in the museum

Chicanx Landscapes
2022-08-26 10:00 - 2023-03-05 16:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
This exhibition explores landscapes as a system of ecology, history, culture and belonging from a Chicanx perspective with new works presented by the interdisciplinary artist collaborative, Desert ArtLAB. Desert ArtLAB is an interdisciplinary artist collaborative co-directed by April Bojorquez (she/her) and Matthew Garcia (he/him) whose work promotes Indigenous perspectives on ecological practice and climate change. Bojorquez and Garcia were the 2022 Mellon Artists in Residence for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.

Exploring Watercolor
2022-07-12 10:30 - 12:30 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Discover the unrivaled and endless possibilities of watercolor. Build a repertoire of skills from choosing proper materials, brilliant colors, radiant blends, shadow and light all while incorporating traditional and experimental techniques. No need for natural talent. Just the desire to learn the limitless possibilities of this magnificent, versatile medium.

Anyone Can Whistle
2022-07-28 19:00 - 21:30 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
A Youth Rep Ensemble Production | Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim | Book by Arthur Laurents
Anyone Can Whistle tells the story of a corrupt mayoress who fakes a miracle to revitalize her bankrupt town and the ill-fated romance between the rational nurse, out to expose the fraud, and the easygoing doctor who is determined to enjoy the chaos that it brings. In the end, the show delivers a poignant message about the importance of the individual in a conformist society — but not before aiming its still-relevant barbs at government, religion, science, and anything else that stands in its way!
With its circus-like atmosphere, Anyone Can Whistle features plenty of memorable, lovably cartoonish roles of all sizes. The dazzling, melodic Broadway-style score overflows with the youthful energy of experimentation, consisting of one showstopper after another, including two extensive ballets that provide opportunities for some inspired choreography.

Action/Abstraction Redefined
2022-07-29 - 2023-01-08 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Action/Abstraction Redefined presents modern Native American art from the 1940s through the 1970s. The exhibition features 55 artworks by leading artists such as Fritz Scholder (Mission/ Luiseño), George Morrison (Chippewa), and T.C. Cannon (Kiowa), organized by influences of major twentieth-century art movements including Abstract Expressionism, Color Field, and Hard-Edge painting.

Friday Night Adult Painting
2022-06-17 17:30 - 19:30 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Love painting and do it all the time? Haven’t picked up a paintbrush since elementary school? Perfect! This is the class for you. This painting class will teach you the fundamentals of painting with acrylic paint and give you the confidence to finish a masterpiece! Supplies will be provided.
