Fine Arts Center

Jeron Braxton: Glucose and Octane
2021-03-25 10:00 - 16:00 (America/Denver) | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Stemming from a collaboration with Colorado College’s Black Student Union launched in Black History Month, the Fine Arts Center is proud to present a special curated installation of digital work from self-taught artist and award-winning filmmaker Jeron Braxton.
On view now in the FAC museum’s Hybl Screening Room, the installation consists of 2 Sundance Festival award-winning animated videos.
Glucose is a short film investigating the colonial history of sugar as the engine of the slave trade.
Octane deals with the modern commodification of black bodies bringing to light some of the darker aspects to seemingly harmless consumerism.
Each runs approximately 6 and 14 minutes.
Visiting Guideline & Reservations

Floral Expressions
2021-04-05 11:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Explore painting a magnified floral image inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe, an abstract floral piece, and a still life in this virtual course. Three paintings will be completed during this course using acrylic paints in a palette of your choice. We will examine the process of painting in an expressive style and gain an understanding of color composition and how neutrals work beside color to create a focal point. Small color studies will also be explored as a useful tool for painting. This virtual course includes live Zoom class sessions and live Zoom studio hours. Adult class

Online Workshop: Writing Theatre for Young Audiences
2021-03-18 17:45 - 19:15 | Virtual
Thursdays, March 18, March 25, April 8, and April 15, from 5:45 p.m.–7:15 p.m. MST
A good story is a good story, but how we execute it can make all the difference in the world, especially when the audience is a group of third-graders on a field trip.
In this workshop, multi-award-winning playwright and active participant in the theatre for young audiences (TYA) movement Idris Goodwin will break down some of the core and fundamental opportunities and challenges to writing for children and teens.
The workshop will culminate in the completion of a first draft of a TYA script. Adult participants should come with a working understanding of the basic tenets of playwriting. This is not an introductory course to playwriting, but a topics course that builds on this form.
This is the class for you if:

You are interested in Theater for Young Audiences
You want to explore a new genre of playwriting
You want to finish that first draft of your play

Sign up for the workshop
This workshop is offered in collaboration with The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis.

INSTRUCTOR BIO
Idris Goodwin is an award winning break-beat poet, playwright, and director of The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. He was recently named a 2021 United States Artist Fellow. In addition to the recently released poetry collection Can I Kick It?, he’s had several publications from Haymarket Books including Inauguration co-written with nico wilkinson, Human Highlight: Ode To Dominique Wilkins, and the play This Is Modern Art co-written with Kevin Coval. He’s appeared on Nickelodeon, HBO Def Poetry, Sesame Street, NPR, BBC Radio, and the Discovery Channel. His plays include And In This Corner Cassius Clay, How We Got On, Hype Man, and This is Modern Art. Idris is the co-host of The Same Old New School Podcast on Vocalo Radio.

Photo: GHOST by Idris Goodwin, produced by Metro Theater Company; Photo credit: Jennifer Lin

Budding Thespians
2021-03-06 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtual
Virtual Spring Camp!
Saturdays, March 6–May 1 (8 weeks), 9–11 a.m. It is time to once again to raise the virtual curtain on our youngest performers! Students will explore the magical world of theatre through games, rehearsals, and collaboration. Interactive instruction will have students dancing, acting, crafting and much more! Registration for this camp includes an “Imagination Pack” that will be delivered right to your front door. The final performance of this camp will stream to the public on May 7.
Instructors: Sally Hybl (FAC’s The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins), Jessye King (FAC’s The Sound of Music, Busytown: The Musical)

Works in Progress: Boy mother / faceless bloom
2021-03-09 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual
Boy mother / faceless bloom is a multimedia performance work combining large-scale sculptural and scenic design, live and recorded music, and embodied movement to tell the story of a young boy who learns he will be a mother. Drawing upon the combined, personal mythologies of Nengudi, Kwon, Nishimura, and Kohl, Boy mother / faceless bloom explores transgender identity, parenthood and ancestral lineage in a time of planetary crisis, as well as the spiritual legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and ideologies of domination.

Youth Rep Ensemble
2021-03-03 16:00 - 18:00 | Virtual
Virtual Spring Camp!
Wednesdays & Saturdays, March 3–May 1 (8 weeks). This spring session for high school students will offer weekly workshops from esteemed faculty and guest instructors ranging from auditions technique, classical text, movement, voice work and more. Students will also devise and rehearse for the first ever Fine Arts Center Theatre School Cabaret that will be streamed on May 7. This class is a must for students looking for a continuation of their skill development as well as performance opportunities!

Emerging Artists Class
2021-03-06 09:00 - 12:00 | Virtual
Virtual Spring Camp!
Saturdays, March 6–May 1 (8 weeks), 9 a.m.–12 p.m. Rising theatre stars take note! This class is designed for students who yearn to further develop their love and skills for the theatrical art form. Daily theme exploration will allow these students to get a three-dimensional view of performing and creating. Collaboration will be key to the work that we do. Registration for this camp includes an “Imagination Pack” that will be delivered right to your front door. The final performance of this camp will stream to the public on May 7.
Instructors: Carmen Shedd (FAC’s The Sound of Music, Matilda: The Musical), Ryan Miller (FAC’s The Sound of Music)

The Arts & Social Action: The End of Their World, Welcoming in Ours
2021-02-21 17:00 - 18:30 | Virtual
This event offers a portal into the truths of six disciplined and worldly artists who often speak what is unspoken, drawing on themes of pandemics, uprisings, and survival. We will showcase the work, struggles, and lives of Trans women and Trans femmes of color who have world-ending ideas and dangerous dreams of a future that respects all gender autonomy. This work and the ensuing conversations will explore how trans feminine people incorporate art into their organizing and activism practices, through the stylings of cinema, song, music, dance and live performance portraying pandemic era trans feminist politics. Prepared video recordings and live performances of each artist’s work will be shared and then followed by a live conversation and Q&A with the artists hosted by CC Artist-in-Residence, edxi betts.

A Poetry Reading with Douglas Kearney
2021-02-26 16:00 - 17:00 | Virtual
In celebration of Black History Month, join us for an evening of poetry and discussion with Douglas Kearney.
Douglas Kearney is a poet, performer, and librettist who has published seven books that bridge thematic concerns such as politics, African-American culture, masks, the Trickster figure, and contemporary music. His most recent collection, Sho, aims to hit crooked licks with straight-seeming sticks. Kearney is also the author of Buck Studies, which was awarded the CLMP Firecracker Award for Poetry, the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award, and the silver medal for the California Book Award in Poetry. Kearney’s collection of writing on poetics and performativity, Mess and Mess and, was a Small Press Distribution Handpicked Selection; and Patter examines miscarriage, infertility, and parenthood. He has received a Whiting Writer’s Award, was named a Notable New American Poet by the Poetry Society of America, and has been awarded fellowships from Cave Canem and The Rauschenberg Foundation. His work has appeared in Poetry, Iowa Review, Boston Review, and Indiana Review, and anthologies, including Resisting Arrest: Poems to Stretch the Sky, Best American Poetry, Best American Experimental Writing, and What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Poets in America. Raised in Altadena, CA, he lives with his family a little west of Minneapolis, MN and teaches creative writing at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities.

A Deep Dive into the Work of Floyd Tunson
2021-02-04 13:00 - 14:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Focusing on a recent acquisition and other works by Floyd Tunson, Collections and Education staff at the FAC Museum will be leading in-depth experiences for students with Tunson’s work throughout the month of February. These engagements will focus on preservation, care, and representations of cultural identity and social histories within Tunson’s work. In pursuit of building community with higher education students, this experience is offered to all students currently enrolled in college or university. (Must present valid school ID at check-in.)
As an artist from Colorado and a previous exhibiter at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, Tunson explores concepts of cultural identity, American social history, pop culture, and the human condition. Tunson says that from one direction he sees “the terror of chaos, man’s inhumanity to man, mortality, and the unknown. From another direction, the human condition seems like a magnificent, orderly evolution of extraordinary beauty” stating that the totality of his work reflects his “quest to comprehend and express these forces and their interconnectedness.”
Students, space is limited — reserve your spot now!

Artivism CO — Why We Need This Now: A conversation with Lisa Villanueva
2021-02-23 14:00 - 15:30 | Virtual
When you wake up in the morning and look in the eyes of your children, grandchildren, and those you love the most, do you contemplate their future? Pause and reflect on our country’s state of environmental destruction, violation of rights and the blatant silencing of voices in our marginalized communities?
If so, please join us in a candid conversation about:

How and why Lisa created Artivism CO
Why partnering with community organizations like the Fine Arts Center’s Bemis School of Art at Colorado College is so important for connecting with local youth
Why children are (truly) the solution for a better future

Join Lisa Villanueva, the creator and author of Artivism CO, as she speaks through her own history, and the history of Artivism CO, an organization that facilitates and encourages young people to use art to evoke emotions while also exploring the human, civil, and environmental rights that lead to change.

Intimate Apparel – A Reunion/Reading
2021-02-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Virtual
In 2018, the FAC Theatre Company produced Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage. In celebration of Black History Month, the entire cast of the 2018 production will re-unite to present a reading of the play via zoom. The reading will be streamed live on Feb. 19 and then remain available as a watchable stream through Sunday, Feb. 28.
