Fine Arts Center

Exploring Abstraction
2021-11-13 10:00 - 15:00 (America/Denver) | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Have you ever wondered what makes a good abstract painting? Are you curious about how to begin? These questions and more will be answered in this class. Strong abstract designs are the key to making any painting successful, even realistic ones. Discover the qualities of a strong abstract painting as well as several ways to create abstraction. Explore and experiment with creating abstract paintings in a safe and fun environment. Come with an open mind and a playful attitude! A $25 materials fee will be due to the instructor on the first day of class for all supplies. Ages 16–Adult
Instructor: Dena Peterson
Level I – This class is for those with some familiarity with the medium. This could include informal use of medium outside of the classroom.

Beading Basics
2021-09-20 10:00 - 13:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Learn the techniques the professionals use to design, create, and finish earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Create unique pieces to enhance your wardrobe, give as gifts, or create jewelry to sell. You will also learn techniques to repair vintage favorites to be worn again or revamp them into something new. Supply List online. Ages 16–Adult
Instructor: Ona-Marie Engle
Level 0 – This class is for the true beginner with no prior experience in the medium.

Off-Loom Bead Weaving: RAW Power Bracelet
2021-11-17 13:00 - 16:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Large beads, bold colors, and simple designs make a striking statement with this right-angle weave beaded bracelet. The RAW method works well with large crystal rondelles and creates a flower-like center that can be bold or subtle, depending on the bead colors used. The method is repetitive, but has some complicated steps, so previous beading experience is helpful, and recommended for this class. There is a $25 materials fee due to the instructor on the first day of class for a beading kit. Ages 16–Adult
Instructor: Zandra Zieman-Foster
Level I – This class is for those with some familiarity with the medium. This could include informal use of medium outside of the classroom.

Hand Building in Clay II
2021-11-11 10:00 - 13:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
A continuation of Hand Building in Clay I, although new students are welcome to join. Advanced methods of building by hand will be taught. Learn a variety of methods in hand formed ceramics to gain confidence in the material. Larger forms, lidded objects with additions, and funky techniques will be brought into this course. Supply list online. Adult
Instructor: Cara McKinley
Level 0 – This class is for the true beginner with no prior experience in the medium.

Pleasing Pitchers
2021-11-19 10:00 - 13:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Learn slab construction to hand build a pleasing pitcher with whimsical forms using textured clay slabs. Move from flat to freestanding using simple measurements and flat patterns. Further embellish your pitcher with decorative elements made from coils that are attached to bodies, handles and spouts. Everyone will love your one-ofa-kind pitchers! Supply list online.
Instructor: Rui Haagen
Ages 16–Adult
Level 0 – This class is for the true beginner
with no prior experience in the medium.

Introduction to Murals
2021-11-05 16:00 - 19:30 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Using acrylic paints, learn how to begin the process of painting on a wall, formulating concept designs, and transferring your design to a surface. Discover the fundamental techniques of drawing in different mediums, introduction to color theory, paint brush techniques, use of light sources, layering, and so much more! Supply
list online. Ages 12-16.
Instructor: Jantzen Peake

Introduction to the Elements of Art II
2021-11-13 10:00 - 11:30 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
While both reviewing and solidifying the aspects covered in Introduction to the Elements of Art, this course will introduce exciting new artists and projects. We will continue to create unique art pieces each day, as well as plan and implement your own designs for final projects. Supplies will be provided. Ages 6-9.
Instructor: Aaron Bauer

Move, Make, Create, Commune: A Master Class with Juni One Set
2021-11-20 13:00 - 16:00 | Ormao Dance Company, 10 S Spruce St, Colorado Springs, CO, 80905, United States
Ormao Dance Company – 10 S. Spruce St.
This class will explore what it means to be moved through deep listening and the guidance of sound and imagery. We let go of our individual will to manifest shapes and surrender to the richness of the present. We let art awaken us to our soul center. Our trainings are rooted in butoh dance, physical theater, improvisation, music, and visual art. We will practice tuning into what the space, our body’s subtle energies, and our physical memories can move through us. We will practice both playfulness as well as pushing ourselves to our edge. We will hone our embodiment and observation, bearing witness to each other’s discoveries. In addition to dancers and performers, creative and curious people from all walks of life and all levels of training and ability are welcome. This workshop is designed for people who love to move and be moved, exploring their emotions and being playful.
18+ age | 20 person capacity | please review Ormao’s safety precautions
Free! Registration required

JUNI ONE SET STATEMENT
Our work is intensely collaborative, rooted in the deepest respect and love we hold for one another. Through an intentional, transformational process, we build a world within which we can be free. Our bodies live in fear, in the shadows of beginning-less violence, in joy and in care. Through ritual and embodiment, we find openings for healing and growth and invite others to arrive. We are trying to tell a story we never want to end.
JUNI ONE SET is Eddy Kwon (Brooklyn), Senga Nengudi (Colorado Springs), and Degenerate Art Ensemble’s Haruko Crow Nishimura & Joshua Kohl (Seattle).

BIOS
Eddy Kwon (they/them) is a violinist/violist, vocalist, composer, improviser, dancer, and interdisciplinary performing artist based in Brooklyn. They are a United States Artists Ford Fellow, Van Lier Fellow at Roulette Intermedium, Andrew W. Mellon Artist-in-Residence at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and Johnson Fellow for Artists Transforming Communities at Americans For The Arts. In addition to an evolving, interdisciplinary solo practice, they collaborate with artists of diverse disciplines, including The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Tomeka Reid, Susan Alcorn, Du Yun, and Carla Kihlstedt. They have performed throughout the Americas and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, Big Ears Festival, SESC Pompeia, Barbican Centre, Berlin Jazz Festival, Festival Banlieues Bleues, and more. Recent commissions include the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, National Performance Network, Bang on a Can, Roulette Intermedium, and Colorado College.
Senga Nengudi’s (she/her) media-spanning oeuvre draws on a range of influences including free jazz and spoken word, Yoruba mythology, Japanese art and theater, Brazilian Constructivism, and African ritual. Characterized by experimentation with process, material, and form, Nengudi’s work challenges and reimagines the traditional narratives of Post-Minimalism and Conceptual Art, while reframing the broader histories of both feminism and the Black Power Movement. Nengudi has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2021) the Denver Art Museum (2020); Henry Moore Institute (2018); the Baltimore Museum of Art (2018); Art + Practice, Los Angeles (2018); the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2017); and the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans (2017). She has also been featured in significant group exhibitions, including Another Energy: The Power to Continue Challenging-16 Women Artists from Around the World (2021) Mori Art Museum-Tokyo, Japan; Soul of a Nation (2017); Viva Arte Viva, the 57th Venice Biennale (2017); We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 (2017); Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art (2012); Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980(2011); WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (2007); and the 54th Carnegie International (2007). sengasenga.com
Haruko Crow Nishimura & Joshua Kohl of Degenerate Art Ensemble
The duo creates performance work infused with the energy of live music and driven by their own style of visceral movement theater and dance. Their work has been featured in 12 countries presenting large scale experimental theater and dance installation projects, concerts, site-transforming spectacles, and ongoing public experimentations. Some highlights of their work include being commissioned by director Robert Wilson to interpret his work Einstein on the Beach performed at the Baryshnikov Center, a site specific collaboration with Olson Kundig Architects for the 50th Anniversary of the Seattle Worlds Fair at the Seattle Center, a composition and solo dance with the Kronos Quartet which was also performed as part of 95 Rituals — a celebration of Anna Halprin’s 95th birthday at SF’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Crow and Joshua were joint recipients of the 2020 Artist Trust & Dale Chihuly Foundation’s Artist Innovators Award. Haruko Crow was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in choreography and Joshua’s work was awarded a Music Theatre Now award at the Swedish Biennale. In 2016 they teamed up with the legendary Czech Rock group Uz Jsme Doma for the creation of an epic orchestral work inspired by the group’s music at the Archa Theatre in Prague with the South Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra. Their recent work Skeleton Flower was shown at the Spotlight USA Festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Mexico City and will have its New York premiere in June of 2022.

Top photograph by Wolf Daniel courtesy of Roulette Intermedium

Museum Free Day
2021-11-24 10:00 - 16:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
The FAC will be closed for Fall Break Thursday Nov. 25 and Fri Nov. 26, so our second free day of the month has been moved to Wednesday, Nov. 24. Reservations required. IMPORTANT COVID-19 guidelines, policies, and reservations

First Friday
2021-12-03 16:30 - 20:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Join us for a First Friday celebration at the FAC! Museum admission is FREE from 5-8 p.m. Drinks and small plates will be available in Deco Lounge (credit card payments only).
In the Ladyfingers shop: Local designer Noel Dolan will be in the shop hand lettering custom ornaments
On stage: Celebrate the opening of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella
In the museum: Catch Ronny Quevedo: at the line before it closes Dec. 4
There will be live music and performances by Colorado College students in the exhibition Ronny Quevedo: at the line. Performing on the floor installation, at the line, students will respond to the themes of movement, fragmentation, and displacement which are exhibited throughout Ronny Quevedo’s work. Come watch these performances and experience the exhibition in its final days at the FAC. Performances begin at 4:30 p.m. and run until 7 p.m.
Performance schedule:
4:30-4:45 – Primo Seat
4:50-5:05 – Leo Patternity
5:10-5:25 – Twit
5:30-5:45 – Tenderheart
5:50-6:05 – Rocky Mountain Tops
6:10-6:25 – Funk Off!
6:30-6:45 – Tiny Tomboy

IMPORTANT COVID-19 guidelines

Please register to join us

Finding your Voice! Self Expression for Teens
2021-09-26 16:00 - 18:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
This workshop uses several creative activities to unlock your expressive voice through your art! Zine making and blackout poetry are just two ways we will dive into finding your own unique narrative and learning how to assert power through your creative endeavors. In addition, you will be provided with links to virtual content to explore on your own time outside of class if you so choose. These examples include political contemporary artists using zine making as a tool for artivism, examples of online black-out poetry, and resources to learn more about black-out poetry on YouTube. Supplies will be provided. Ages 12-16.
Instructor: Jasmine Dillavou

Whimsical Lidded Boxes
2021-12-10 10:00 - 13:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Explore slab construction to hand build whimsical lidded boxes from textured clay slabs. Move from flat to free-standing using simple measurements and your own handmade flat patterns. These boxes are pure joyful self-expressive whimsy! Supply list online.
Instructor: Rui Haagen
Ages 16–Adult
Level 0 – This class is for the true beginner with no prior experience in the medium.

First Friday January 2022
2022-01-07 17:00 - 20:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
This event has been cancelled. Please check back for future First Friday events.
On stage: Final weekend of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella

IMPORTANT COVID-19 guidelines, policies, and reservations

Kukuli Velarde: CORPUS
2022-01-14 - 2022-04-09 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
An installation of sculpture and textiles that encourages reflection on the meaning of survival in the face of colonialism by blending Indigenous and European aesthetics in a critical representation of the celebration of Corpus Christi in Peru.
Image: Patrón Santiago, 2012, Low fire clay, underglazes, casein paint, gold leaf. 33 x 19.3 x 10.45 in., Inspired by work from the Tiwanaku culture (Bolivia). Images courtesy the artist.

Museum Free Day
2022-01-15 10:00 - 16:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
In celebration of the new exhibition Kukuli Velarde: CORPUS, we are offering free museum admission on Saturday, January 15. Reservations are required.

IMPORTANT COVID-19 guidelines, policies, and reservations

CLEO PARKER ROBINSON DANCE ENSEMBLE
2022-01-17 - 2022-01-21 | FAC Digital, CO, United States
In honor of the 2022 Martin Luther King Day Celebrations
CHECK CASHING DAY and STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS
Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This event is part of a week-long celebration of the legacy of Dr. King organized by Colorado College. View full event list on the Colorado College website.

Action Words: Spoken Word
2022-01-18 19:30 - 20:30 | Virtual
Presenting an evening of spoken word inspired by the legacy of Dr. King, on FAC Connect.
Featuring Pikes Peak Poet Laureate Ashley Cornelius, Albuquerque Slam Champion Mercedez Holtry, and Writer & Activist Angela Kong Colorado College class of 2017.
Hosted by FAC Executive Director and Poet Idris Goodwin, this special event brings together three dynamic poets with ties to the region. Beaming in from three different cities, they will share original spoken word poetry inspired by the messages and legacy of Dr. King.
Live streamed Tuesday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m. MST on FAC Connect

This event is part of a week-long celebration of the legacy of Dr. King organized by Colorado College. View full event list on the Colorado College website.

The Art of Haiku
2022-01-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Haiku originated in the 1600s in Japan but remains widely read today. In fact, its concision and brevity lend itself to today’s life. In this class we will learn the history and various forms of haiku. We will read traditional haiku and examples from today, including the contemporary journal Modern Haiku. You will come away with a better understanding and appreciation of haiku, as well as a batch of your own finely tuned haiku. Ages 16–Adult
Level I – This class is for those with some familiarity with the medium. This could include informal use of the medium outside of the classroom.

Advanced Watercolor Workshop: Achieving Your Goals
2022-01-21 10:00 - 16:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
This workshop will target those painters who are experienced in painting in watercolor yet who have still unrealized goals in the medium. The instructor will work individually with each painter to develop skills they already possess but want to improve upon. Various short demonstrations during the day will be provided for additional techniques but won’t take away from your painting time.
Level III – This class is for those who have significant experience in the medium – 2-3 or more classes or a year or more of experience.

Watercolor: Fun & Easy
2022-01-22 10:00 - 16:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Beginners to experts will have fun in this informative workshop about watercolor basics. No drawing skills? Not needed. Never tried watercolor cause you heard it was hard? No problem. Using 8 pigments, 2 brushes, and 1 painting knife, you will be amazed at what you can create. By the end of the session, you will have at least 1 painting to frame.
Level 0 – This class is for the true beginner with no prior experience in the medium.

Introduction to Acrylic Painting
2022-01-24 16:00 - 18:00 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Learn traditional painting techniques while giving your paintings a breath of life! You will learn fundamental techniques of drawing and painting and be introduced to color theory, paintbrush techniques like dry brushing, wet on wet techniques, layering, and so much more! Supplies will be provided.
Ages 9-12.
