Fine Arts Center

Action/Abstraction Redefined tours
2022-10-08 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Denver) | 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

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

Photographing with Vintage and Toy Cameras
2022-10-11 12:30 - 15:30 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Class for ages 16-adult. Here is your chance to have some serious fun using an inexpensive plastic film camera or that vintage camera that’s been gathering dust. Learn how to use simple cameras, with their perceived flaws such as soft focus and vignetting, to create beautiful, inspiring images. This course is a terrific opportunity for those who may be new to the B&W darkroom to learn how to process film and make handcrafted gelatin-silver prints from your negatives.

Block Printing
2022-09-22 16:00 - 17:30 | Bemis School of Art, 818 Pelham Pl, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Ages 6-9. Learn how to create prints by carving into Styrofoam. You will be introduced to the art of printmaking and learn about lines, patterns, and contrast. Explore printing on varied materials, such as paper and fabric, as well as how to use found objects in printing with ink.

Free Art Car Painting Events
2022-10-15 09:00 - 12:00 | 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

FAC Member "Law and Disorder" Downtown History Stroll & Speakeasy Cocktail Tasting
2022-10-15 14:00 - 16:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Due to popular demand, we’ve again partnered with the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum for another downtown history stroll. This member only, “Law & Disorder” tour explores how Colorado Springs officials fought to remain a “dry town” in “wet times,” the captivating story of how local law enforcement, concerned citizens and the Gazette newspaper worked to run the KKK out of town in the 1920s, and an infamous gun battle with train robbers in the streets of downtown.
Two tours available:

Tour only (no cocktail tasting): $5 per person. Tour meets at 2:00 p.m. at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. Tour lasts approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Tour and cocktail tasting at Brooklyn’s on Boulder: $21. Tour meets at 2:15 p.m. at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. SPACE IS VERY LIMITED. Tour lasts approximately 2 hours.

Join a knowledgeable guide from the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum for this .7 mile downtown stroll. Each tour group, with or without the cocktail tasting, start at the Pioneers Museum (215 S Tejon St) and end at Brooklyn’s on Boulder (110 E Boulder St). Wear comfortable walking shoes and be sure to dress for the weather.
SOLD OUT
To be placed on a wait list, please email fac@coloradocollege.edu or call (719) 634-5581
Not a member? Join today for as little as $5 per month!
Image: Colorado City Saloon, ca. 1900. Courtesy of Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum

FAC Happy Hour at Bell Brothers Brewing
2022-10-19 17:00 - 19:00 | Bell Brothers Brewing, 114 N Tejon St Suite 100, 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 Bell Brothers Brewing downtown.
FAC members and theatre subscribers will receive $2 off their first drink.
No RSVP needed. Event location: 114 N Tejon St Suite 100. We’ll also be handing out museum admission passes, so bring a friend! Stop by the FAC table to say hi!

Libation Lecture: Dancing Paintings
2022-10-20 17:30 - 18:30 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Dancing Paintings: An Interactive Guide to Abstract Expressionism
The lecture coincides with Action/Abstraction Redefined, an exhibition currently on view at the FAC.
For many years I had a secret: to understand works of art, I would have to dance them. Discreetly, of course, or risk being thrown out of the museum. Years later, I was surprised to learn that I am not alone: many art theorists, philosophers, and psychologists have investigated in detail how our instinctive physical responses to works of art provide us with critical information about what we see. In this gently interactive session, I will share some of the theories and practices that explore how leaning into this innate intelligence of our bodies can enrich our viewing experiences of art.
Drink: Tequila Sunrise
Lecturer: Jessica Hunter, Ph.D., Associate Director of Creativity & Innovation at CC
Bar opens at 5 p.m.
Tickets: $15 ($10 FAC members) includes your first drink
Libation Lecture Tickets

Tuned-In: The Soundtrack of Your Life with Molly Lord
2022-10-22 08:30 - 17:30 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Two wildly fun, life-changing days with very cool people and intriguing dialogue offer life-altering insights and deep music listening from Bach to Rock. Explore how six human behavior patterns (archetypes) –the Victim, Wanderer, Warrior, Caregiver, Innocent, and Magician–aim to run your life’s show. Discover how to choose music to positively direct that show to the outcome you desire.
Imagine directing the music you love to gain clarity, wisely read and respond to difficult situations and people, learn to hold onto joy when life is on a roll, and shape your state of mind, health, and even relationships. Yes, music can support it all! Thanks to a generous grant the reduced price is offered for a limited time.
Lunch and refreshments are included.

Crafts + Cocktails
2022-10-27 17:30 - 18:30 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
A fun filled evening of crafting awaits! Instructor Julia Barrett will provide supplies and step-by-step instructions to create your own macramé sunflower wall hanging, just in time for Fall! Space is limited so grab a friend and buy your tickets today!
Cash bar available. Attendees will receive free admission to the museum from 4-5 p.m. the day of the event. Bar will open at 5 p.m.
FAC members: $20
General admission: $30
SOLD OUT

Screening of Extraterrestres (2017, Puerto Rico/Venezuela); Q&A to follow
2022-11-03 18:30 - 20:00 | Cornerstone Arts Center, 825 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
About the film: Teresa is a vegetarian and a successful astrophysicist who lives with her girlfriend, Daniela, in the Canary Islands. After years of self-exile, Teresa returns to Puerto Rico to invite the family to her wedding. But the Díaz family, who lives in a rural town, are a conservative and well-to-do family who control much of the poultry industry in Puerto Rico. No one in the family is who they appear and none is willing to reveal their most intimate secrets, so once back home, Teresa chooses to lie. When several acts of sabotage force the closure of the family business and Daniela, tired of waiting for Teresa, travels to Puerto Rico to meet her new family, the Díaz family nucleus collapses like a supernova star, unleashing a chain reaction that puts in evidence that we are all “Extraterrestrials.”
Free and open to the public.
This event is related to the exhibition Breathe into the Past: Crosscurrents in the Caribbean.
Location: Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, Room 131 at Colorado College
Image: Suchitra Mattai, Tethered (detail), 2020, vintage saris, wire, and found object, dimensions variable, courtesy of K Contemporary, Denver, photo by Wes Magyar. On view in Breathe into the Past: Crosscurrents in the Caribbean.

Songs from the Border
2022-11-03 19:30 - 21:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Featuring the creator and performer of Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, Songs from the Border is a limited run concert of original music about immigration, identity, and where we belong, starring Satya Chávez and Brian Quijada.

FAC Member Tour: Chicanx Landscapes
2022-11-05 12:00 - 13:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Join Michael Christiano, Director of Visual Arts and Museum and Mariana Rodríguez, feminist poet and translator for a tour and poetry reading in Chicanx Landscapes. Rodriguez, who teaches in the Spanish Department at Colorado College, will read selections from her own work and others that relate to the art on view. The 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.
Not a member? Sign up now for as little as $5 a month!
RSVP for tour

Yoga at the FAC
2022-11-06 10:30 - 11:30 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Join teacher Misty Banta 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

Poetry Reading and Workshop with Rajiv Mohabir
2022-11-07 15:00 - 16:30 | CO
About Rajiv Mohabir: ​​Rajiv holds a BA from the University of Florida in religious studies, an MSEd in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Long Island University, Brooklyn, and an MFA in poetry and literary translation from Queens College, CUNY where he was Editor in Chief of Ozone Park Literary Journal. While in New York working as a public school teacher, Rajiv also produced the nationally broadcast radio show KAVIhouse on JusPunjabi (2012-2013). He received his PhD in English from the University of Hawai’i and is currently Translations Editor at Waxwing Journal and teaches in the BFA/MFA program in the Writing, Literature, and Publishing department at Emerson College. In “Coolitude: Poetics of the Indian Labor Diaspora” In this project I take a look at the cultural productions of writers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers who descend from indentured laborers from Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji, and those in second diaspora in England, the United States, and Canada. I chart the poetics of Coolitude, itself a queer cousin of Césaire’s, Senghor’s, and Damas’s Négritude. Coolitude uses the labor economy of the British Empire to suggest a similarity in identities, not based on racial or ethnic sameness, but rather the function of the economic category Coolie.
This event is related to the exhibition Breathe into the Past: Crosscurrents in the Caribbean.
Location: Max Kade Theater, Armstrong Hall, Colorado College

Converging Journeys: Thomas Blackshear, Dean Mitchell, and Ezra Tucker
2022-11-09 19:00 - 20:30 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
Join us for an intimate discussion between Thomas Blackshear, Dean Mitchell, and Ezra Tucker as they discuss their creative practices, which move across design & illustration, commercial, and fine art. Their careers have spanned more than four decades and are marked by a commitment to creative exploration as well as charting new pathways for artists of color in historically white industries.
Event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP

Known for his dramatic lighting and sensitivity to mood, Thomas Blackshear has produced illustrations for advertising, books, calendars, collectors’ plates, greeting cards, magazines, postage stamps, and national posters. His clients range from Disney Pictures, Lucasfilm, and Universal Studios to International Wildlife and National Geographic magazines. He has illustrated thirty United States postage stamps and a commemorative stamp book titled I have a Dream. In 1995, he created Ebony Visions, which has been the number-one-selling Black figurine collectible in the United States for the past twenty years.
His recent Western Nouveau paintings have been featured on the covers of Art of the West magazine and Western Art Collector. In 2020, Blackshear was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Society of Illustrators.
Dean Mitchell is proficient in watercolors, egg tempera, oils, and pastels. During his four-decade-long career, Mitchell has become well known for his figurative works, landscapes, and still lifes. At the age of twenty-three, he became the youngest artist ever accepted into the National Watercolor Society; just five years later, he was admitted into the American Watercolor Society. He holds numerous gold medals from these and other prestigious painting associations worldwide. His awards now number in the hundreds, and his work is featured in museums, corporate, and private collections throughout the country. The New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman praised him as a “modern-day Vermeer.”
After thirty plus years of illustration and commercial art success, Ezra Tucker embarked on a fine art career, determined to create his own style of artistic beauty in both the portrayal of wildlife and historical personalities and events surrounding the settling of the American Western Frontier. This 18-year journey has proved fulfilling and rewarding to his artistic vision and ambitions. Tucker is widely admired for his paintings that portray wildlife, notably mammals but also birds as well as historic scenes.
The Black Experience in the history of the American West has been untold by the historical record and visibly absent from many of our nation’s museum collections. Tucker’s historical paintings pictorially tell the stories of people of African descent: cowboys, bronco busters, Pony Express riders, Buffalo Soldiers, Black Seminole Scouts and other Americans.

This program is presented in partnership with Broadmoor Galleries and Jewelry Company.

The Reminders with CC songwriting students
2022-11-11 15:00 - 17:00 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
A musical collaboration between CC Mobile Arts, CC Music Department, and the Fine Arts Center, featuring a full set by The Reminders and fresh collaborative songs created by CC students. Students’ songs are musical settings of text written for this project by persons incarcerated at the Woman’s Ward at El Paso County Jail.
The performance will be held in the Fine Arts Center’s Music Room. Free and open to the public.

Crafts + Cocktails
2022-11-17 17:30 - 18:30 | Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, CO, 80903, United States
A fun filled evening of crafting awaits! Instructor Sophia Hanna will provide supplies and step-by-step instructions to create your own snow globe, just in time for Winter! Turn plain mason jars into sparkling snow globes filled with whimsical holiday figurines and miniatures. Space is limited so grab a friend and buy your tickets today!
Cash bar available. Attendees will receive free admission to the museum from 4-5 p.m. the day of the event. Bar will open at 5 p.m.
FAC members: $20
General admission: $30
Buy tickets
