Tell us what you think in our online poll

On Wednesday we included a short online poll in our weekly email newsletter. We've been getting such great response that we decided open it up to our web visitors as well. So take 15 seconds to share your opinion with the Fine Arts Center! Here are some the comments with FAC responses.

Want to add your two cents? ... click here to participate

An interview with John Waters

For their 5oth segment, Springs Culture Cast covered the Fine Arts Center's Extremely Grand Opening; touring our inaugural traveling exhibition, The Eclectic Eye: Pop and Illusion - Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, as well as interviewing filmmaker John Waters:

UCCS Incubator Series continues on Thursday

THE INCUBATOR SERIES
02: MEDIA / PUBLISHING
Thursday, August 9, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
At Smokebrush Foundation for the Arts

This installment of the Incubator Series features media and publishing figures of the Pikes Peak region: Mark Arnest (Gazette), Noel Black (Newspeak), Kirk Woundy (Independent), Don Goede (Smokemuse/Soft Skull Press), Klayton Elliot Kendall (Springs Culture Cast), and Eve Tilley (Springs Magazine) with Christopher Lynn (moderator). This Incubator will be hosted at the Smokebrush Foundation for the Arts located under the Colorado Ave. Bridge at 218 W. Colorado Avenue.

Gazette: FAC opens with a bang

The Gazette's Emily Voigt reviewed the 14th annual Masterpiece Gala.

“I was more excited about this than my prom,” said Bettina Swigger, who manages the Summer Arts Festival at Colorado College.

Swigger gushed about the intimacy of the building and the high quality of the exhibitions. “It feels like you’re going over to a ritzy friend’s house and they happen to have a lot of art,” she said.

In fact, Billie Milam Weisman, the director and curator of the Weisman Collection of pop and illusionist art, said she had been overseeing the hanging of the traveling exhibition in the second-floor galleries herself.

A gray-haired woman stood studying the results in the cavernous El Pomar Gallery. It was Nancy Wirth, the daughter of the building’s original architect, John Gaw Meem.

“It’s so fabulous,” said Wirth, explaining that she’s emotionally attached to her father’s work and had only now come to see the new wing. “I think he’s up there smiling,” she said.

Gazette: FAC expansion raises bar for visual arts

"Entering the newly expanded Fine Arts Center, I couldn’t escape the nagging feeling that I was somewhere else," writes Mark Arnest in a Gazette review. "Certainly no place in Colorado Springs had this feel of contemporary urban elegance."

'Colorado & Company' features the FAC

On August 3, a segment of 'Colorado & Company' on Denver's 9 News featured the Fine Arts Center's expansion and renovation. Dr. Michael De Marsche discusses the building's history and future, as well as this weekend's grand opening events.
Click here to watch.

The FAC hits Times Square!

It's like MOMA in the mountains.
The newly expanded Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.
csfineartscenter.org

Mark Arnest, The Gazette: "Amazing"

The Gazette gave the FAC unprecedented coverage with a 1A story, online interactives and a first-ever "State of the Arts" special section.

· As opening nears, backers predict ‘wow’ moments
· Local artists give nod of approval to new wing
· Director made dramatic changes, and quickly
· Interactive Map of new FAC galleries
· State of the Arts overview
· Thomas Hoving: The man behind the big art show
· Alan Osburn: City offers plenty of variety
· Schedule of Events

Noel Black, Bon Vivant: “Elegant.”

Back to the Future: The Fine Arts Center grand reopening marks a new era for the arts

“Ultimately, the elegant and complimentary renovation by Tryba is not what’s most impressive about the grand reopening. It’s the art and events the renovation will allow the Fine Arts Center to showcase now and in the future that’s truly exciting. Like negative space in a well-composed photograph, the addition does not jump to the foreground, but frames the subject – the extensive and barely-seen permanent collection and the traveling exhibits to come – seamlessly. It’s the art that will take center stage and the architecture that will compliment it.

More Denver media reviews of FAC expansion

>> Mary Chandler, Rocky Mountain News: “Superb” "A Harmonious expansion"

>> Cheryl Meyers, 5280 Magazine: “A perfect centerpiece to a day trip in Colorado Springs”

· Springing to Life: The renovated Fine Arts Center makes Colorado Springs worth another visit (full-page article with five photos not available online)

>> Denver Post, Colorado Sunday: “If it's true that nothing succeeds like excess, the three Dale Chihuly chandeliers practically guarantee that the new two-story wing of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, opening this week, will be a contender for a future round of world wonders.”

· Lighten up! The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center

Michael Paglia of Westword: "Magical"

“During construction, Tryba also oversaw various improvements and restorations to the Meem, such as the careful and excellently carried out refurbishing of the spectacular theater and the removal of the offensive and ugly wheelchair ramps that had been added to the El Pomar Corridor. The elegant space, restored to its original splendor, hierarchically descends in stages, lending the area a ceremonial presence while also following the contours of the hillside on which the building sits. The ramps are now tucked away in what had been a set of galleries on the south side of the El Pomar, where new restrooms and a bar, the Deco Lounge, have been also located. For the first time in memory, the windows in these spaces, with their stunning aluminum elements, have been opened up, and the effect, in the Deco Lounge in particular, is magical.”

Well Done: The new Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center expansion gives plenty of reasons to applaud.