Jan 31, 2008

Denver Post: Special art in our midst

Special art in our midst
Springs show whets the appetite for big Impressionists exhibit
By Kyle MacMillan, Denver Post (Jan. 31)

  • “Lovers of impressionism should not overlook a notable group of such works that are part of a broader exhibition continuing through March 9 at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.”
  • “it is a solid, engaging show with enough strong selections to make the drive worthwhile. Perhaps best of all, there are examples by artists rarely seen in Colorado”
  • “this exhibition shows off the wonderfully accommodating special-exhibition galleries”
  • “the old-master works are exquisitely showcased. One of the most successful aspects of the addition, this huge room — about 38 by 100 feet with a 19-foot ceiling — allows for sweeping vistas and ample dialogue among the selections.”
  • "Impressionist and Old Masters" is a perfect excuse for a road trip and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.”

Jan 29, 2008

Interview with Altered Space artist Gwen Laine

Gwen Laine has lived in Denver since 1975. She earned her BFA from the University of Colorado, where she studied photography, sculpture and art history. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and has been published internationally ... more

Interview with Altered Space artist Matt Barton

Matt Barton currently teaches 3D art making for the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs’ Visual and Performing Arts department. Following brief stints as a Chuck E. Cheese dancing rat and Victoria Secret shop stock boy, Barton spent a year in Italy as an artist apprentice. He earned his Masters in Fine Arts in 2006 from the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh ... more

Interview with Altered Space artist Christina Marsh

Christina Marsh, from Lindenhurst, Ill., is currently in her second year as the Riley Scholar in Residency at Colorado College. She earned her Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana. Her works have been exhibited in many venues including the Schmucker Gallery at Gettsyburg (Pa.) College and Eastern Illinois University’s Tarble Art Center. She also participated in the Mobilivre traveling exhibition that was shown in 14 states. Her work has incorporated food, photography and prints ... more

Jan 26, 2008

Over the River ... The Rocky covers Christo and Jean Claude visit to the Springs

Christo’s river project is still flowing
By Mary Voetz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News (Jan. 26)

“An exhibition on Over the River, including drawings, anchors, fabric and other objects related to the project, will open in October at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. The show will travel, including a visit to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 2011.”

Jan 25, 2008

Sunday in the Park preview

FOX 21’s Meaghan Collier previews the Fine Arts Center Theatre Company’s production of the Pulitzer Prize winning musical, Sunday in the Park with George, featuring interviews with actors Brian R. Hutchinson, Carmen Mock and director Alan Osburn. Watch the video.

Jan 7, 2008

John Updike on Georges Seurat

Celebrated writer John Updike reviewed the Georges Seurat MOMA exhibition in The New York Review for Books (Jan. 17), writing, "Impressionism, our impression is, proceeded by instinct, its stabs of high color pursuing what the eyes of Monet and Renoir and Pissarro and Sisley found in the open air, as sunlight's spectrum flitted across the sight of haystacks, poppy-dotted fields, and rippled water. Analysis was left to Post-Impressionism, whose varied masters, with a greater or lesser degree of programmatic determination, put forward terms for their own art and the art of the future. Neither Cezanne nor Van Gogh was more resolutely theoretical than Georges Seurat."

Jan 3, 2008

Bon Vivant: "The mastery of light, color and line"

In the January edition of Bon Vivant magazine, writer Noel Black reviews the Impressionist and Modern Masters exhibition, saying it "satisfies like a weekend trip to New York."

"Using colored walls to denote the three separate eras in the chronology, Blake Milteer and the FAC curatorial staff hone done an excellent job of creating visual moods around the periods they define: regal burgundy for the pre-impressionist era, a brooding green for the impressionists and a sunny yellow for the modernists. The works themselves are, without hyperbole, some of the finest examples of their times."

Sunday in the Park with George: FAC performs musical masterpiece about painter Seurat

Read the complete press release.

COLORADO SPRINGS (Jan. 2, 2008) – In the past 50 years, there have only been three musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama: A Chorus Line, Rent and Sunday in the Park with George. The Fine Arts Center Theatre Company will present Sunday in the Park with George, Jan. 25-Feb. 17, in the SaGāJi Theatre.

Written and scored by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, Sunday in the Park is a moving study of the enigmatic painter Georges Seurat that won a Pulitzer Prize for its insightful and personal examination of life through art and the artist. Act one follows Seurat as he fights a losing battle to maintain a relationship with his mistress, Dot, as he creates his painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, amid the scorn of the artistic community. The second act takes place 100 years later, introducing us to his American descendant, also an artist, burned out and uncertain of the path he must take.

The show was specifically chosen to correspond with the FAC’s special exhibition, Impressionist and Modern Masters, on exhibit through March 9. Much of the second act is set at an art exhibition opening in a museum.

“What better piece to do at an arts center that recently completed a $30 million renovation and who is currently exhibiting one of the country finest exhibitions of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art?” asks Alan Osburn, Producing Artistic Director of the FAC Theatre Company. Osburn, who directed last season’s Into the Woods – another Sondheim/Lapine collaboration – is directing Sunday in the Park.

The scenic designer will feature the artistry of Brian Jude Beacom, who will recreate Seurat’s paintings: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and Bathing at Asnieres, along with painting over a dozen life-size, two-dimensional cut outs of various people and animals found in the La Grande Jatte painting. Seurat painted La Grande Jatte in two years; Beacom will have four weeks.

The show stars Brian R. Hutchinson as George and Carmen Mock as Dot. Hutchinson earned the 2006 Denver Henry Award from the Denver Theatre Guild for “Best Actor in a Musical” for his work in Assassins (yet another Sondheim-penned work) as John Wilkes Booth at the Aurora Fox Theatre. Hutchinson was a finalist for the 2006 Denver Post Ovation Award for “Best Year by an Actor,” highlighted by his role in Cabaret.

More information concerning tickets sales for individuals or groups, and the Curtain Call Society can be found at csfineartscenter.org or by calling the FAC Box Office at 719.634.5583.

Read the complete press release.

Jan 2, 2008

Roberta Jacyshyn wins 2007 Denver Post Ovation Award

On Dec. 30, the FAC Theatre Company’s Musical Director Roberta Jacyshyn earned a 2007 Denver Post Ovation Award for “Best Orchestra” for Into the Woods; the production garnered nine nominations, including “Best Musical,” “Best Ensemble,” and “Best Director.” In 2006, the Company earned the Ovation Award for “Best Musical” with Pirates of Penzance.

Jacyshyn, the Musical Director or musician or both for every single FAC musical since 1984’s Bye Bye Birdie – about 80 productions – is saying goodbye to Colorado Springs. Jacyshyn will be playing keyboards for Sunday in the Park; it will be her farewell performance as she and her husband, Mark Rose, will be moving to Florida. Rose has been the primary reeds player for the Theatre Company for a number of years.

“Roberta and Mark will be greatly missed,” said Alan Osburn, Producing Artistic Director of the FAC Theatre Company. “Both have played integral roles in the legacy of our musical success and we wish them well in their future endeavors.”

FAC website stats impressive for December, 2007

December was the second-best month ever for traffic to csfineartscenter.org for visits and visitors, doubling the totals from December 2006.

December
Page Views
2007 ... 46,486
2006 ... 22,162
Increase ... 109 percent

Visits
2007 ... 13,485
2006 ... 6,567
Increase ... 105 percent

Unique Visitors
2007 ... 11,751
2006 ... 5,046
Increase ... 133 percent

Year-End

Page Views
2007 ... 492,953
2006 ... 287,350
Increase ... 71.5 percent

Visits
2007 ... 138,581
2006 ... 92,543
Increase ... 49.7 percent

Visitors
2007 ... 117,738
2006 ... 74,163
Increase ... 58.7 percent