SOLI Chamber Music Ensemble

Earlier this month, SOLI Chamber Ensemble performed among the art of Personal Paradise in the FAC's El Pomar Gallery. The concert was part of the UCCS Contemporary Music Concert Series. Watch video from the performance here:

'Broadway Bound' feature from Colorado Culture Cast

Check out Colorado Culture Cast's new video on Broadway Bound. Craig Richardson talks to Alan Osburn, Marco and Oscar Robinson, and Amy Brooks about the Neil Simon production, which plays for three more performances this weekend at the FAC.

'Heart and Music' video from the Denver Post

The Denver Post recently posted this video podcast on a benefit concert held at the FAC in August. Heart and Music, organized by actor Natalie Jensen, raised over $5,000 for the Susan G. Komen breast-cancer foundation and the Pikes Peak Region Peace Officers' Memorial.

Heart & Music Benefit - Behind the Scenes from Ray Bailey on Vimeo.

NY Times: Arts education, graduation rates

In a report to be released on Monday the nonprofit Center for Arts Education found that New York City high schools with the highest graduation rates also offered students the most access to arts education.

Read the complete story here.

On the Legacy of Neil Simon

The New York Magazine looks at the legacy of writer Neil Simon, who wrote the book for the FAC's current production of Broadway Bound.

"Bashing Neil Simon has been almost de rigueur for highbrow critics since the playwright had his first hits in the early sixties. But now that he’s 82 and in iffy health, and a major revival of two of his most celebrated works—the first and third parts of the Brighton Beach trilogy, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound—is about to open, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic for the popular theater he once dominated. For better and worse, Simon’s plays—in their complacency, insularity, and, yes, hilarity—connected with their audience on a level that theater almost never does anymore.

"Simon’s wisecrack-laden comedies made him, by many estimates, the most commercially successful playwright of all time. For a quarter-century, you could count on one of his 30-plus plays or musicals to be packing ’em in on Broadway ... "

Read the complete article here.

Intersections Film Festival at the FAC this Sunday

Intersections Film Festival will screen two outstanding films at the Fine Arts Center this Sunday: Abu-Assad's Rana's Wedding (Palestine 2002) at 4:30 p.m., followed by a discussion with Dr. Livia Alexander, Executive Director of ArteEast; and Nadine Labaki’s Caramel (Lebanon/France 2007) at 6:30 p.m. All screenings are free and open to the public. Visit the IFF site for more information and links to trailers.

Fulbright Scholar at the Fine Arts Center

Nigar Nazar, a Fulbright Scholar and the first woman cartoonist of Pakistan, will give a Gallery Talk (Oct. 15) at the Fine Arts Center, in conjunction with Colorado College, which is free to the public. Her work will be on display in the Hybl Family Screening Room through Oct. 21.

Learn more about her visit on ColoradoCollege.edu.

Chalk art comes to life in the FAC courtyard

Check out this video by artist Douglas Rouse, one of the amazing entertainers at our Venetian Carnivale Gala on Sept. 26.

Photos from the Opening Celebration

We've posted photos on flickr from our Oct. 2 Opening Celebration for Personal Paradise, At the Foot of the Colorado Rockies, and BOLD!