I love the Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. I used to work there as communications director.
But for as long as I can remember, the Fine Arts Center’s museum has suffered from that common museum curse of elevation. It’s like all the pieces are up on a high pedestal. Even exhibits that have featured the Indigenous art and artifacts that comprise the core of the permanent collection felt removed from the actual people and cultures that created them.
The new exhibition Gathering Place has found a way to crank that pedestal down to ground level. It’s a remarkable thing.
Michael Christiano, the current visual arts director, started this project over two years ago. It kicked off with a gathering of local community and tribal members who usually don’t have much of a voice in these decisions.
After that meeting, Christiano partnered with a diverse team of curators.
For one portion of the exhibit, he had Texas artist and art historian Josh T Franco, who had been at that initial gathering, team with Southern Ute Tribe elder Cassandra Atencio. Guest curators also include James M. Córdova, santero and associate professor of art history at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and artist and educator Pat Musick.
The result is astounding, if somewhat perplexing.
A newly built wooden viewing platform overlooks a series of Colorado landscapes. Inside the platform, brightly illuminated in a glass case, are a pair of Ute moccasins. Above, on the wall, hangs “Foghorns” by Arthur Dove.
The curators say they wanted to create a dialogue between the pieces, and visitors should look for their own meaning.
Here’s mine:
The moccasins represent the part of the collection steeped in southwest, and the landscape paintings represent the regional art that put the FAC on the map. During the heyday of the Fine Arts Center in the ‘30s through’50s, the FAC attracted dozens and dozens of serious painters, looking to capture the landscape and sky specific to our mountain environment.
“Foghorns,” painted in 1929 by Arthur Dove, was an early depiction of sound as colorful abstract amorphous waves. That kind of abstraction would grow, especially in New York City, and by the 1950s and ‘60s, while the Fine Arts Center remained grounded in the figurative, artists in Manhattan found audiences and money in their attempts to become untethered to reality.
That’s why, to me, “Foghorns” represents the American art scene’s tectonic shift from regional landscapes and indigenous artifacts to abstraction, and it left Colorado Springs in the dust.
To me, this exhibit asks us what these pieces mean today for our present and future, and how the tension between these two realities continue to define us.
If all that seems pretty heady, don’t sweat it. There’s plenty of luscious, whimsical, and reverential pieces throughout this collection to captivate children and adults at any level.
And I appreciate that the corridor that collects the exhibits is filled with couches and video screens, where you can learn about the exhibits or just hang.
As much as I enjoy putting on my old critic’s hat, deconstructing and analyzing everything I see, there are times to just relax and let this magnificent Fine Arts Center wash over you.
Making the most of your visit
This new exhibit comes with some super cool digital support.
Download the Bloomberg Connects app, find the Fine Arts Center at Colorado College’s guide and select “Start Guide”’ to begin your journey through the museum.
The future of the FAC
After the center’s last executive director resigned in February, Colorado College officials decided to close the position and move to a shared governance model, with the various directors reporting to CC’s president’s office.
This marks the first time in almost a century that the center was without a director or interim director. Thankfully, the current department directors manage the museum, theater, Bemis School of Art, educational outreach and events just fine.
But I still hold out hope that some day a director will come along who will integrate those parts and make an even greater whole. After all, we’re talking about essentially an entire arts district under one roof, and one day it might capture the energy of that potential.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Spirits of the Night Tequila and Food Tasting
6-7:30 p.m. Oct. 30
Tickets: $65 (Members receive at 10% discount)
Dia de Muertos Celebration
4-8 p.m. Nov. 1 and 12:30-4:30 p.m. Nov. 2
Free admission, music, food (for purchase), activities and a show for children.
A reminder that we live in Trump’s America, where ICE rules – the FAC’s website has this note in its listing:
“If you don’t feel comfortable celebrating with us this year, we understand. We will see you next year!”
The Epstein Files is a regular Bulletin column featuring Warren Epstein’s take on politics, food, the arts and whatever else is on his mind. There will always be one mention of President Donald Trump as a confirmation that yes, Trump is in The Epstein Files. As Bulletin board chair, Epstein does not accept pay for his writing here.
Correction Oct. 30: This story was corrected to reflect that the FAC operates under a shared governance model with directors reporting to the CC president’s office.
