The Beet Street Blog

Because we’re so thrilled about starting the 2013 season just one week from tomorrow, we would like to take a moment to look back and see how the program has grown since its inaugural season in 2010.

• Over 1,100 performances have taken place!
• This year, there will be 17% youth acts, with a special Poudre School District Elementary School Showcase and a Little Kids Rock Showcase.
• Public attendance of street performances grew from 60,000 in 2010 to nearly 150,000 in 2012.
• Approximately 55% of visitors to Old Town come specifically to see Streetmosphere artists and performers (based on in-person surveys)
• More than 50 local businesses and organizations have provided financial support of the program.
• The number of qualified applications received grew from 90 the first year to 125 this year.

We look forward to seeing you as a part of this year’s crowd!

Even though there is still snow on the ground, here at Beet Street, we’ve got Streetmosphere on our minds. This year’s season begins on Mother’s Day weekend, and May 10 will be here before we know it. We will be back in Old Town every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Labor Day weekend. We will also be back at Front Range Village in South Fort Collins July 5 – August 3, with Friday night performances and a NEW Saturday evening concert series!

We are very pleased to announce that we will bring over 90 acts to the streets of Fort Collins this season! That is a 48% increase from last year, allowing us to support more performers and provide a greater variety of entertainment. It was wonderful to see over 120 talented acts apply this year – thanks to all of you.

These increases say a lot about the program. First, that the word about Streetmosphere is spreading, not only in Fort Collins, but throughout Colorado. We are proud to see how far Streetmosphere has come in just three years, helping to put Fort Collins on the map as an arts and culture destination. There are also several cities that are  interested in starting a similar program, and we are working with them to discover how they might bring Streetmosphere to their own communities.

You can keep up to date with with Streetmosphere by liking Beet Street and Streetmosphere on Facebook, and following Beet Street on Twitter. We’ll keep you posted!

Our recently launched website, Arts Incubator of the Rockies (AIR), has been growing rapidly—now incorporating almost 600 members. The website includes a variety of great resources designed for all artists and art-based organizations, not only for inspiration and motivation, but also for connecting and succeeding. This regional arts incubator is a wonderful opportunity for artists to utilize many tools in one convenient website.

Recently, we have added a helpful and comprehensive website tour to the homepage. This tour, guided by our own Executive Director, Beth Flowers, walks viewers through the website features and functionality. If you have never visited the website before, have casually browsed it, or have recently become a member, this tour is the perfect chance to learn the power of the website and how to use it.

We are still in the midst of our membership drive and are recruiting as many people as possible. There is no force to commit. Though paid members have access to more features and benefits, free memberships still include a great base of available resources. So please, visit the website, and take the tour to help get you immersed in AIR.

The holiday season is upon us once again. The cold weather has finally come out of hiding, helping the transition into the winter months. Old Town is glimmering with a mass of glowing lights, familiar holiday drinks have returned to menus across town, and often, this cold time of the year brings warmth through traditions and the spirit of the season.

As many people are building our local economy by shopping at local stores, may we not forget about our wonderful arts scene, which can be a wonderful option to indulge in the spirit of the holidays. Many arts organizations feature holiday shows, including the CSU University Center for the Arts’ production A Christmas Story, Canyon Concert Ballet’s The Nutcracker, Bas Bleu Theatre’s Almost Maine, and Opera Fort Collins’ Gift of the Magi. The opportunity to enjoy and support the arts during this holiday season is invaluable.

Sharing time with friends and family is a large part of many people’s traditions and what better occasion to create memories than attending the multitude of fantastic, spirit boosting, arts events in Fort Collins.

Silent films once captivated audiences when the invention of the motion picture was just getting started. The ability to record synchronized sound was not yet available, and the films often featured subtitles and an accompanying score of music. Actors, such as the famous, Charlie Chaplin, were forced to act in a way that would tell a story through action and body language rather than dialogue. Silent films were around from 1894 through the 1920s, until they were replaced with “talkies,” or films produced with recorded sound.

In the beginning of the film era, the silent film was the foundation of our modern flick and deserves to be remembered on occasion. The first filmmakers were true innovators, because movies had yet to exist before, and plots were completely original.

The event, “4 Funny Films,” presents the opportunity to view some of these films in their true comedic mastery. The films are being featured at Everyday Joe’s Coffee House, are sponsored by the Fort Collins Symphony—and they are showing Friday, November 16^th, at 7:00 p.m.  For more information visit their website.

If, however, you happen to miss this event, do not hesitate to seek out these films in libraries, online, or in video shops; they are worth any time it takes to find them.

Creativity is one of those traits everyone wants a little more of and you can never have enough of. It is a characteristic pursued in both the art and the business world. According to the Americans for the Arts, “… creativity is among the top 5 applied skills sought by business leaders…the arts—music, creative writing, drawing, dance—provide skills sought by employers of the 3rd millennium.”

Innovation becomes more important as we experience current challenges and attempt to predict problems of subsequent years. It is important to examine creativity as an entity in our lives and the role it plays in shaping our future.

To look at how we can encourage it in our children, inspire it in our daily lives, enhance it in our workplace, and take the steps necessary to grow creativity in our communities.

Resources to expand knowledge on the nature of creativity are abundant. Local creatives and artists, books, magazines, and especially the Internet, – information on creativity is everywhere. A great place to search for them online is our AIR (Arts Incubator of the Rockies) website. The Knowledge Center is full of videos, articles, and more on creative topics.

The Arts Incubator of the Rockies (AIR) is a new program created in collaboration with Beet Street, Colorado State University, and the City of Fort Collins. But, instead of just Colorado based, it is a 10 state regional arts incubator program with a beautifully crafted website as its foundation.

The AIR website provides a place where artists can share and get feedback on their work, collaborate with other artists, look for job opportunities in the Opportunity Center, watch inspirational videos, and read helpful articles in the Knowledge Center. Also offered, are the Shift and Evolve workshops, which were generated to develop and expand individuals’ confidence and success in their professional journeys. Overall, It is an amazing site centered around and specifically constructed for all kinds of artists and art organizations.

There is an option to be a free or paid member (added benefits and features for paid members), and with paid memberships starting at $50 annually, the benefits outweigh the cost. AIR combines marketing opportunity, a constructive artist community, and the convenience of multiple tools for artists in one place.

The more members who join AIR, the deeper the benefits and the higher the quality the website becomes. If you haven’t already, check out the website and all its amazing features, become a member, and tell all your friends.

Imagine, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Harpsichord Concertos saturating the background during an evening amongst friends; the sophisticated classics offering a more mature environment for those feeling a little under-cultured and overwhelmed with contemporary hits on the radio. What could be better?

How about if those attending had the opportunity to indulge in some of New Belgium’s finest locally crafted brews? Presenting, “Bach and Beer,” an event hosted by The Fort Collins Symphony and, you heard right, New Belgium Brewery.

Listen to Bach while sipping beer with friends, and enjoy “Bach and Beer” on Friday, October 19^th, starting at 6:00 p.m. at New Belgium Brewery. Please visit this website for more information.

Frank Wedekind’s theatre performance, “Spring Awakening,” opens on October 4^th. The performance captures the essence of teenage life in the early 20^th century. The impudently direct content inspired avant-garde playwrights of future eras, and was subject to censorship for the first sixty-three years of production.  The themes depicted in the performance— adolescence struggle, anxiety, and sexual awakening— are eerily familiar, even premiering a century prior, to modern times.

This performance, which first premiered in 1906, is being held in the University Center for the Arts in the Studio Theatre, starting October 4^th at 7:30 p.m. “Spring Awakening” is part of the CSU Theatre Guest Artist Initiative with Denver Center Theatre’s Douglas Langworthy’s new translation.

The uncensored content in “Spring Awakening” is “R-rated.” Admission is for 18 years of age and up only. For more information, please visit their website.

October is National Arts and Humanities Month. The arts are a significant entity in our families, community, and hearts. Not only do the arts entertain us, they inspire us and make the world a brighter, more vibrant place. Art is a vast presence in our daily lives, and deserves the appreciation of its many supporters. Many of us are hobbyists, enthusiasts, or even artists, and we can agree that the arts play a unique role in shaping our community.

This month-long event gives us an excuse to add some extra events to our list of those to attend this month.  However, celebrating doesn’t have to mean going to events. It can be as easy being a regular advocate by spreading general love of the arts to others, or even enjoying art related activities with your family, like listening to music, reading, dancing, or drawing. The degree and nature of our celebration is up to each individual, but regardless, let us take the time to commemorate and explore our arts culture in October.