The Beet Street Blog

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.

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.

Jennifer Angus’s exhibition “Memory Game” depicts an interconnected world of insects and humans. Angus’s work incorporates various patterns and beautifully organized arrangements of bugs that are displayed on the wall. The installation was partially inspired by the Ray and Charles Eames Memory Game the artist experiences in her childhood.

A wall full of bugs might not sound the most appealing to some, but Jennifer Angus redefines the nature and conception of insects in a precise and wonderful manner. Seeing this installation will not only surprise viewers, but also get them thinking about bugs and art in a new way.

In addition to the regular exhibition, CSU Professor of Entomology, Dr. Whitney Cranshaw, is presenting a gallery talk this Thursday, October 18^th, at 6:30 p.m. on “Colorado’s Big Bugs.” This exhibition is currently featured in the Lincoln Center and will run through November 3^rd.  For more information, please visit this website.

Imaginative imagery illustrates a working mother juxtaposed by “two distinctly different worlds” who is “hoping to navigate them both successfully.” “Observations” by Assistant Professor of Studio Arts at Brigham Young University and mother, Sunny Belliston Taylor, explores these beautiful opposites in blissful complexity that makes you want to stare at each piece for hours. The endless layers, overlapping patterns, and visual texture contributes to an intimate setting in this wonderful, must-see collection of works.

“Observations” currently resides in the Clara Hatton Gallery in the CSU Visual Arts Building. As a free exhibition, there is no excuse to miss this event and is worth dodging the multitude of students on campus to get there. The show will run through November 16^th.

For more information, please visit their website.

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.

This week we are celebrating Fort Collins native, DeWain Valentine. Valentine is a California artist who has built a reputation on his large, vibrant, polished cast-resin sculptures that have been exhibited across the nation at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Spectators of his work will be taken on a journey through minimalist forms that are both captivating and awe provoking, with high gloss and brilliant color.

Starting October 1^st, Valentine will have his art on display at the Colorado State University Art Museum located in the University Center for the Arts, which happens to be the the old Fort Collins High School that DeWain attended. Also on October 1^st, he will present a lecture about his process and his work starting at 5:00 p.m. in the Griffin Concert Hall. A reception will follow from 6:00- 8:00 p.m. For more information, please visit http://artmuseum.colostate.edu/.