Heavyweights discuss state of arts in Springs

Sunday, The Gazette published a section titled "State of the Arts," looking at what has happened in the past year in the arts community.

Nobody can say the local arts scene is too static.

Major institutions have been expanding; smaller players have been shuffling around, finding new niches. Building a hunger for the arts is still a major challenge here, but the array of arts being served up is undeniably tastier and more plentiful than we've seen in a long time.

Since 2007, $70 million in arts infrastructure projects have been completed or gotten under way - including a renovation of the Pikes Peak Center, the expansion of the Fine Arts Center, and the building of Colorado College's Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center.

Now, The Gazette's Arts and Diversions editor Warren Epstein will moderate a discussion among Nathan Newbrough, the new executive director of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, TheatreWorks artistic director Murray Ross, conceptual artist Atomic Elroy and Bettina Swigger, executive director of COPPeR (Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region). Other arts community figures may also contribute.

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Growth, change are enduring traits of local arts community

Nobody can say the local arts scene is too static.

Major institutions have been expanding; smaller players have been shuffling around, finding new niches. Building a hunger for the arts is still a major challenge here, but the array of arts being served up is undeniably tastier and more plentiful than we've seen in a long time.

Tom Lindblade, chairman of Colorado College's drama department, hasn't always been a cheerleader for the local arts scene. But he's seen a significant shift.

"It's the best it's been in the 18 years I've been here," he said.

"It doesn't matter who I talk to," said Bettina Swigger, executive director of COPPeR, the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region. "There's something happening here. There's great art and imaginative programming."

Since 2007, $70 million in arts infrastructure projects have been completed or gotten under way - including a renovation of the Pikes Peak Center, the expansion of the Fine Arts Center, and the building of Colorado College's Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center.

Of course, Cornerstone is this year's big story. Its grand opening will be in the fall, but the $33.4 million arts center - designed by internationally renowned architect Antoine Predock - is already being used for summer session performances.

"This summer, the building is being used for traditional stuff," Lindblade said. "That will change in the fall."

Though Cornerstone is striking to look at, Lindblade said what's most impressive is the way it uses nontraditional spaces to break down barriers between traditional disciplines. It's a building in which a sound designer and an architecture student can work side by side.

"Our students are steeped in technology," Lindblade said. "They don't think in terms of traditional disciplines. They think, ‘I want to make my art,' and they want to post it to YouTube by 4 p.m."

Lindblade said the building has the potential to affect the kinds of students who attend CC.

"This building is progressive, and we're hoping it will attract students who think outside the box," he said.

It's a coincidence, but Swigger said attitudes toward the arts are already changing in town, citing a recent luncheon at which Mayor Lionel Rivera spoke.

"He used the term ‘creative class,' which I'd never heard him use before," Swigger said, referring to Richard Florida's term for knowledge-based professionals ranging from educators and computer programmers to artists and designers. "And he talked about the need for the city to have it thrive here."

Besides CC, which is moving most of its arts programs into Cornerstone, at least seven arts businesses and organizations took the idea of movement literally in the past year.

Some have gone or are about to go to larger places; some are moving simply in hopes of staying alive. The former include the Colorado Springs Conservatory, Cottonwood Artists' School and Hunter-Wolff Gallery; the latter include the Manitou Art Theatre, the Star Bar Players and the Thursday Night Recital Series. And there's the Colorado Festival of World Theatre, which moved its office downtown, and its season from summer to fall.

But no move in the arts community this past year was more dramatic than an unexpected departure. On Aug. 9, just a week after the gala opening of the expanded Fine Arts Center, President and Chief Executive Officer Michael De Marsche resigned to take a job as executive director of the Cafesjian Museum Foundation in Yerevan, Armenia.

The center is still searching for De Marsche's successor, but the organization has been able to maintain the momentum he generated. The May opening of "Marilyn," a show devoted to images of and about Marilyn Monroe, was the center's biggest ever, eclipsing even the center's 2005 Dale Chihuly blockbuster.

Swigger said that Peak Radar, the COPPeR-sponsored Web site that provides information on arts-related events, has played a part in improving the arts scene since its launch in July 2007.

"We just hit a million page views, which is phenomenal for the first year," she said. About 400 organizations have submitted information to Peak Radar, and an e- mail newsletter has 2,000 subscribers.

With the arts at a new plateau, the question becomes: Where to now?

The private sector continues to become more savvy about the role the arts play in quality of life. At the Cordera development off Powers Boulevard, a new community center includes a lighting grid and blackout curtains - enough for more than bare-bones theater.
"Stuff like that tickles me pink," Swigger said.

She also pointed to the role that free outdoor concerts play in attracting new people to the arts, and noted that nontraditional audiences follow nontraditional ensembles such as improv comedy groups.

These things help ensure future audiences. But if Colorado Springs is serious about the arts, it's about time that the mayor was thinking about the creative class, Lindblade said.

"The city has all these plans for downtown, but with all the bars, downtown is beginning to look like Potterville," he said, referring to what the town Bedford Falls becomes without George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life."

"They have to realize that none of it will work without arts venues. A theater company needs to move downtown. We need more galleries than the few galleries that are there."

Why is it the city's job?

"Everybody else has stepped up," Lindblade said. "The Fine Arts Center has stepped up. The college has stepped up. The foundations have stepped up. The big donors have stepped up: Kathy Loo came to bat and hit a home run - Suzy Bassani, too. They put their money and energy where their mouths are.

"Now it's time for the city to step up."

The city would be building on a strong foundation of arts support, said Drew Martorella, producing director for TheatreWorks.

"Colorado Springs has a wonderful history of altruism and giving," Martorella said. "The question is how to keep that sense of altruism in the old guard, and also build the sense of municipal commitment that we already have for parks and open space."

For Martorella, one of the keys is getting away from the zero-sum mindset that assumes that civic support for the arts comes at the expense of something else.

Instead, said Martorella, there's a multiplier effect: "The arts enhance the value that already exists."

Another key, said Holly Marble, co-director of the Ballet Society of Colorado Springs, is for more people to understand that the arts don't exist to enrich a small elite, but are for everyone's benefit.

"The arts are invaluable no matter where your life leads you," Marble said.

"We've seen over and over the positive impact they have, whether a student is here once a week or 20 hours a week.
"The arts are the thread that holds society together."

No matter what direction the dialogue takes in the next few years, the arts will continue to be on the move.
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Contact the writer: 476-1602 or mark.arnest@gazette.com