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The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (FAC) is an arts center located just north of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. Located on the same city block are the American Numismatic Association and part of the campus of Colorado College.
The center uses a thick red outline of a square as its logo.
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FAC history
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center was founded in 1936 by Alice Bemis Taylor, Elizabeth Sage Hare, and Julie Penrose, with the intention of creating a center for a museum, art school and performing arts venue for the growing city. The building was designed by New Mexico architect John Gaw Meem who combined Pueblo and Art Deco styles in many of his designs, but not in this one. In 1940, Meem's design earned a Silver Medal at the Fifth Quadrennial Pan American Congress of Architecture. The building is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
At the original Grand Opening in April 1936, Martha Graham danced barefoot on stage; art icon Alexander Calder executed the stage design for an operetta; and Frank Lloyd Wright lectured on the new building. Art luminaries Boardman Robinson and Robert Motherwell were early teachers at the art school.
FAC Main
The FAC Main includes:
- The main gallery, where the permanent collection of Spanish Colonial and Native American art pieces of the Southwest are displayed, in addition to other permanent works and traveling shows.
- The Performing Arts department's SaGāJi Theatre, the Fine Arts Center Theatre Company, which produces a regular schedule of dramatic works.
- The Deco Lounge and Cafe 36 dining facilities.
- The Bemis School of Art, which offers art education to the local community.
Notable pieces and exhibits
- After the outstanding success of the visiting Chihuly glass exhibit, the FAC decided to buy several pieces of glass sculpture for the permanent collection, including several chandeliers and pedestal pieces.
- The FAC Main houses one of the largest collections of Native American and Southwest Spanish Colonial art. The expansion of the museum allowed the collection's permanent home on the main level.
- Notable artists within the FAC permanent collection include: John Singer Sargent, Georgia O'Keeffe, Richard Diebenkorn, Walt Kuhn, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg, John James Audubon and Ansel Adams.
Renovations
The 2006 FAC expansion brought the galleries from 88,388 to 132,286 gross square feet (12,290m2). During construction, the Center's exhibits were partially moved to the FAC Modern facility. $28.6 million was raised from private funds to renovate and expand the facility. The addition was designed by award-winning architect and Colorado Springs native David Owen Tryba. As a child, Tryba learned to ride his bike in the FAC parking lot as his mother served the institution as a docent, and as a teenager, Tryba learned to drive in the lot on West Dale Street.
Renovations of the existing Taylor Museum facilities were also included in this project, which was concluded in 2007, although to date the performing arts sound system has not been replaced. Following a large advertising campaign, an "Extremely Grand Opening" was held in early August 2007.
FAC MODERN
The Fine Arts Center has a downtown satelite venue, the FAC MODERN, which opened in April 2006. Located in the South Tower of the Plaza of the Rockies, next to Pioneer Park in the heart of downtown, the FAC MODERN includes three gallery spaces that feature a regularly changing exhibit of the permanent collection and traveling works of modern and contemporary art. The FAC MODERN is adjacent to NOSH and the offices of COPPeR.
External links
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Coordinates: 38°50′45″N 104°49′34″W / 38.8458°N 104.8262°W
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