Fine Arts Center prepares for limited reopening, forges ahead with virtual programming
Plus, how CC Arts & Crafts is adapting to smaller groups and Zoom classes
What a month it’s been.
Oh wait, it’s only Nov. 4.
How is everyone feeling? Have a voting story you want to share? Shoot us an email at ccreportingproject@gmail.com. Luckily for us, you don’t come to our newsletter for election coverage. But if you want to join us in our doom-scrolling, The Colorado Sun is posting updates on Colorado election results, and The New York Times has information about the races across the country.
And now we wait.
As for today’s issue, today we talk to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center about having a new director start during the pandemic, their reopening plans, and ongoing virtual programming. We also speak to some CC Arts & Crafts leaders about how they’re teaching virtual and in-person classes this fall.
➡️ICYMI: On Monday, our resident microbiologist Phoebe Lostroh gave her weekly forecast for El Paso County. Trust us, this isn’t a forecast you should miss.
✉️In Your Inbox: It’s been a busy start to the week. If you haven’t gotten to your inbox recently, don’t worry. Here’s what you need to know.
Tutt Library is open to members of the CC community, and the online reservation system for a seat or space in the building is available here.
Beginning today, the Adam F. Press Fitness Center is offering two additional afternoon sessions. Advance reservations are required.
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College will reopen Nov. 12. More on that below.
A new director, planning to reopen, and expanded online offerings: Behind the curtains with the Fine Arts Center
Idris Goodwin began as the new director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College (FAC) on May 1. But only recently has he actually started going into the building, he said.
It’s just one of the ways transitioning into his new job is different than he might have expected.
“It’s like being hired onto a basketball team or something, but nobody’s playing the game,” Goodwin told The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project.
Operations Manager Maria Capp said building a relationship with a new director has been “complicated,” to say the least. Though she and Goodwin have been talking since February, they’ve only stood face-to-face three times total, Capp said.
“I can’t even remember ... how tall he is,” she told The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project.
However, Capp said a silver lining of remote work for the FAC has been the ability to step back and refocus what their priorities should be, how the FAC fits into the Colorado College and broader Colorado Springs communities, and what they want to do differently moving forward.
“More than anything I’m just grateful that we didn’t have to make some of the really hard choices that other museums and other theatres across the country had to make, that we were able to retain the majority of our workforce,” Goodwin said.
Come on in, as long as you made a reservation
The groundwork for the FAC reopening began in May with the “Back to FAC” committee. Each of the FAC’s three departments — the museum, the theater, and the Bemis School of Art — have different reopening timelines, and the museum will reopen first on Nov. 12.
“It’s starting to begin to feel a little bit like what the place is actually supposed to be,” Goodwin said.
The museum galleries will be open Thursdays – Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., and all visitors must make online reservations ahead of time. Reservations are available every 30 minutes, and each time slot is limited to a group of 10 or fewer people. Guests will check in with touchless ticket-scanning devices. The FAC will not pass out any paper materials, so visitors should bring their phone to access a virtual gallery guide. The staff will place signs in the galleries to remind visitors to wear masks and not touch the art. A special traffic flow has been created to ensure social distancing in the building.
Currently, only essential staff members are allowed in the building. Some employees, including curators, preparators, collections team members, and security team members have been working in the FAC since June. Soon, some education staff members and a front desk worker will return to the building, Capp said.
“I think our staff really needs it,” Capp said. “Getting something open and starting that process is going to be good for morale of the staff as well as the community,” she added.
Logging on for art: FAC offers remote classes and interviews with artists
While the galleries begin to reopen in limited capacity, the theatre and art school will continue with virtual programming.
A few of the things they’ve virtually launched during the pandemic:
They are running remote classes through the Bemis School of Art. They launched “FAC Connect,” which Goodwin describes as a “digital wing” of the FAC. They’ve conducted interviews with artists about how they are navigating this time. They funded seven teams of three or more artists across New Mexico and Colorado to work collaboratively on “3x3 Projects.”
“We’ve been able to extend our reach tremendously,” Goodwin said. “We’re reaching all these new people that never had come to the FAC before physically.”
Recently, the FAC expanded their programming by holding a mini drive-in, live theater performance of “The Grasshoppers.” The play took place outdoors, while up to 10 pods watched from the safety of their cars. Socially-distanced, outdoor performance work is something Goodwin wants to experiment with more in the future, he said.
“You realize that it’s about providing opportunities for people to get out and to take their mind not necessarily off of things, but to take their mind somewhere else,” Goodwin said. “You know, they never forget that we’re under some challenges, but you just have the opportunity to take them somewhere else.”
Arts & Crafts offers ‘Weaving Wagons’ and take-home embroidery kits for pandemic-friendly adjunct courses
Signing up for an Arts & Crafts adjunct course in the past required Colorado College students to spend the night in Worner. The classes are first-come, first-serve, so students would want a good place in line so they could get into one of the popular classes. To hold their place, people would put their shoes in line and set up their sleeping bags in preparation for the long night ahead.
Since a sleepover in Worner isn’t exactly on the list of approved activities right now, registration for Arts & Crafts classes is on Summit. It still takes place on fourth Monday, but students can sign up from the comfort of their bedroom. Some classes are offered virtually, but a limited number of students are allowed into the building to teach and participate in art classes every week. This semester, Arts & Crafts is offering jewelry workshops, weaving, dry felting, embroidery, enameling, and stained glass classes, and is planning to add additional programming as the year goes on.
Lynnette DiRaddo works at the Worner Desk and stepped in as the Interim Director of Arts & Crafts this year after the previous director retired. She’s teaching a weaving class twice a week for four students — normally, there are 19 looms in the Arts & Crafts center in the basement of Worner. In addition to a decreased number of students, weaving class in a pandemic looks a lot like you’d expect: masks, sanitizer, no shared equipment, and open doors.
For DiRaddo, the biggest challenge was changing how she helped students when they ran into a problem.
“It’s a little tricky for me to be able to help a student with a problem on the loom and not be close,” she told The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project. “So I’ve resorted to pictures on my phone a lot. I’ll use that and say okay, here’s a picture of what it should look like, and I just verbally talk through it, where my instinct is to actually go and touch and show them.”
On top of her Worner Desk and teaching responsibilities, DiRaddo is pioneering a program she’s calling “Weaving Wagons.” She secured funding to put together eight wagons full of everything students need for an at-home weaving kit. The wagons include a table loom, weaving pegs, yarn, scissors, a tape measure, and other needed supplies. At the time of the interview, DiRaddo said she had two students pick up a wagon. She gives them some brief instructions, and then they’re set to go. Students, if you want to brush up on your weaving skills while still being COVID-conscious, look no further.
“I think making things is very important for all of us,” DiRaddo said. “A human being has the desire and need to make things with our hands.”
Next semester, DiRaddo is planning to make macrame plant hangers with students, “which I hear is all the rage now,” she said. She’s also experimenting with making wool dryer balls that can be used in place of dryer sheets.
Not all the arts and crafts adjuncts are in person, however. In Block 2, Ana Kilgore ’21 taught her fellow students embroidery over Zoom. Kilgore worked with DiRaddo to make embroidery kits for students to pick up before the first class. The kits included hoops, thread, and scissors, among other things. Only students in Colorado Springs could take the class, but Kilgore said she’s hoping to do a Zoom class later in the year where kits are mailed out so students living at home could also participate.
This block, Kilgore is teaching an in-person class in Worner. The current coronavirus capacity limit for her room is six people, so Kilgore has five students, and they meet for an hour twice a week. Embroidery requires a variety of small stitches, which are hard to see from a distance. Like DiRaddo, Kilgore said she had to get creative with how she demonstrates embroidery techniques in person.
“What I ended up doing is kind of like making this big cardboard rig with a bunch of holes in it so I could demonstrate things on a larger scale,” Kilgore told The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project.
For her Zoom classes, Kilgore is able to show different stitches by holding her work up to the camera. She kept the class small so students would feel comfortable speaking up if they had questions.
“Personally for me, six or seven people is when I start to feel self-conscious about saying anything,” Kilgore said. “I wanted to keep it a small cohort so we can all really get to know each other.”
Kilgore said she’s “really grateful” her embroidery classes are happening in at least some capacity this year.
“It’s relatively inexpensive and pretty meditative,” she said. “So I hope people are aware that there are arts and crafts classes happening now. It’s just a good outlet.”
About the CC COVID-19 Reporting Project
The CC COVID-19 Reporting Project is created by Colorado College student journalists Miriam Brown, Arielle Gordon, Isabel Hicks, and Esteban Candelaria in partnership with The Catalyst, Colorado College’s student newspaper. Work by Phoebe Lostroh, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at CC and National Science Foundation Program Director in Genetic Mechanisms, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, will appear from time to time, as will infographics by Colorado College students Rana Abdu, Aleesa Chua, Sara Dixon, Jia Mei, and Lindsey Smith.
The project seeks to provide frequent updates about CC and other higher education institutions during the pandemic by providing original reporting, analysis, interviews with campus leaders, and context about what state and national headlines mean for the CC community.
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