Colorado Mountain College Rifle is launching efforts to celebrate the arts – in all forms. Building on the campus’s popular annual art shows, at the Pearl & Wood concert on campus Friday night the college announced how next year it will bring together CMC students and community members to create and express their artistic talents in multiple areas.
The 2018-19 CMC Rifle Campus Art Series – An Art Show and Creative Explo (meaning “explosion” or “exploration”) will focus around two events. On Oct. 5, the campus will host a curated art show, featuring a reception and artists’ talks. Featured artists are Michael Raaum, K Rhynus Cesark, Andrew Roberts-Gray and Cynthia Zyzda.
And on March 29, 2019, at the Clough Auditorium on campus, the college will present the Creative Explo, an event and reception featuring selected artists showcasing a wide range of artistic expression. The tagline for the event is: “(Explo)ration of Art through an (Explo)sion of creativity.”
“The series is intended to expand previous art shows to better encompass all of our students’ talents, and not just those involved in the traditional visual arts,” said Carole Boughton, CMC Rifle vice president and campus dean.
Many of the artistic categories in the Creative Explo come from courses Colorado Mountain College faculty teach. In this way, the Explo will show how creative talent is expressed across a variety of academic disciplines. In the process, participants can learn from each other, meet new people and receive feedback.
Multiple categories
Next spring, participating students and community members will create and prepare works in multiple artistic categories including two-dimensional art, three-dimensional art, photography, poetry/creative writing, storytelling and speeches, digital media, performing arts, culinary, welding – and there’s even a category for “wild card.”
“There will be a process of selection of a featured artist in each category,” said Boughton. “The featured artist will also present his or her ‘explosion’ of ideas that created the art, in a short presentation at the Creative Explo.”
Some categories, such as performing arts, will have a live and in-person element to them. “For the original song and dance submissions,” said Boughton, “we will most likely accept submissions in digital form with live performances on March 29.”
Everyone’s invited
The Creative Explo is open to any Colorado Mountain College credit or noncredit student throughout the college’s western region (Parachute to Aspen), including high school students taking concurrent enrollment courses through CMC, according to Rick Johnson, CMC Rifle assistant dean of instruction. Community members from the same region may also participate, though they are not eligible to compete for the non-monetary “Top Creative” awards in each category.
For more information about the 2018-19 CMC Rifle Campus Art Series – An Art Show and Creative Explo, contact 625-1871.