October is Arts Month in Colorado and the Pikes Peak region. In celebration, the Ent Center for the Arts at UCCS and the Galleries of Contemporary Arts have more than 20 performances, exhibitions and cultural events planned for the upcoming month.
Below, see six ways you can experience the arts this week.
Oct. 17: Pikes Peak Philharmonic’s “A New World. A New Hope.”
In support and celebration of Arts Month, The Pikes Peak Philharmonic will present its first concert of the season entitled “A New World. A New Hope.” The Philharmonic will perform Symphony No. 9 “New World” and Carnival Overture by Antonín Dvořák and “Star Wars Suite” by John Williams.
The concert will take place in the Shockley-Zalabak Theater in the Ent Center for the Arts at UCCS.
The concert is the Philharmonic’s first performance in its 2021-22 “Pops & Circumstance” concert season. All concerts will be performed at the Ent Center for the Arts at UCCS at 3 p.m. For more information about ticketing, prices and venue, visit the Philharmonic’s Ticketing and Venue page.
General admission tickets are $10, $8 for seniors and $5 for military and students.
Oct. 17: Aubergine Virtual Reading
What would be your perfect last meal? In this free, virtual reading, a chef struggles to show love to his dying father when an uncle visits from Korea with a secret recipe. Love and loss intertwine with cooking in this beautiful plan. Written by Julia Cho and directed by Lisa Marie Rollins.
Ongoing: The Windmill Project
The Windmill Project is comprised of 2,000 8-foot tall posts with wind-activated components that turn small generators powering LED downlights. When installed outdoors, the site-responsive sculpture illuminates the wind’s movement across the landscape and visualizes “a living body of light”. The Windmill Project has been extended and will now be on view through October 2022.
In addition to being part of Art WithOut Limits, curated by Daisy McGowan, the work is also connected to a larger project, The Space(s) Between, a multi-site exhibition taking place during the 2020–2021 season in collaboration with University of Denver’s Vicky Myhren Gallery and featuring outdoor artworks between Colorado Springs and Denver along the I-25 corridor.
Oct. 18 & 25: Mindful Movement Mondays
Join the Galleries of Contemporary Art (GOCA) at UCCS for one-hour yoga sessions led by Dr. Debby Patz at the Ent Center for the Arts.
These free events are part of Mindful Movement Mondays, a nearly decade-long partnership between the Wellness Center and GOCA. The program will take place outdoors each Monday during the fall 2021 semester on the upper lawn of the Ent Center for the Arts.
Limited mats, blocks and straps are available to use.
Until Oct. 29: EPA: Environmental Performance Agency
On Oct. 1, visiting artist collective Environmental Performance Agency (EPA) opened its new exhibit at GOCA Downtown. The new exhibit, titled “Undesirable Plants Declare: A Participatory Public Review,” brings the Environmental Performance Agency’s work to the unceded territory of the Ute, Cheyenne and Arapaho Peoples, to investigate the diverse multispecies lifeways and teachings of spontaneous urban plants (aka weeds). Viewers will be invited to discover how to become present, grounded and engaged with the land around them.
The exhibition will be on view through October 29, 2021. Admission for all events and regular gallery hours is free and open to all.
Until Dec. 12: High + Low: D. Dominick Lombardi Retrospective
High + Low: D. Dominick Lombardi is a 45-year retrospective exhibition curated by T. Michael Martin, featuring 20 distinct chapters of the career of the artist.
A common thread throughout Lombardi’s work is his interest in blending qualities of highbrow and lowbrow art, and experimentation with various media. The exhibition begins with the Cyborgs, a science fiction based series depicting half human/half machine beings. It continues through his East Village days, his earliest forays into sculpture and kinetic art, and the repurposing of a multitude of found materials. A pivotal point in his art career was the Post Apocalyptic Tattoo series, which was prompted by his concerns for the environment and how it would impact our future. After the downturn in the economy in 2008, he began the Street Urchin series that focused on the marginalized victims of that era. Most recently he has explored the social issues of our time referencing the roots of human morality.
The exhibition is on view from Aug. 19–Dec. 12, 2021 at the UCCS Galleries for Contemporary Art.
October is Arts Month in Colorado and the Pikes Peak region. Each week, we’ll showcase some of the many opportunities to enjoy art, performances and cultural experiences through the arts at UCCS.