Durango Arts Center has thrown open its doors with a full slate of summer classes for adults and children.
“Camps and classes are going on, we’ve got a lot of really great offerings for kids for the summer in visual arts and in theater. And then we have quite a few offerings for adults as well,” said DAC Executive Director Brenda Macon. “There’s an adult improve group and they’re off to a robust start. And then for visual arts, we’ve got Michael Billie, he’s an encaustic painter and he does multimedia art, and he’s going to be doing workshops. Nia Sturr, who did the mural on the side of our building, she’s a botanical muralist, she’s offering a beginning drawing class for adults.”
DAC is now open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, which will also serve as its summer hours, Macon said, adding that as far as camps and classes, DAC is returning to in-person lessons – and being careful about it.
“We’ve been doing Zoom all year and a little bit of in-person last summer because we could do small groups, but we’re still keeping our groups small, we’re still maintaining socially distanced protocol a little bit here and there – we’re just being careful,” she said. “We just want to keep everyone safe.”
On deck for the summer along with the camps and classes is the return of events we missed last year, including the 10-Minute Play Festival, which will held held June 18. The festival also marks the reopening of DAC’s theater, and while it’s a free event, Macon said patrons will have to register for tickets online.
The 27th annual Autumn Arts Festival will be held Sept. 18 and 19, and the call to artists is officially out, and the deadline to apply for a booth is June 30. The festival brings in fine arts artists from around the country and the area.
On the net
For a full schedule of Durango Arts Center’s classes, camps and events, visit durangoarts.org. Also, to become a DAC member, visit https://bit.ly/3wCRKJV.
“We’d love to see more local artists submit for this show,” Macon said.
Also new is the Living Artist Program, where starting next month, artists are invited to apply to so a series of live demonstrations of their work at the DAC. The series begins June 22 with an application deadline of June 15.
“We really encourage our local artists to come register through our website to sign up to come in and they can do a series of live demonstrations and get to know the art buyers in this town, develop relationships with patrons, really show their stuff, let people see them at work,” Macon said. “It’s a wonderful way of really developing those relationships and getting to know the community better, which is something I think both emerging and established artists can benefit from. We’re excited to be offering that – it will be a nice new energy in our space having demonstrations.”
And with everything going on at DAC, Macon said she hopes the center will once again become the place for the community to come together again.
“In 2019, we hosted over 140 different community events in here before the start of the pandemic. And we know that when we reopen we will once again resume our place of being the epicenter for celebration and community in Durango, and we’re really, really excited to be doing that with everyone,” she said. “This is going to be the place to come to be together again – and to celebrate our creative power, to celebrate the fact we’ve made it through, our resilience, all the beautiful things people are making, and it’s really for all ages, all abilities, and that inclusiveness I think is going to be so appreciated when we’re finally able to come together in larger groups. We just want to see everybody.”
katie@durangoherald.com
