2017: Exciting Year in the Arts Awaits

The New Year, for me as an academic, has always occurred right after Labor Day, or  in late August, as the modern school year now tends to begin. So, I was never drawn to the excitement or nostalgia that accompanied that last day of December, except in elementary school where I practiced writing the four digits in my composition book, over and over again, to become accustomed to the change of date so I would not make a mistake on an assignment in first week of January.

 

As 2017 unfolds, however, there is much to look forward to in the Arts at CA, beyond the promise of a Colorado winter and the dawn of a new calendar year. Most exciting is the opening of the Arts Center to our community after six months of eager anticipation. Shortly before Thanksgiving, as a faculty, we were led on a tour of this building in progress, and, then, even in the raw, we were awed by its beauty, its high functionality, and its student-friendly design.

 

All buildings for education, I believe, should be cathedrals of sorts, in that there is a unique aesthetic about them so that all who enter feel themselves in a safe and sacred place of creativity where all things are possible and new ideas are unleashed and allowed to flow.

 

Indeed, this new center for the Visual Arts boasts beautiful lines and well-designed studios with windows that look out on our world at CA, as well as flexible spaces that serve our present needs and look towards future creative endeavors and programmatic growth. It has a dedicated gallery space for our students’ shows as well as for bringing in guest artists to place works in residence. Children will think this is normal. It is simply their art building.

 

We will know better. It is a space where young people will discover their future voices — voices that erupt from their minds and hearts to usher new ideas into artistic accomplishments.

 

In his work, Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot says: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, And next year’s words await another voice.” The voices in the Arts Center will be rich and plentiful as we ring in this new year and those to come with future generations of students who, with our excellent arts faculty, will have the opportunity to think, feel, create, and thrive as young visual artists of the universe. Also coming up in this new year are an array of productions through the performing arts.

 

Check your calendars for the second trimester Conservatory of Theater productions — Vintage Hitchcock on January 20 and 21 and The Laramie Project, February 10 and 12 — both Upper School theater productions. Also on February 24 and 25 is the Middle School musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and on March 9 and 10, please look forward to CA’s first performance of the Dance Ensemble — In Concert ’17, followed by the Upper School musical, Little Shop of Horrors on the weekend of April 28-30. In addition to those events, mark your

calendars for a rich line-up of instrumental and vocal music concerts as well as Lower School music presentations. We have an exciting year ahead, and, as always, and it is our pleasure to give you a CA season of artistic events to get your creative juices flowing. What chimes true, as we ring in this new year, is our gratefulness to you, the students and families who make all of this possible with your intellect, your support, and your aesthetic commitment to making the arts at CA thrive with excellence and humanity.

 

So together, let’s drink that cup of kindness for all that is to come, or, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Write it on your heart, that every day is the best day of the year.”