Colorado Academy in Denver Opens New Ponzio Visual Arts Center

Students, faculty, parents, and trustees gathered at Colorado Academy this morning as the school officially opened its new Visual Arts Center named for the lead donor on the project, Craig Ponzio.

 

In addition to this building at CA, Ponzio’s name graces a numerous spaces and art programs in the Denver area – from the Clyfford Still Museum, to an innovative art therapy program at Children’s Hospital. He currently serves on the board of the Denver Art Museum.

 

The new Arts Center is located on the northeast corner of Stamper Commons on CA’s campus at 3800 South Pierce Street in southwest Denver.  The building has been under construction since last summer. It features a refurbished wing of the existing building and a new wing that includes gallery space and studios that are designed to inspire CA’s student artists.

  

Originally a boys dormitory in CA’s military and boarding school days, the former Stevens Building has been converted to a beautiful visual arts space. The new center is designed to house CA’s marquee programs in visual arts, including painting and drawing, sculpture, digital content production, and much more.

 

Head of School Dr. Mike Davis says the center is an “inspiring space for students of the studio arts at Colorado Academy.”

 

“ The genesis of this project came with a vision -- to make mission-driven, structural, and programmatic changes designed to ignite intellectual curiosity, artistic endeavor, and learning at CA… I extend my personal gratitude to Craig Ponzio who made a generous lead gift that helped to make this building happen.”

 

New construction features three state-of-the-art studios filled with controlled, natural light, a dedicated space for printmaking, ceramics, 3-D printing, film studies, flexible gallery space designed to display student and visiting artists’ work, a connection to functional outdoor work areas, and more.

 

Architect and CA parent Andy Rockmore of SAR Architects says, “Art studios should… be expansive spaces, places to dream, and to think big, and to think creatively, not linearly.” Rockmore says he and his colleagues decided to create the new spaces, “and then use the existing building to be the artist’s art box. Keep all your tools, all your materials, all the offices, and all of the things that it takes to support those new studios in the old building, and then they can work together. And it’s really worked out very well.”