The ARK Magazine: Music, Arts and Culture of the Upper Arkansas Valley

By Mike Rosso

Music and art lovers of the Upper Arkansas Valley will be glad to hear about a new arts and music website launched in August 2016. Ark Magazine is the brainchild of Jamie Wolkenbreit, who saw a need for a central outlet to find out about events, art shows and musical happenings in the region.
After moving to Chaffee County with his family in 2015, Wolkenbreit began asking friends where he might find resources for event listings. Realizing others had the same questions, he decided to create an online magazine specifically to promote and support the arts in Leadville, Buena Vista and Salida.
“I’d love for the communities of Salida, Leadville and BV to experience more of a kinship, cultural interaction and shared identity … we’ve got a wonderful opportunity to steer our growth into a fun and prosperous place,” he said.

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The Arts in Salida

This month, partly due to Salida’s recent designation as a Creative Arts District, we are celebrating some fine Salida-based artistic talent.

 

In the first article, we’ve profiled four area sculptors, all working with whimsical themes: monsters, rockets and robots, in many cases made from discarded junk and machinery. The artists interviewed also represent a wide age bracket – from the 30s to the 70s. In addition, we visited with sculptor Chris Byars, an early pioneer of, and influence on, Salida’s arts scene.

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One town decides to limit art galleries

Brief by Central Staff

Arts – December 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Resort towns have trouble keeping their commerce balanced. For many years, residents complained that there were too many T-shirt and souvenir shops sitting in a given downtown.

More recently, the complaints have been aimed at real-estate offices in what had been retail space — it gets harder and harder to shop downtown for everyday items like toothpaste and shoe laces, while there’s an abundance of storefronts offering scenic and partially forested 35-acre lots that adjoin public land.

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Keith Gotschall: A few steps beyond furniture

Article by Columbine Quillen

Arts – March 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

WHEN YOU MEET Keith Gotschall, any notion you might have of someone who spent twenty-two years in Boulder, such as Vegan, Sierra Club Member, Rolfing guru, or herbal tea drinker — and especially any notion you might have of a Boulder artist, such as arrogant or full of oneself — will be quickly dismissed.

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Quilters stitch the Valley together

Article by Marcia Darnell

Arts – March 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE MONTHLY MEETING of the San Luis Valley Quilt Guild was under way in Monte Vista. The agenda was packed with new business and old business, plans and updates, as with any professional meeting — but at most meetings, the members don’t stitch while they discuss business.

The guild was started in April 1991 by five dedicated quilters. “Some of us wanted to start it, so we did,” one said.

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Sally Gilchrist: A Designing Woman in Westcliffe

Article by Rayna Bailey

Arts – February 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

FOR SALLY GILCHRIST, looking into a room and seeing how it can be improved is as natural as opening a window and taking a cleansing breath of fresh mountain air.

The environment in a person’s home is the only place he or she can control, Gilchrist says. “The way we live our daily lives at home is a matter of utmost importance. Our surroundings should be serene and uncluttered, peaceful and minimally decorated.”

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Metal Art in Pueblo

Brief by Central Staff

Arts – May 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Metal Art in Pueblo

“Steel City: Contemporary America in Metal,” offers a display by metal artists of regional, national and international acclaim including Boris Bally, Andy Cooperman, Elliot Pujol, Wendy Ramshaw, Helen Shirk and June Schwarcz; and Salida artists, Michael Boyd, Ben Strawn, Nicole Hansen, Susan Bethany and Harold O’Conner.

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What Christo is doing while Charlie’s waiting

Letter from Eldon Rush

Arts – March 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Editor,

“The Christos have created some of the most breathtaking works of the 20th century using fabric in, over, through, and around natural and constructed forms” according to Earl A. Powell, Director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. In this great national treasure will be exhibited, February 3 through June 23, 2002, the first comprehensive survey in the United States of four decades of the art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

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4 fellowships granted to local artists

Brief by Central Staff

Arts – May 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Colorado Council of the Arts has announced the recipients of twenty 2001 Artist Fellowships, and the list includes four artists from Central Colorado. According to CCA, “these $5,000 awards acknowledge outstanding achievement by Colorado artists in their disciplines.”

Among the recipients is fiber artist Judé Silva of Buena Vista who was featured in last month’s Colorado Central. Panelists praised her “ability to create a lively space with fiber.”

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Local arts get some state money

Brief by Central Staff

Arts – November 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Colorado Council on the Arts has given 169 awards, with a total value of $1.28 million, to artists and art organizations in 49 communities around the state.

The money comes from an appropriation by the Colorado General Assembly and from federal funds dispersed by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Recipients were announced in September, and the money will be disbursed after Jan. 1. Those getting grants in this area include:

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Attention Playwrights and Poets

Brief by Central Staff

Arts – March 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

If you’ve ever wanted to write a play and see it performed, the Crystal Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Westcliffe would like to hear from you.

It’s sponsoring New Colorado Voices 2000, its second annual one-act play competition.

Five one-act plays will be honored, and two will be staged at the Jones Theater in Westcliffe next summer, with the playwrights each receiving $100. Last year’s winners were Susan Hering of Boulder and Jonathan Ambler of Rye.

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