Imagination Celebration

Creatives! Check out a lifetime of creativity and find a treasure for yourself 🌟💫

Midsummer Lane Mother’s Day Finds & More... starts on 5/1/2026 View information about this sale in Colorado Springs, CO. The sale starts Friday, May 1 and runs through Sunday, May 3.

It is so hard to absorb that beloved Michael Hague has passed. Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. For beautiful Kathleen. For their amazing family. For all of us. Michael was a gentle, powerful, deeply loved, and admired force. His imagination, artistry, generosity, and kindness shaped our world: expanded our own imaginations; enlivened our understanding of story; inhabited our fondest experiences of childhood and adulthood; inspired us to stand in long lines to savor the chance of gaining his illustrated autograph, lingering as long as possible, cherishing our small piece of his immense creativity. There are so many words and so many beautiful images to share about Michael. Please share your memories and favorite images. Sending love to Kathleen and the amazing Hague family.

Come see this clever, funny, original play with a beautiful, smart, heartful cast🌟. Our theater space is back!

Freshly cooked Afghan meals - this Saturday, July 12.
https://www.culinaryconnections.us/

Our friends at Catamount have awe-mazing Summer Camps coming up in their stunning place in the mountains! Check it out at this link ...
https://www.catamountinstitute.org/camps/mtn-campus-camps/

As an adult, what musical instrument have you started playing, or returned to?

Few adults play musical instruments, and even fewer do so in a group, Caroline Mimbs Nyce wrote in 2024. What health benefits might they be giving up? https://theatln.tc/oglkQfzJ

“Kids receive plenty of music education, but as people get older, they fall out of practice. Many stop picking up their instrument,” Nyce wrote. “This is unfortunate, in part because plenty of research shows that adults could benefit from playing music.”

Playing music helps build larger brain networks and new pathways. “Musicians tend to have better attention than nonmusicians,” Nyce continued. “Banging on a drum or tooting a horn can also relieve stress, reduce burnout, and help with anxiety and depression. For older people specifically, research has shown potential cognitive benefits along with a possible decrease in dementia risk.”

Adults may be skipping out in part because music education is associated with childhood and coursework. And after people grow out of music education in their childhood, they tend to think that music is a special talent, Nyce wrote, not something that just anybody can learn.

“Of course, people are busy; they simply may not have the luxury of sitting down to study Bach once a week, much less the money to pay for an instrument or private lessons,” Nyce wrote.

Playing music in groups has additional benefits, such as allowing adults to feel more trusting of and connected to one another, and to the world in general. But while it’s easy to go to a park or gym and pull together a game of pickup basketball, “piecing together people at the same skill level to play a concerto or even just jam in a garage is another matter.”

Nyce herself recently began to play the recorder. “I plan to keep learning,” she writes, “not because it strengthens my neuropathways per se (though I certainly don’t mind that), but because making music, even when it’s silly—perhaps especially when it’s silly—is just a whole lot of fun.” https://theatln.tc/oglkQfzJ

📸: Photo Media / ClassicStock / Getty

How the Arts Create Healthier People and Healthier Communities - We see the proof every day.

How the arts can create healthier communities According to thousands of studies, researchers have determined that involvement in the arts can improve public health and promote healing from illness, as well as protect against such problems as cognitive decline, heart disease, anxiety and depression. CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon L...

“If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. “ President John F Kennedy
Read the whole speech.

Come participate: Free days on Jan 11 and 17

A People’s History of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center - Through Spring 2025. Be a part of history! Our upcoming exhibition invites YOU to help shape the story of the Fine Arts Center, from its 1919 beginnings as the Broadmoor Art Academy to its transformation into a major cultural hub. Share your memories, insights, and stories with us as we explore the history of this beloved institution. Join curator Pat Musick in the gallery to add your voice to our timeline!

The power of art and the insight of youth.
🌏💙🦋

This drawing is by Anja Rozen, a 13-year-old primary school student in Slovenia. She was chosen from 600,000 children around the world to create a piece of art to show what peace looks like.

Anja Rozen was the 2021-2022 winner of the Peace Poster Contest sponsored by Lions International.
"My drawing represents the land that binds us and unites us."

"Humans are woven together. If someone gives up, others fall. We are all connected to our planet and to each other, but unfortunately we are little aware of it. We are woven together. Other people weave alongside me my own story; and I weave theirs," said the young designer....