• Over 1,100 performances have taken place!
• This year, there will be 17% youth acts, with a special Poudre School District Elementary School Showcase and a Little Kids Rock Showcase.
• Public attendance of street performances grew from 60,000 in 2010 to nearly 150,000 in 2012.
• Approximately 55% of visitors to Old Town come specifically to see Streetmosphere artists and performers (based on in-person surveys)
• More than 50 local businesses and organizations have provided financial support of the program.
• The number of qualified applications received grew from 90 the first year to 125 this year.

We look forward to seeing you as a part of this year’s crowd!

We are very pleased to announce that we will bring over 90 acts to the streets of Fort Collins this season! That is a 48% increase from last year, allowing us to support more performers and provide a greater variety of entertainment. It was wonderful to see over 120 talented acts apply this year – thanks to all of you.

These increases say a lot about the program. First, that the word about Streetmosphere is spreading, not only in Fort Collins, but throughout Colorado. We are proud to see how far Streetmosphere has come in just three years, helping to put Fort Collins on the map as an arts and culture destination. There are also several cities that are  interested in starting a similar program, and we are working with them to discover how they might bring Streetmosphere to their own communities.

You can keep up to date with with Streetmosphere by liking Beet Street and Streetmosphere on Facebook, and following Beet Street on Twitter. We’ll keep you posted!

The Center of Fine Art Photography Exhibition Entries due January 23, 11:59pm:

Explore stories, memories and histories through personal, familial, cultural and/or universal imagery.

More information 

The Center of Fine Art Photography Classes:

The Business of Photography – February 16

Lighting with Flash – February 17.

Learn More 

Streetmosphere 

Audition deadline January 28, 5pm:

Get paid to share your art on the streets of Fort Collins!  Beet Street is seeking a wide-variety of talent to perform as part of this year’s Streetmosphere program scheduled for May 10 – September 1, 2013.

More information

Battle of the Bards Poetry Contest

Entries accepted February 1 – 15:

This contest for both teens and adults is sponsored by the Poudre River Public Library District.

Cash prizes will be awarded for the top three winners in both categories.

More information

2013 Transformer Cabinet Mural Project,  Proposals Due February 12, 5pm:

The City of Fort Collins, Art in Public Places Program is seeking local artists, teams, or non-profit organizations to develop and paint murals on electrical transformer cabinets around Fort Collins. The murals are intended to help mitigate graffiti, as well as add art to the community.

Learn More

Rigden Farm Call for Entries by February 15:

An inter-generational art show that will be presented on February 20th.

Artists young and old are encouraged to display their work.

Contact Rigden Farm

Fort Collins showcases a wonderful array of artistic performances and experiences that are enjoyable for all ages and that make wonderful gifts. There is theatre, music, dance, art exhibitions, and so much more. This holiday season, where there is so much for us to celebrate, why not take your family or friends to a live performance, buy locally crafted arts, or make a donation to an organization that you care about.

If you’d like to share a holiday performance with your family and friends, we’ve highlighted a few of these wonderful shows, but there is so much more that you can find at www.artbeetfc.com:

• Almost, Maine, presented by Bas Bleu Theatre Company, opens your heart to things unseen in humorous yet compelling stories of life and love in a small Maine town. Performances run through December 30^th.

• A Musical Christmas Carol by la-de-da, an adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic tale “A Christmas Carol” with Scrooge and the Spirits that haunt him, plays at Lincoln Center December 21st-23rd.
• Colorado Bach Ensemble Presents Handel’s Messiah will be performed on December 21st at 7:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church.

For those of you who love to shop, locally crafted gifts can be found throughout the City including the following:

• Poudre Studio Artists will host its Miniature Art Show of handmade, original, and thoughtful gifts by artists from around the Front Range

• Trimble Court Artisans shares its tradition of creating ornaments and gifts for the holidays, and

If holiday lights are what excite you about this festive season, the trees throughout downtown are decorated with thousands of LED lights to help brighten the dark skies and the Gardens on Spring Creek hosts it’s Garden of Lights through December 31^st with a host of activities for the entire family!

Recently, we have added a helpful and comprehensive website tour to the homepage. This tour, guided by our own Executive Director, Beth Flowers, walks viewers through the website features and functionality. If you have never visited the website before, have casually browsed it, or have recently become a member, this tour is the perfect chance to learn the power of the website and how to use it.

We are still in the midst of our membership drive and are recruiting as many people as possible. There is no force to commit. Though paid members have access to more features and benefits, free memberships still include a great base of available resources. So please, visit the website, and take the tour to help get you immersed in AIR.

As many people are building our local economy by shopping at local stores, may we not forget about our wonderful arts scene, which can be a wonderful option to indulge in the spirit of the holidays. Many arts organizations feature holiday shows, including the CSU University Center for the Arts’ production A Christmas Story, Canyon Concert Ballet’s The Nutcracker, Bas Bleu Theatre’s Almost Maine, and Opera Fort Collins’ Gift of the Magi. The opportunity to enjoy and support the arts during this holiday season is invaluable.

Sharing time with friends and family is a large part of many people’s traditions and what better occasion to create memories than attending the multitude of fantastic, spirit boosting, arts events in Fort Collins.

In the beginning of the film era, the silent film was the foundation of our modern flick and deserves to be remembered on occasion. The first filmmakers were true innovators, because movies had yet to exist before, and plots were completely original.

The event, “4 Funny Films,” presents the opportunity to view some of these films in their true comedic mastery. The films are being featured at Everyday Joe’s Coffee House, are sponsored by the Fort Collins Symphony—and they are showing Friday, November 16^th, at 7:00 p.m.  For more information visit their website.

If, however, you happen to miss this event, do not hesitate to seek out these films in libraries, online, or in video shops; they are worth any time it takes to find them.

Innovation becomes more important as we experience current challenges and attempt to predict problems of subsequent years. It is important to examine creativity as an entity in our lives and the role it plays in shaping our future.

To look at how we can encourage it in our children, inspire it in our daily lives, enhance it in our workplace, and take the steps necessary to grow creativity in our communities.

Resources to expand knowledge on the nature of creativity are abundant. Local creatives and artists, books, magazines, and especially the Internet, – information on creativity is everywhere. A great place to search for them online is our AIR (Arts Incubator of the Rockies) website. The Knowledge Center is full of videos, articles, and more on creative topics.

The AIR website provides a place where artists can share and get feedback on their work, collaborate with other artists, look for job opportunities in the Opportunity Center, watch inspirational videos, and read helpful articles in the Knowledge Center. Also offered, are the Shift and Evolve workshops, which were generated to develop and expand individuals’ confidence and success in their professional journeys. Overall, It is an amazing site centered around and specifically constructed for all kinds of artists and art organizations.

There is an option to be a free or paid member (added benefits and features for paid members), and with paid memberships starting at $50 annually, the benefits outweigh the cost. AIR combines marketing opportunity, a constructive artist community, and the convenience of multiple tools for artists in one place.

The more members who join AIR, the deeper the benefits and the higher the quality the website becomes. If you haven’t already, check out the website and all its amazing features, become a member, and tell all your friends.

The ability to vote reminds us of the freedoms that we enjoy everyday in this wonderful country, that of which were preserved through the sacrifice of our people.  Our current servicemen/servicewomen and veterans are true heroes.

The experiences and thoughts of a soldier are difficult to describe in words. Art offers an opportunity to express opinions in a universal language.  Poudre Studio Artists & Galleries is featuring art by veterans and about our military and country in their exhibition, “Freedom Isn’t Free.”

The show honors those who serve or have served, and gives tribute to the very ideal they fought for. Veterans day is on November 11^th, but we must not limit our appreciation and memorial to a single day. Remember our veterans and celebrate them in every way possible.