The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (FAC) opens to the public on Aug. 4 after a $28.4 million transformation which brings blockbuster exhibitions to the area and allows the FAC's sizable permanent collection to be on display like never before.

The two-story, 48,000 square-foot expansion, conceived by award-winning architect David Owen Tryba, was designed to complement the original 1936 John Gaw Meem building, which has housed the FAC for the past 70 years and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


The new museum, which Tryba characterizes as "our finest achievement," features nine permanent collection galleries, two traveling exhibition galleries, and an unprecedented tactile gallery; the renovated SaGaJi Theatre with its state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems and a dedicated rehearsal studio; two museum gift shops; seven new art studios and interactive spaces at the Bemis Art School; and a unique courtyard to display outdoor sculpture and hold special events.


A weekend of grand opening festivities takes place Aug. 2-5, 2007 and will be attended by some of the world's most intriguing art icons including Thomas Hoving, the former Director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art; artist and filmmaker John Waters; Broadway legend Joel Grey and will kick-off the inaugural exhibition for the new building -- The Eclectic Eye: Pop and Illusion - Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation.

The FAC's permanent collection features one of the largest compilations of Native American and Southwestern Art in the country, as well as a $2 million dollar collection of Dale Chihuly glass, considered to be one of the largest in the world. The grand opening marks the first time in FAC history that selections from all areas of the collection -- American, Native American, and Latin American art; much of which has been unseen for years -- will be exhibited simultaneously. The FAC's permanent collection also features a wide array of American art by John Singer Sargent, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe, Walt Kuhn, John James Audubon, Robert Motherwell, Paul Cadmus and others.

Founded in 1936, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center is a privately funded, non-profit art museum, performing arts theatre, and arts education center. It re-opens its doors for an "Extremely Grand Opening" celebration (Aug. 2 - 5, 2007) to reveal a $28.4 million transformation. The expanded 132,286-square-foot facility will host major international traveling exhibitions and feature works from the FAC's significant permanent collection. The FAC was the first facility of its kind west of the Mississippi to offer arts education, theater and museum under one roof. The new FAC was crafted to marry the old with the new and to meet the burgeoning cultural interests of the region.


The Fine Arts Center and the FAC MODERN are sponsored by The El Pomar Foundation, PRACO Public Relations Advertising Company, KLite 106.3, The Colorado Springs Gazette, Timothy C. Hoiles, La Plata, GE Johnson, American National Bank, among others.