The Dancing Spirit Center for the Arts building strikes viewers with a pronounced visual aesthetic when driving down Main Street (Goddard Ave.) in Ignacio. The exterior architectural curves and angles catch the eye, and the colors enhance the beauty of the new building. The interior will have an open-air feel.
With a $2,000,000 price tag, the non-profit is in full swing of its capital campaign. Dancing Spirit Executive Director, Kasey Correia wants to create an inviting environment, as well as programs and resources for the community. “We’re building for all kinds of ideas and flexibility, but the details are going to be created by people coming in the door who come in and say … hey let’s do a collaboration, let’s see what we can do,” Correia said.
Formerly known as the Dancing Spirit Community Arts Center, Correia, explains the switch to the newly adopted name, “we were the Dancing Spirit Community Arts Center, but once we started designing our needs for this new building, we shifted to the ‘Dancing Spirit Community Center for the Arts,’ Dancing Spirit Inc. is our base name, it’s our official name.”
The arts center is on schedule for an invite only “sneak peek” special event, Saturday, Sept. 7, with a grand opening for the public scheduled for Oct. 4; its first official “First Friday,” and continuing with the First Friday program thereafter.
Speaking of the sneak peek event, Correia states, “We’re going to invite artists to bring their art in for sale to help us, to highlight their work. It could be art, it could be beadwork or clothing, for the one night only show, with 40% of the sales that will help fund the building.”
The Oct. 4 grand opening will be open with a limited number of tickets for sale. Information and details of the event will be announced on the Dancing Spirit website, dscac.org
The arts center is in the final aspects of construction, Todd Gaver of Clearheart Designs explains, “we’re in transition from all the rough-in trades, framing, mechanical, plumbing, electrical to the finishes. We get to the finishes, which is prime and paint, tile, electrical trim, plumbing trim, so right now we’re more than 50% complete on a percentage.”
Color plays a major role in the aesthetic of the new building, Correia explains the collaboration, “we’ve had meetings with the [Dancing Spirit] board President, Jenny Long Silva to help her understand about color. The purple is purple cliffs, it’s us, it’s our soulmate I believe and it’s Dancing Spirit’s color. The walls are sage, so it also ties into our area – the green sage and the turquoise accent wall was purposefully done at the top and the bottom, so it’s anchored. Everything’s intentional. Turquoise is a complementary color of purple and it works with the sage, we wanted to help our community understand color a little more.”
The main entrance room boasts a 23-foot-high ceiling, with a convex curve to 18-foot-high ceiling, the area will be utilized as a co-op, gallery space. Following the model used at the 755 Goddard location, now Dubs Auto Body, the Dancing Spirit co-op gallery will also offer four-foot spaces for artists to rent monthly.
The arts center will offer art gallery space for established and up and coming artists, an incubator program for students to develop art and business skills, children’s and adult art classes, a full pottery studio including a wheelchair accessible pottery wheel and open studio hours, an area for live performances and art openings.
The strength of the arts center is the “clay room” which will boast a wheelchair accessible potter’s wheel, as well as being disability friendly, with an open feel. “We have a wheel where you could slide underneath it with the wheelchair, it flexes for lots of different disabilities,” Correia said.
The Dancing Spirit Board has worked with the Town of Ignacio, the Southern Ute Tribe, and the designers and architects, from color scheme to architecture, to meet the community’s needs.
“A big shout out needs to go to the Town Manager Mark Garcia. Mark was involved on the design process from day one as well to make sure we weren’t going in a direction that wasn’t consistent with the LUDC (Land Use Development Code). We wanted to bring in design elements that were already in Ignacio with the buildings we like but without copying,” Gaver said.
“It’s what Todd and Clear Heart Designs as well as IDR and are bringing, it’s always a co-creation. I want to think in our community – my journey has been a lot of healing and when I started working with the Tribe and we started with the Department of Justice doing the healing the healing therapeutic healing thing and then learning we’re going to do this; it’s not art therapy, it’s understanding we’ve healed ourselves and we can help and we’re teaching – we’re interacting to lift everybody. I just want to lift everybody up,” Correia said.
Future Goals
Programming is planned with Boys and Girls Club of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy and the Pine River Library. With possible new collaborations include Big Brothers, Big Sisters and Dare to Be You.
Dancing Spirit also looks forward to hosting their annual Fill Your Bowl fundraiser in the new building in December of this year.