Get to Know the Roxborough Arts Council
An article by Erica Hollander
RoxArts member Steve Schader
Roxborough Arts Council (or RoxArts Council) was formed in 2007 as a group of local artists and supporters of the arts, mostly living near Roxborough State Park and its breathtaking red rocks. The purpose was to promote and support arts in this community about 30 miles from downtown Denver.
Roxborough Arts Council
Since that time, the group has grown to about 60 members, including painters, potters, sculptors, photographers, polymer clay artists, fiber artists, and many others. Since its inception, RoxArts has accomplished amazing things: Establishing a gallery in Roxborough Marketplace Mall at 8351 Rampart Range Rd.; offering classes and workshops for adults and children in art of all kinds, including teaching bronze sculpture for kids 8-11; and creating public murals in several local schools and other locations.
One mural is of local Roxborough geographic features, one is of local animals, one is non-representational design, another of children reading for the Douglas County Library, and one is of Colorado aspens. RoxArts constructed a hillside flag on a local slope composed of thousands of miniature flags for Fourth of July with the help of 4H, a mosaic mural of Colorado flowers and animals designed and executed by middle schoolers and installed permanently in the school lobby, and banners for lamp posts by school children that change seasonally.
RoxArts member Paul Stafford
The Rox Arts Council is always looking for new ways to spread art and its appreciation in the area. In the near future, the group hopes to host a sculpture from Art Encounters. The group has a website and a Facebook page and is open to new members.
RoxArts meets monthly and brings artists in to teach their artistic methods to their members. Workshops are presented in mask making, painting, Chinese New Year parades and dragon construction, and other creative activities for members and for the community at large. Classes are offered on a monthly basis as well as on request. RoxArts works with the local parent-teacher association to supplement arts education in schools with after-school programs of many kinds. A recent favorite was a class in which students built birdhouses out of clay and then painted, decorated, and took them home.
RoxArts member Lisa Garness Mallory
RoxArts organizes field trips to art museums and parks, a foundry and forge, films on art, and other places of interest to artists and arts supporters.
On the second Friday of each month, RoxArts holds a reception that is open to the public at the gallery at 8351 Rampart Range Rd., from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Refreshments are served, and attendees enjoy conversation and displayed works of art. This event has become a pleasant opportunity to meet others who share an interest in beautiful things and in their creation and creators.
