Marina Eckler may be the new assistant to the curator at the I.D.E.A. Space, but she’s not new to Colorado College.
Eckler was the print shop technician for CC’s art department from 2006-08, where she managed studio space for classes and open work sessions, provided technical assistance to students, and helped to develop workshops for visiting and resident artists.
She later volunteered as an installer for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and worked as an art handler for special collections for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, where she created unique housing for hundreds of drawings and prints for the Whitney’s Works on Paper Collection.
Now Eckler, who holds a degree in painting and printmaking from San Francisco State University, is combining her skills and interests in curatorial work. “There is a thin line between creating art and curating,” she says. “Curating is its own art form.”
Eckler is excited about the ways in which the I.D.E.A. Space and Curator Jessica Hunter Larsen use the community at large as a medium. “It’s an open-door art center, and I like that,” Eckler says. As an example, she cites an upcoming multidisciplinary event titled “Hair-esies” that explores the connection between hair, personal and cultural identity, and feminism. “It’s a fascinating event that draws together a visiting established artist, faculty members, and a local artist,” she says. “Hair-esies,” which takes place on Sept. 14, was inspired by an I.D.E.A. Space exhibition that runs from Sept. 7 to Oct. 26 and features May Stevens, who was involved in benchmark social justice movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. “It all ties in so well together,” Eckler says. “While art centers are trying to figure out how to stay open and be resourceful, it happens naturally here.”
Eckler, an artist interested in bookbinding, painting, and drawing, has a studio in downtown Colorado Springs. She describes her paintings as “landscapes of my own imagination. They combine mountains and cities and impossible horizons, and are loosely based on folk art.”
Other interests include gardening, although she calls herself a failed gardener, and baking, especially cakes and French pastry. “This can be an all-day or all-weekend project for me. It’s what I turn to. I’m always thinking ‘What should be baked for this occasion?’ ”
Eckler also has strong ties to KRCC: She has been a volunteer DJ at the station for many years, and was the inaugural DJ for the Monday night radio show “Brick House,” a dance/soul/electronic music show still in production but with different DJs. Eckler, who still fills in as a guest DJ for “Brick House” and other shows, is married to Noel Black, producer of KRCC’s “The Big Something,” and they have a 9-year-old son, Ursen.
Congratulations to Marina and to CC!