{"id":17631,"date":"2022-01-26T09:40:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T16:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/?p=17631"},"modified":"2022-01-31T11:29:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T18:29:34","slug":"hitting-the-fertile-ground-running-at-the-fac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/2022\/01\/hitting-the-fertile-ground-running-at-the-fac\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitting the Fertile Ground Running at the FAC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two \u201cdynamic rock stars,\u201d as Idris Goodwin, director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, refers to them, will bring new perspective and inspiration to the future-focused arts center. Pirronne Yousefzadeh <\/strong>is the new artistic director of the theatre, and Michael Christiano <\/strong>is the new director of the museum and visual arts.<\/p>\n

Together with Goodwin, who joined the FAC in 2020, and other key FAC leaders, Yousefzadeh and Christiano plan to grow the collaborative, inclusive, engaging, innovative environment of the multi-platform artistic space. Goodwin says of his new team, \u201cI got very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Pirronne Yousefzadeh, photo by Christine Jean Chambers<\/p><\/div>\n

More impressive than the credits these two professionals bring to the table are their plans for the center. Yousefzadeh says, \u201cMy hope is for the Fine Arts Center to become a hub for new work. A place where artists can take risks and create something new in an environment and in a community that is, I think, hungry for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christiano adds, \u201cI believe that museums should continually be rethinking their essential function, what they are, what they do, and who they do it for. It\u2019s moments of transition, like the one the center is currently in, when those conversations can be amplified. That\u2019s very exciting for me. It drives a lot of what I do, and I think the inherent potential for the depth and variety of interdisciplinary and collaborative programming is really intriguing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Michael Christiano, photo by Jaclyn Silverman<\/p><\/div>\n

As it happens, Christiano wasn\u2019t looking to leave the SMART Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, but his wife\u2019s interest in pedagogical styles brought her to CC\u2019s website, where she saw the opening. Goodwin says, \u201cMichael has been doing this work for over a decade on the education and engagement side, the leadership side, the director side, and the curatorial side. Someone who is used to wearing a lot of different hats is really good for a multi-disciplinary organization like ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Yousefzadeh, \u201cShe understands a diverse range of theatre styles and traditions but elevates them,\u201d says Goodwin. \u201cIssues of equity, diversity, inclusion, and antiracism are core to her practice, which is really important for the Fine Arts Center we\u2019re building for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Colorado Springs community, she was excited to pack up her many talents and head west from her position at the Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York, to start her new role in December 2021.<\/p>\n

As Yousefzadeh says about her directing style, \u201cMy job isn\u2019t to always have the best idea in the room, it\u2019s to identify the best idea in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

With such a triumvirate of leadership at the FAC, identifying what\u2019s best for the artistic community of Colorado Springs is inevitable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet Pirronne Yousefzadeh and Michael Christiano, the two new directors at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1496,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[125],"class_list":["post-17631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-winter-2021-22","tag-on-the-scene"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1496"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17631"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17689,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17631\/revisions\/17689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}