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When Darren Skanson saw The Colorado Springs School for the first time, he was stunned.
Taken aback by the campus’ neoclassical Trianon building, standing over the lush, trimmed courtyard, he knew it was the location he had been looking for.
“I took some pictures, and I sent it off to a bunch of the fine artists on my list, and they all flipped at just how gorgeous a place it was,” he said.
Skanson, the show director for art festival company Colorado Arts Weekend, was looking for a venue to host the inaugural Broadmoor Traditions Fine Art Festival. And he had found it.
“If you stand with your back to Cheyenne Mountain, and you look across the quad towards the Trianon, and you don’t think fine art, I don’t know that I can help you,” Skanson said. “It is just flat out stunning. So really, it starts with that. We’re visual people. We’re artists.”
The second annual Broadmoor Traditions Fine Art Festival will return this weekend. The two-day festival will feature more than 100 artists, including sculptors, painters, jewelers, ceramists, woodworkers and more.
“This year, we decided to move the date of the festival to be on this Fourth of July weekend, specifically because there are so many great fine artists who need an access to a public that really appreciates what they do. And we found that here in Colorado Springs last year,” Skanson said.
The festival will host internationally acclaimed portrait artist Judith Dickinson, who has previously been commissioned to paint the likeness of former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Judge Judy.
“Dickinson is as fine a portrait painter as there is in the world,” Skanson said. “We are so lucky to have her this year.”
Skanson also highlighted Zimbabwe carver Alex Chitura, master bronze sculptor Devin Rowe, Navajo painter Ray Goodluck and watercolor artist Peter Freischlag — who are set to attend this year’s festival.
“You talk about hitting all of those things that make art,” Skanson said. “I can’t say enough how excited to have a second-year show be of this quality.”
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