Change is the subject for Springs arts organizations | Arts & Entertainment

Two of Colorado Springs’ oldest arts organizations are going through major leadership transitions. For one, change has been constant for two decades. For the other, change has come for only the second time in 50 years. But for both, it’s happening at the same time.

After only 18 months on the job, Nicole Herden has resigned as executive director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, which was essentially rescued and assumed by Colorado College in a $20 million deal completed in 2017.

Continuing turmoil at the FAC now has Colorado College officials actively examining the rapid turnover among its executive leadership. Herden’s predecessor, Idris Goodwin, served as executive director for just more than two years. Before Goodwin, Erin Hannan held the job for 2½ years.

“This is something I’m eager to explore,” interim Colorado College President Manya Whitaker told The Gazette (parent paper of The Denver Gazette) last week. “We’ll do an operational assessment. I believe in the role of the arts as part of a liberal arts institution. I want the FAC to reach its full potential with the full support it needs to serve the CC community and city.”

Herden resigned last month to accept a position at an arts museum in West Texas that will remain unnamed until the museum announces the news itself. An interim FAC executive director will not be named, Whitaker added, and a search to replace Herden is “on pause” until the College gets a better handle on what is exactly going on there.

One thing no one is much arguing against is that the marriage between Colorado College and the FAC has been a dysfunctional one – on both sides of the family tree. While the FAC’s highly regarded theater division has had three artistic directors since 2021, it’s worth noting that, since the merger, Colorado College has been in a state of near-constant upheaval as well.

Colorado College President Jill Tiefenthaler, who navigated the union with the FAC, resigned in 2020 to become the new CEO of the National Geographic Society. After an interim presidency, L Song Richardson was named president, but she left after just two years. Whitaker has been given the title of interim president of the college for a two-year term.

Essentially, turnover at the college has mirrored turnover at the FAC nearly body for body.

There’s no question that the change that came to the FAC under Goodwin, which fully aligned with CC’s fierce commitment to anti-racism, brushed up against the FAC’s more traditional culture. Richardson, a legal scholar who is Black and Korean, left saying she felt “constrained by the position” and that she wants to fully engage in robust debate about hot-button national social issues.

Just four months ago, journalist Warren Epstein penned the definitive history of the FAC saga for the Gazette that, at the time, left him downright optimistic that the FAC and the college had turned a corner under Herden. “Her enthusiasm,” he wrote, “is infectious.”

But that was before Herden’s surprise exit. Now there is no timeline for either the FAC culture assessment or to choose a new leade.

“Right now, we’re excited about the existing leadership team who will continue to work on their strategic plans,” Whitaker told the Gazette. “We’ll pause and do a deep dive and internal assessment to understand if staffing, budget, technology and space is what the FAC needs to fulfill its mission to be a creative conduit for our community.”

The FAC is hosting a special First Friday Art Party on April 4 to announce the 2025-26 theater season, as well as upcoming showcase museum exhibitions – with live demos.

Meanwhile, at Theatreworks

Meanwhile, over at Colorado Springs Theatreworks, it’s been nearly five months since Caitlin Lowans resigned for a new job in Minneapolis. Theatreworks, like the FAC, is a professional theater company that is aligned with a local college (the University of Colorado Colorado Springs). Unlike the FAC, Lowans was only the company’s second artistic leader in its 50-year existence.

But we’ll all have to be patient before a successor is named, said David Siegel, executive director of the Ent Center for the Arts at the UCCS. Siegel said the process to find Lowans’ successor will be purposeful and measured. Phase 1 (right now), he said, is an opportunity for leadership to meet with stakeholders who will help them to identify “how Theatreworks can be most successful over the next 50 years.”

Only then will a search firm be chosen that will identify a national field of candidates – although Siegel would not commit to a traditional succession plan, which suggests the leadership tree might be in for some rebranding (rebranching?)

“Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet really sees the opportunity that the Ent presents for UCCS as a differentiator,” Siegel said. “We are going to build a position that prioritizes our 50-year history of serving audiences but also creates the bandwidth for us to lean in with the university and help support innovations. You will hear more very soon.”

Meanwhile, David Dahlin, former CEO of the FAC, is serving as Theatreworks’ interim artistic director.

Siegel will announce the company’s milestone golden 50th season lineup (one largely crafted by Lowans) with a performative party at 7 p.m. April 14. He promises “a crowd-pleasing season that meets our audiences where they are at right now.”

Be Stiller, my heart!

In advance of tonight’s eagerly awaited season finale of Apple TV’s “Severance,” Denver actor Lauren Bahlman put out a call for restraint on Twitter, and it was directly supported by series guru Ben Stiller himself.

“I am going to need everyone who has somehow already seen the #Severance finale (????) to quietly knock it the hell off,” Bahlman wrote. “Saying ‘no spoilers, but …’ IS a spoiler. We deserve to be able to wait until the actual date of release at least! @BenStiller, in the name of Kier, save us.”

Prompting this response from Stiller: “I agree xx.”

Xx? Are you kidding me?

“Well, tame my tempers, because my day has just been made!” said Bahlman.

My best friend’s a chicken

Life got you down? National Geographic has just dropped a new Hulu series called “My Best Friend’s an Animal” that is guaranteed to make you smile.

It opens, right up top, with the delightful and surprisingly poignant love story of a former Denver man and his Rhode Island Red Chicken named Sammi. Yep.

Dave Cox, born and raised in Denver, moved to the Florida Gulf Coast in 2017 for work in residential construction. After the deaths of Cox’s dog and twin brother, Sammi stepped in to help fill the hole in his heart.

They met when Sammi was a 3-day-old chick. Now, they do everything together – work, play, sleep, even kayak. Guaranteed to make you happy cry. If you don’t have Hulu, you can watch the show on your desktop at sky.com.

Sammi, BTW, has more than 113,000 followers on Instagram …

In other rando locals-on-TV news: Morrison’s Gabe James will be auditioning on the March 30 episode of “American Idol” (airing at 7 p.m. on ABC). His all-star judges: Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood …

A Colorado mother/daughter pair go on a genealogy adventure on the reality show “Relative Race,” airing on something called BYUtv. (Yes, the network is owned and operated by the LDS Church, which knows a thing or two about your genealogy.)

On the episode, Jen Kelly, who was adopted at birth, travels through Denver, Sterling, Fowler and Colorado Springs looking for answers along with her daughter, Leland. The episode can be viewed at byutv.org.

Last word on the Merc

Last week in our salute to the Mercury Cafe, which turns into something else in two weeks, we mentioned the special place the legendary Denver band DeVotchKa has in the venue’s history. This week, drummer Shawn King wrote in wanting to point out that through all of the band’s many Merc shows over the years, owner “Marilyn (Megenity) never once took a cut of ticket sales,” King said.