This year’s Green Box Arts Festival in Green Mountain Falls will be bigger than ever. The 15th annual celebration happens June 30 – July 15, and it will include more than 80 performances, events and classes. As always, the festival will bring globally-acclaimed artists to the tiny mountain town for a full schedule of multidisciplinary art experiences, performances, classes and celebrations.
“It is crystal clear that our 15th Annual Green Box Arts Festival will afford artists and audiences an unparalleled menu of arts events and activities,” says Scott RC Levy, Green Box’s executive director. “We can’t wait to welcome new and returning audiences to Green Mountain Falls this summer, as we celebrate the best of contemporary arts with our largest and most comprehensive festival to date.”
The festival has come a long way since its small beginning in 2009, but it has always had a big vision. You can read about that in Green Box Arts Has Always Had a Big Vision.
Here’s an overview of all the offerings at this year’s Green Box Festival, as provided by Green Box Arts. For the full schedule and more information, registration for camps and classes, and to purchase performance tickets, visit greenboxarts.org While some events are free, all require registration.
Dance at the Green Box Arts Festival 2023
New York’s critically-acclaimed Paul Taylor Dance Company, one of the most iconic and dynamic modern dance ensembles of our time, will be in residence for two weeks this summer. The company will present multiple public performances, participate in an ArtDesk Conversation and offer a masterclass.
With a history of transforming the art form of modern dance, Paul Taylor Dance Company is known worldwide for its vast repertory, multidisciplinary collaborations, passionate expression, thrilling athleticism and new works created by some of today’s most engaging and established choreographers. Dedicated to sharing modern dance with the broadest possible audience, since 1954 the Company has toured over 600 cities in 65 countries with performances and a variety of educational programs and engagement offerings.
“I am thrilled our company will be performing at the 15th Annual Green Box Arts Festival – it will be our first visit to the area, but not our first collaboration with festival co-founder and Taylor-commissioned choreographer Larry Keigwin, who created the exhilarating work Rush Hour in 2016 [that] we recently performed during our season at Lincoln Center,” said Michael Novak, artistic director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. “We are looking forward to our time in Green Mountain Falls during our two-week residency. I have no doubt that the combination of the gorgeous location and the amazing participating artists will be inspirational and energizing for us all.”
Visual Arts at the Green Box Arts Festival 2023
On Opening Day, Friday, June 30, three installations will be unveiled by artists in residence: Brooke Smiley, Nikki Pike and Molly Rideout, as well as a sculpture by artist Brian Wall and a new mural on the Lake Street Display by Brenda Biondo.
Brooke Smiley will develop an EARTH.SPEAKS work, part of her series of land-based public art projects aimed at healing through community creation of earth markers, which is a sustainable practice of structure building. Created with, for and by the community of Green Mountain Falls, EARTH.SPEAKS centers on Indigenous identity through reconnecting with our bodies, one another and the land. Smiley will guide the community in building two earth markers to uplift awareness of Indigenous history, present day visibility and messages of the land.
Artist and activist Nikki Pike will add an outdoor sculptural work, utilizing bark-skinned forms, to Green Box’s permanent public art collection. It will be on view at the H.B. Wallace Reserve. Pike’s environmental works combine eye-catching bark texture with pure forms, playfully inviting the viewer to consider the impact of human manipulation of the environment.
Currently on display at Lakeview Terrace Theater, The Managers by writer-in-residence Molly Rideout displays the documentation of the women who ran the historic building built in 1890 as a boarding house.
Brian Wall’s massive sculpture, Skye, will become the second work donated to Green Box Arts in back-to-back years, following last year’s installation of Communication X9 by Yaacov Agam. Wall’s one-of-a-kind constructed welded steel sculptures combine geometric elements, often created from sliced sections of industrial steel tubes or I-beams and range from tabletop scale to monumental outdoor installations.
Sunrise, sunset and closed roof shows through September in Green Mountain Falls Skyspace by legendary light and space artist James Turrell are also on sale at greenboxarts.org.
Performing Arts at the Green Box Arts Festival 2023
In collaboration with UCCS, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) will perform music by composer-in-residence Marti Epstein on the opening night of the festival.
The 4th of July Block Party will feature a Western swing dance class prior to a performance by Carlos Washington’s Steel Horse Swing, followed by singer-songwriter Lilli Lewis and her acclaimed trio, plus the second-annual Water Lantern Festival. Be sure to visit Becoming // Poetry for a personalized, spontaneous poetry experience on vintage typewriters!
More opportunities include a performance by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, a five-piece chamber ensemble who will play a live original score to a silent Buster Keaton film, and an evening of films created by the nationally-renowned and Colorado Springs-based Youth Documentary Academy Theatreworks is back again offering two free outdoor performances of Shakespeare’s classic, Pericles.
Additional musical performances include the Delbert Anderson Trio, Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, and the dynamic duo of Larry & Joe. The closing event and final Block Party happens on July 15 with food trucks and a concert featuring the homey Ozark sounds of Handmade Moments.
Events at the Green Box Arts Festival 2023
More fan-favorites return this year including Astronomy & S’mores, the 4th of July Water Lantern Festival and the always popular ArtDesk Conversations – this year featuring conversations with festival artists, animal activists and a book club discussion. Grab your pup and join the 3rd annual ArtDesk Pooch Parade.
Classes and Camps at the Green Box Arts Festival 2023
The Green Box Arts Camp will be held June 20-30 (Tuesdays – Fridays) for rising first-through fifth-graders. This process-based arts camp invites children to explore dance, visual arts, music and theater with seasoned working artists and educators. Professional dancers from Ormao Dance Company along with an experienced group of visual and performing arts teaching artists will lead the work. And the world-renowned Paul Taylor Dance Company will hold a performance exclusively for campers and their families. All camps take place throughout the Green Box campus as kids adventure to streams, hike to see Green Mountain Falls Skyspace and have daily mindfulness and circle time on the lawn.
This summer Green Box partners with Theatreworks to bring Clowning Around with Shakespeare June 13-23 for rising sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. The outdoor classes will be led by celebrated professional Shakespearean actor and teacher Sammie Joe Kinnett. Students will explore the language and comedy of Shakespeare, create original pieces based in the language of the Bard, and share some of their favorite skits and giggles on their final day in the forest. All that’s required are a love for performance, Shakespeare and laughter.
Adult opportunities include new plein-air painting and photography classes, along with the return of silversmithing, visible mending, mixed media collage and wine-tasting classes.
Health and Wellness at the Green Box Arts Festival 2023
A new health and wellness track includes workouts at the Keith Haring Fitness Court, daily hikes led by Friends of the Ute Pass Trails and daily yoga sessions with festival favorite Andrea Lodico. Additionally, attendees can experience the multi-instrumental healing sounds of Judith Piazza inside Green Mountain Falls Skyspace. This music therapist and sound healer will have attendees exploring Indigenous sound wisdom from across the world, as they are bathed in closed-roof light sequences and higher vibrations.
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