Hello COPPeR Friends,
A big congratulations to our Business and Arts Lunch award winners! This Wednesday, 280 business leaders, community advocates, and artists gathered at the Antlers Hotel to celebrate the 5th Annual Business and Arts Lunch, co-presented the by the Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance and COPPeR.
U.S. Bank was presented the Philanthropy Award for the bank’s longtime support of the Art on the Streets program, which, since its inception in 1999, has brought more than 160 works of public art downtown. Learn more about their award here. Christian Keesee, chairman of Kirkpatrick Bank, was named Business Leader in the Arts (see his award video here). Keesee is founder of the Green Box Arts Festival, which each summer provides artists and visitors to Green Mountain Falls the opportunity to explore and nurture the creative process. Keesee also serves as president of the Kirkpatrick Family Fund which supports organizations such as the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, the Fine Arts Center and Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, as well as COPPeR’s Peak Arts Fund. Honored in the category of Creative Workspace was Epicentral Coworking. Founded last year by Lisa Tessarowicz and Hannah Parsons, Epicentral provides coworking space downtown for people who are independent creatives and entrepreneurs to office, meet clients, and bring innovative ideas to the Pikes Peak Region. Check out Epicentral here.
A special award this year for Creative Initiative was presented to Wild Fire Tees. Formed in the hours after the Waldo Canyon Fire devastated the Mountain Shadows neighborhood, Wild Fire Tees merged the art of high-quality design with social media skills to produce and sell more than $300,000 in T-shirts, with 100 percent of the proceeds benefitting wildfire relief nonprofits. Click here to view Wild Fire Tee’s award video.
Of course what really made the lunch come alive were our performers. Poetry, opera, dance, theatre, and music kept attendees on the edge of their seats. A huge thanks to all our performers: Mike Pope, Mark Wong, Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, Judeth Shay Burns, Celtic Steps, Crystal and the Curious, Millibo Art Theatre’s Jim Jackson, Colorado Poet Laureate David Mason, and the nVision Quartet of the Velvet Hills Chorus. Check out our photos (thanks to Bryan Oller/Studio80six) on Facebook!
Creatively Yours,
Christina McGrath
