Four professional artists teaching at Arapahoe Community College are exhibiting their work at the State Capitol through June. Practice What You Teach is the new temporary art exhibition currently on display at the Colorado State Capitol.

The exhibition features landscape paintings and drawings by sixteen professional artists teaching in the Colorado Community College System. Curated by Kathryn Charles for the Creative Capitol program of the Colorado Council for the Arts, the exhibition runs from March 3 through June 30, 2010, and is displayed in the Lt. Governor’s office and the basement rotunda.

The idea of the exhibition Practice What You Teach came from Charles’ interest in the role of our state schools to educate students in the arts.

“The community college system is not only an invaluable resource for new students, but often an important platform for working artists wanting to return to the basics,” says Charles. “I am impressed, but not surprised, by the quality of education being offered.”

Practice What You Teach is a tribute to the professional artists teaching at the community college level in tandem with evolving personal art careers. The exhibition features the following artists: Jan Fordyce, Ralph Nagel (supporter), J.T. Urband, Marsha Wooley (Arapahoe Community College); Cynthia Thomas (Community, College of Aurora); Michael Burrows, Sandra Guinn, Charles Parson, Boris Shoshensky (Community College of Denver); Peter Beal, J.M. Jensen, Judi Lightfield (Front Range Community College); Steven Kalaher, Justin Miller (Otero Junior College); David Mckean (Pueblo Community College); and Doug Holdread (Trinidad State College). 

The exhibition was made possible through the generosity of Ralph Nagel, a retired local businessman who continues to pursue business and philanthropic projects in parallel with a full painting schedule.

Creative Capitol is a program of the Colorado Council on the Arts offering permanent and rotating art exhibitions to the state capitol building.

For more information, contact Jil Rosentrater, Director of Art in Public Places at Jil.Rosentrater@state.co.us or 303.892.3724.

About the Colorado Council on the Arts 

The mission of The Colorado Council on the Arts, a division of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, is to promote the cultural, educational, and economic growth of Colorado through development of its arts and cultural heritage. For more information, visit www.coloarts.org.