Music and Art Talk: Exploring Ethel Magafan and the Broadmoor Art Academy
June 12 @ 11:00 am
Join Pat Musick for a talk exploring Ethel Magafan and the history of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. As high school students in Denver in the 1920s, twins Ethel and Jenne Magafan knew they wanted to be artists. Apprentices to artist Frank Mechau, they also studied at one of the premier art schools in the nation in the 1930s, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. This talk explores Ethel’s work and life as well as the significance of the art school here.
Pat Musick grew up surrounded by the art practices of her parents and their artist friends, many from her father’s years at the Broadmoor Art Academy/Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center school. Ethel Magafan was among Archie’s lifelong friends from those years. Decades later, Ethel and her family traveled from Woodstock, New York to spend summers camping and sketching in the Colorado mountains, often joined by the Musick family. These trips provided source material for Ethel’s works such as Meadow in the Valley.
This event is presented in collaboration with Colorado College’s Summer Music Festival. Magafan’s piece Meadows in the Valley is part of the museum’s permanent collection and is being used as the primary artwork for the festival this season. The Summer Music Festival finds this piece suits the mood of the festival over many summers, with the majestic mountains, and the summer air filled with beautiful sounds from the festival. Like the Broadmoor Art Academy and now the Fine Arts Center, the Summer Music Festival has contributed to the cultural landscape of Colorado College.
This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are requested.
About Pat Musick
During her M.Phil work at the Central School of Art and Design in London, England researching early Irish manuscripts, Pat Musick began working in large-scale enameling (glass fused to metal). She has taught art and art appreciation for many years, served as artist-in-residence in two national parks, exhibited widely, and carried out numerous public and private commissions. She currently teaches at Bemis School of Art, freelances in diverse areas, and celebrates the legacy of the Fine Arts Center school and its artists.
Image: Ethel Magafan, Meadows in the Valley (detail), unknown date, oil and tempera on untampered Masonite panel