Gathering Place: Permanent Collection Reinstallation

Gathering Place is the first comprehensive reinstallation of the museum’s first-floor galleries in nearly a decade. This powerful new exhibition invites our community to explore the diverse histories, cultures, and artistic voices of the Southwest, and beyond, through works from the FAC’s permanent collection. Featuring both beloved highlights and rarely exhibited pieces, Gathering Place offers an immersive experience that encourages reflection, invites new perspectives, and asks: How do you experience place?

As you move through the galleries, you’ll encounter four distinct but interconnected perspectives:

Where Am I When I Am Here? interrogates how landscapes are represented and whose voices are centered in these depictions.
Sacred Expressions Across Cultures explores the cross-cultural aesthetics that emerged from the meeting of Indigenous Pueblo and Hispanic traditions.
Cultural Ecotone traces the Fine Arts Center’s own evolution as a cultural meeting place — a site of convergence where avant-garde and Southwest arts have intersected since the early 20th century.
Movement presents contemporary artists who continue building on these layered histories through themes of movement, migration, and cultural exchange.

Between the galleries, the Strait Corridor offers space to pause and reflect. Here you’ll find seating, books provided by Colorado College’s Tutt Library, videos where each curator introduces their gallery’s themes, and key works.

FAC Members get early access from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 5. Not a member? Join today!

Guest curators include Cassandra Atencio, artist, elder, and member of the Southern Ute Tribe; James M. Córdova, santero and Associate Professor of Art History, Latin American Art at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Josh T Franco, artist and art historian; and Pat Musick, artist and educator. Together, they present art not as isolated objects but as living dialogue — cultural memory that continues evolving, just as this place continues welcoming new voices into its ongoing story.

Gathering Place is supported by a grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art.