Eleventh annual Art & Jazz opens the Vail Valley Fine Art Show at CMC Vail Valley at Edwards

Free, accessible community celebration of local and regional art and artists hosted by CMC and Vail Valley Art Guild

Note: The Art & Jazz reception, held Sept. 20, 2024, opened the Vail Valley Fine Art Show, which is currently exhibited at CMC Vail Valley at Edwards through Oct. 31, 2024.

Sept. 13, 2024 – Colorado Mountain College Vail Valley at Edwards and the Vail Valley Art Guild are hosting the Vail Valley Fine Art Show, with its annual Art & Jazz reception opening, on Sept. 20, 5-8 p.m. at the Edwards campus. More than 200 professional and amateur artworks from Vail Valley Art Guild members and CMC students, faculty and staff will be on display and available for purchase. Latin jazz, Flamenco dance and complimentary food and drinks will round out the evening.

The show and the reception have grown every year since they began. “Fine art and jazz have a long history of working well together,” said Andrew Pranger, campus coordinator of enrollment and community services. “And last year, it turned into a great night out for more than 400 people.”

Photography, ceramics, oils, acrylics, watercolors, mixed media and even video art will be included in the art show. The four-member Latin jazz band Los Hermanos will accompany dancer Jessica Pinto, who studied Flamenco in her native Venezuela and in Barcelona, Spain, and is an artist herself. She is also the art teacher for the Vail Valley Art Guild’s bilingual kids' summer art program at its new gallery in Avon.

Pollyanna Productions will cater food for the reception. Pollyanna Forster, principal, is the former owner of Eat! Drink! in Edwards. The food, wine and music are underwritten by a donation from the art guild’s former board president Rosalind Reed. Reed, now a resident of New York, will be displaying 11 of her most recent abstract paintings.

“Art can sometimes feel like it’s something for ‘other’ people. People who know the aesthetic and stylistic context of the art hanging on the walls; the pinky raisers and the erudite,” Pranger said. “But at CMC we believe art is for everyone, and that’s why we partnered with the Vail Valley Art Guild 11 years ago to create the Vail Valley Fine Arts Show and the Art & Jazz reception.”

Admission to Art & Jazz is free and the public is welcome and encouraged to attend, though attendees are asked to register online since space is limited.

The reception and art show will take place at CMC Vail Valley at Edwards, 150 Miller Ranch Road on Sept. 20 from 5-8 p.m. Contact Lisa Isom, CMC Foundation regional development officer, 970-569-2935, or visit Vail Valley Art Guild  for more information.