Arts news: Historic award for Lighthouse, A-Corps now law, Goldblum to join Symphony, a Sneed sendoff, an ‘X-Files’ mystery and more

The 40th summer season of City Park Jazz “absolutely will go on” Sunday despite an arson fire that wiped out the historic City Park bandshell on March 26, Mayor Mike Johnston said last week at a fundraiser hosted by Dazzle Denver.

“We’re almost there,” said City Park Jazz spokesman Dave Flomberg.

The nonprofit festival’s resourceful organizers are setting up a temporary stage about 300 feet southeast of the destroyed bandstand with the help of Mighty Fine Productions.

The mobile stage will face north, as opposed to the bandshell, which faced west. It will be a full, festival-sized square stage, which will be a little different from the traditional octagonal stage.

As always, food trucks, vendors and the beer garden will surround the new performance area, just in a reconfigured layout.

The 10-week Sunday season begins with the DJ Williams Band from 6 to 8 p.m.

The crisis seemed potentially existential a few months ago. Now, “we are in a great position,” Flomberg said.

The city and its insurance are handling the reconstruction of the bandshell, which could take two years to complete. But the festival was looking at about $75,000 in additional, unbudgeted fire-related expenses.

The community has responded with about $40,000, including about $10,000 from the recent Dazzle Jazz effort, Flomberg said. And now an angel donor is offering up funds for a matching campaign to cover the next needed $36,000.

Flomberg said the city of Denver has been particularly helpful in fast-tracking permitting and other issues that threatened to delay the season. “They made the bureaucratic part not another painful part of this,” Flomberg said.

Info at cityparkjazz.org.

Historic award for Lighthouse

According to new research, the literary arts are the least-supported artistic discipline in the U.S., with an average of just 1.9% of the $5 billion contributed each year by private foundations to arts and culture going toward literature and writing.

In response, the Literary Arts Fund on Thursday announced $7.7 million in first-time, unrestricted grants to 40 literary arts organizations and publishers spanning 19 states, including the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver.

The idea is to champion writers and reading, and the essential contributions they make to our culture, communities and lives.

The Lighthouse Writers Workshop is Denver’s premier independent literary arts center. It essentially functions as a hub for the creative community by providing writing education, mentorship and support for writers and readers of all ages, genres and skill levels. Lighthouse serves more than 22,000 people each year across its core classes, workshops and literary events.

Not sure why the need for secrecy, but organizers are not releasing the specific amount that Lighthouse (or anyone else) will receive – just that the grants “range from $40,000 to $500,000 and were informed in part by each nonprofit’s budget size.” (Lighthouse’s annual budget is about $3 million.)

The Literary Arts Fund initiative is a collaboration between the Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Hawthornden Foundation, Lannan Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Poetry Foundation, and an anonymous donor. In full, it will provide at least $50 million over the next five years.

 “Without the support of literary arts nonprofits, I would never have been able to survive as a young writer and become the published author I am today,” said Julia Alvarez, award-winning author of “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.” “Our arts are not window-dressing — they are vital to the nourishment of the soul of a nation.”

Polis signs A-Corp into law

As expected, Gov. Jared Polis signed SB26-133 into law on Tuesday at a photo-op staged on the red carpet at the Sie Film Center, home of the nonprofit Denver Film.

By authorizing the Colorado Artist Company Act, Colorado becomes the first state in the nation to develop a new type of business entity just for artists. This entity, known as an Artist Corporation (or A-Corp), will allow artists in a range of creative fields to better protect their work, raise and access capital and more fully collaborate.

This unusual route to history started with an idea by Kickstarter founder Yancey Strickler. The bipartisan bill was sponsored in the Colorado General Assembly by Sens. Jeff Bridges and Marc Catlin; and Reps. Matthew Martinez and Rick Taggart.

It’ll be a year before the first A-Corp is legally formed in Colorado. “There’s lots more work to come as we navigate the roll-out process and educate creatives around the state,” said Meredith Badler, deputy director of the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, which led the charge for the bill’s passage.

We’ve explained all the specifics elsewhere, so if this is new to you, check out our previous coverage at denvergazette.com, or go to artistcorporations.com to learn more.      

Jeff Goldblum to join Symphony

Iconic actor Jeff Goldblum, best known for his eccentric charm and starring roles in 1990s sci-fi blockbusters, has also for 30 years been the man at the center of a jazz band called The  Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. And they both will be embarking on a North American tour this fall that will include an Oct. 13 performance with the Colorado Symphony at Boettcher Concert Hall. It’s being called The Night Blooms World Tour and it will showcase Goldblum’s forthcoming album, “Still Blooming: Night Blooms.” The tour will be produced by Christian Wiggs and conducted by two-time Grammy-winning conductor Bryan Carter.

Goldblum’s first album, “Still Blooming,” debuted at No. 1 on the official Jazz and Blues Albums Chart in 2025. On the new record, Goldblum plays piano, sings on a few tracks and includes collaborations with A-List names like Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Scarlett Johansson. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at (303) 623-7876 or coloradosymphony.org.

Arvada Center honors Sneed

The clock is now officially counting down to the impending retirement of Philip Sneed as the Arvada Center’s president and CEO. An afternoon of songs and speeches celebrated Sneed’s 13 years of contributions on Sunday.

The party, which drew more than 100 admirers, was held in a fancy Arvada Center ballroom just a few hundred yards from the modest brick apartment building Sneed’s family moved into when they first arrived in Colorado in 1971 just across Wadsworth Boulevard at 68th Street.

When Sneed was a senior at Golden High School, he was cast in the third play ever staged at the then brand-new Arvada Center. (“The Denver Post called me ‘a disturbing element,’” he said to laughs.)

“That was my first paycheck in the theater. I am thrilled to be ending my leadership career at the institution where I started my professional career in the theater.”

Sneed will be succeeded by Noelle DeLage, most recently chief communications and philanthropy officer at the Denver Zoo. She starts in mid-June and will spend a few weeks learning the ropes with Sneed before he steps away on June 30.

“You’re in good hands,” Sneed told those gathered.

And finally: The ‘X’ factor

A whole lot of Fan Expo Denver weekend was fun. The highly touted largest-ever ‘X-Files’ reunion? Not so much. Seven cast members showed up. The scheduled moderator did not. After an excruciating few minutes, the mostly cranky actors threw it out to the audience of about 4,000, who managed to elicit a few fun stories with their questions. But that 45 minutes was tense. Several of them called it a (bleep show). More than once.

So – whatever happened to the moderator? The truth is out there. We just don’t know what it is.  

John Moore is the Denver Gazette’s Senior Arts Journalist. Email him at [email protected].