Sopris Sun Staff Report
The Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities presents the 6th annual Green Is the New Black Fashion Extravaganza March 14-15 at 8 p.m. at the Third Street Center.
Doors open at 7 p.m. for a pre-show dessert reception; a martini, beer and wine bar; and an opportunity for the audience to interact with a wonderland installation.
A trunk show will follow the show on Friday and will be open again from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Green is the New Black has grown from a small show to something larger, bringing together 30 local, regional, and nationally known fashion designers, 80 models and performers, over 50 volunteers, and draws over 1,000 audience members from Aspen to Rifle and the North Fork.
Green is the New Black may also be one of the largest collaborative creative projects existing in the Roaring Fork Valley as it combines textile, digital, and fine arts along with film, live dance, music, and, new this year — poetry.
“The diversity of talent and the committed involvement of the community is what makes Green is the New Black so magical,” said GITNB choreographer Deborah Colley. “But that collaborative spirit between the arts and the community members is also a wonderful manifestation of what CCAH is all about: building community through art.”
With an emphasis on sustainable fashion, the GITNB takes an environmental twist on the theme “Down the Rabbit Hole.” The audience will find itself on a dynamic, fantastical and thought-provoking journey through a wonderland filled with the paradoxes of scenic beauty and catastrophe, natural order and bureaucratic chaos, and environmental integrity destroyed by consumption.
“You’ll have to come to the show to find out who changes the course of our earth, “says GITNB Director, Amy Kimberly. “Is it Alice? The White Rabbit? Caterpillar? Or you?”
GITNB is a multi-faceted show, meant to enliven and inspire, but it also raised funds for CCAH’s arts education programs.
“Though the art teachers in the Roaring Fork School District are top notch, youth’s access to art education is decreasing with Crystal River Elementary school youth receiving only 45 minutes of art class weekly,” Kimberly said.
With funds raised from the show, CCAH is able to offer free after school art classes, youth scholarships and subsidized bilingual piano classes and professional development for Carbondale art teachers. The funds also support the Carbondale Middle School theatre arts program and the annual Arts Explosion that connects middle school youth with community artists specializing in painting, ceramics, dance, music, theatre and digital media.
Tickets are $30 for CCAH members, $35 for non-members, with VIP runway seating at $100.
Tickets are available 963-1680, carbondalearts.com, CCAH’s office in the Third Street Center and at the Carbondale Recreation Center on Colorado Avenue.