The Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary on Friday, August 12, with fanfare similar to that of its original grand opening in June 1972.
As part of its “Coming Home” ceremony, Pueblo community members can come to the center for free and enjoy exhibits, live music, dance performances and food trucks from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Outdoor musical performances at the ceremony will include Cari Dell, a songwriter and guitarist who will perform at 10 a.m., and Alan Polivka, a Pueblo-based accordionist who will perform with his band at 12:30 p.m.
Like the 1972 grand opening, the ceremony will include the Pueblo Symphony, folkloric ballet, indigenous dance and tamburitza performances among others. “Inclusivity,” the original vision for the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center, is what the arts center continues to strive for five decades later, its CEO Andy Sanchez said.
“This renaissance, these 50 years, is really about us recognizing our roots and making sure to let our region know that those roots are still strong,” Sanchez said.
Kathy Farley and Pat Kelly, founders of the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center, met while working with the Pueblo Service League, a women’s service organization now known as the Junior League of Pueblo. They worked with county commissioner John E. Hill and city planner Allan Blomquist to establish an arts center serving all of southern Colorado.
“Pat and I, that was the first step in our community … To be the catalyst and the beginning of something that has blossomed all these years. In many ways, we never dreamed of it,” Farley said.
More on Pueblo history: The Colorado State Fair turns 150 this year. This is how it all started in Pueblo.
When the art center opened the first weekend of June in 1972, a director and secretary were the only paid staff members; the rest were volunteers.
“It was the members of the (Pueblo) Service League who staffed the art center,” local historian Joan West Dodds said. “They have been involved with every major improvement of the arts center over the last 50 years and as a woman, I am aware that, frankly, that story is not being told.”
West Dodds details the beginning of the arts center and its 50-year history in her book, “Moments to Remember, 1972-2022, The Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center,” which can be found on the Pueblo County Historical Society website.
Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com.
