After 12 years of arts programming, instrument donations, and running the popular Bluebird Music Festival, the Future Arts Foundation is finally getting a permanent home (or nest, if you will).
The organization announced this week that The Lost Bluebird, Future Arts Foundation’s first brick-and-mortar space, will open on Aug. 21 in Longmont. While the exact address has not yet been released, the organization plans to share that information a few weeks before the grand opening.
The Lost Bluebird will give Future Arts Foundation a year-round space for the work it has already been doing across festival stages, classrooms and borrowed rooms: supporting artists, teaching young musicians and creating smaller-scale gatherings around music and art.
The space will also serve as the home base for the Bluebird School, the foundation’s free youth music and arts program, which previously operated out of Broadway Music Studios in Boulder. The songwriting and performance program specifically prioritizes the children of local teachers, first responders, and mental health workers.
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For Future Arts Foundation founder Travis Albright, the Longmont opening is the next step in a project that has been taking shape for more than a decade. Albright, a longtime Boulder County arts organizer and former chief operating officer at Boulder’s eTown, started the foundation in 2014 with the goal of supporting Colorado musicians and getting instruments into the hands of young people who couldn’t otherwise afford them.
The foundation has grown significantly, securing instrument-donation partnerships with major manufacturers like Yamaha and Gibson. Its annual Bluebird Music Festival has also expanded from a scrappy folk festival into an 8,000-person sellout at Macky Auditorium, drawing national acts including Watchhouse, Bruce Hornsby, Ben Harper, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Shakey Graves.
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Now, The Lost Bluebird will allow Future Arts Foundation to bring all of these initiatives under one roof in Longmont.
“For 12 years, we’ve been working toward our own brick-and-mortar location,” Albright said. “This will allow us to feature independent artists, Bluebird Music Festival merchandise, host free music and arts classes via our Bluebird School, and have a monthly gathering of food and music; it’s all of the things we love to do. Plus, we’re going to have a cool little espresso bar on-site, so people can come hang out and enjoy the cool vibes.”
Albright previously noted in April that while the foundation had focused heavily on music in recent years due to the festival’s massive growth, he is eager to use this new space to bring attention back to visual artists as well.
To support the launch and the continuation of the free youth programming, the organization is offering a limited number of founding memberships. Perks include merchandise discounts, access to the preview event, and tickets to monthly dinner-and-concert events.
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