Pop culture: 25 years ago
This year, Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center turns a ripe 25 years old. From its humble beginning as an actual dairy center, to the arts hub it is now, Boulder’s art scene was enriched by the inception of the thriving multi-disciplinary arts hub, executive director Bill Obermeier said. To transport back a quarter of a century, here are some pop-culture events that reigned in 1992, when George H.W. Bush was in his last year as president:
• NBA team Chicago Bulls was in the midst of its first championship three-peat
• The cost of a Super Bowl ad was $850,000, compared to this year’s average 30-second ad averaging $5 million, according to the New York Times.
• Popular Christmas gifts included a Barney Talking Doll, according to Yahoo.
• MTV introduced “The Real World” to a world that would later starve for music videos
• Singer Sinead O’Connor (“Nothing Compares 2 U”) tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live,” saying, “fight the real enemy”
• Minnesota’s Mall of America, spanning 78 acres, opened its doors, becoming the largest shopping mall in the U.S.
• Microsoft released Windows 3.1
• A container with 28,000 rubber ducks went missing, with the bath toys still washing ashore today
• Bill Clinton spoke his never-forgotten words: “I didn’t inhale.” (Come to Colorado, Bill.) He was also named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1992.
• “Barney and Friends” was first televised on PBS (Take it back, 1992, take it back.)
• “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” aired its final show on NBC
• CDs outsold cassette tapes for the first time in the U.S.
• “Aladdin” was the top-grossing movie, followed by “Home Alone 2” and “Batman Returns”
• “60 Minutes” took top TV show honors, followed by “Roseanne” and “Home Improvement”
• Some songs that topped at No. 1 during 1992 were: “I’m Too Sexy,” by Right Said Fred; “Jump,” by Kris Kross; “Baby Got Back,” by Sir Mix-A-Lot; and “I Will Always Love You,” by Whitney Houston
• New home average cost: $122,500
• Average income per year: $30,030
• Monthly rent average: $519
• A gallon of gas cost : $1.05
Sources: culture.us/Annual/1992, boxofficemojo.com, New York Times, Yahoo, cencus.gov, Billboard
The building that sits at 2590 Walnut St. used to house one of Boulder’s favorite ice cream spots.
The longtime Watts-Hardy Dairy sold its facility to Sinton Dairy, which shuttered its Boulder operation in the late-1980s. This is when a group of local artists began to use the plant for performances and art events. In 1992, the Dairy Arts Center, as it’s now known, was born.
This arts hub soon grew into exactly what Boulder needed at the time, said executive director Bill Obermeier. It became a place for local arts to thrive.
“Because of the Dairy, Boulder has developed a very robust and thriving theater community and a robust dance community,” Obermeier said. “The Dairy has really given people a whole new perspective on the arts and it’s given a lot of artists and arts organizations an opportunity to express themselves.”
Twenty-five years later, the Dairy is celebrating its silver anniversary. The festivities already kick off at the Silver Soiree fundraiser event on Thursday, Feb. 9, and the party will continue all year with various events that highlight different cultures, Obermeier said.
“If you think about the diversity of issues and cultures,” said Obermeier, “one of the highlights for me is it’s all happening at the Dairy.”
Obermeier said the Dairy helped change the face of the arts in Boulder by providing its “much needed” performance space. He noted that the facility’s three theaters has offered performing groups in Boulder to have a place to ply their trade.
Developing the Dairy
Obermeier said some key milestones in the Dairy’s 25-year lifetime include generous board members keeping the vision alive through donations, the birth of the various theaters, which morphed the center into a performing arts hub — and the passage in 2014 of Issue 2A, which funneled some city money into the operation to shape it into a renovated 42,000-square-foot facility that houses visual arts, theater, film, dance and music.
“The opening of the Boedecker Theater, Boulder’s art cinema, was a really big deal, and that initiated the renovations of the Dairy,” said Obermeier, noting that the Boedecker Foundation helped make things come to fruition. “The opening of the Boedecker Theater put the Dairy on more people’s map.”
Obermeier said the seed for a renovation was on the drawing board a decade ago. It was when city funds came through after Issue 2A, which was “overwhelmingly approved,” that the Dairy was “shovel-ready, the project was designed and ready to go,” Obermeier said.
A $1 million dollar gift from Gordon and Grace Gamm in 2014 put the Dairy closer to completion. Obermeier said the center is currently “close to 90 percent done.”
Future of the Dairy
“The milestone yet to come is the completion of the building,” said Obermeier. A rear entry, an elevator, a family lounge and a lobby for the Carson Theater remain to be completed. This final stage will cost about $750,000 more, Obermeier said.
Obermeier said that if he could make dreams come true (and funding could magically appear, he said, laughing), in another 25 years he envisions a Dairy Arts Center with a second story that would house rehearsal studios, a rotating artist-in-residence studio and a parking garage to make the public’s visits more convenient.
“I also envision the Dairy expanding,” Obermeier said. “We’re starting to work on collaborations and partnerships with other organizations. We’d like to get where some of our programming could go on the road to be performed in other communities so that instead of people always coming to the Dairy, the Dairy will be able to come to them, so to speak.
“If I was dreaming, that would be my dream in 25 years from now.”
Programming to come
“We are going to hit the ground running with music,” said music director Jim Bailey in a December interview, of the Dairy in its 25th year. “We’re going to make a splash … with our jazz concerts.”
Obermeier said he’s particularly excited about a couple upcoming shows that have “completely different approaches to jazz.”
On Feb. 25-26 will feature the “Night Train to Saudade,” what Obermeier called “a jazz spectacular.” It includes Boulder flugelhorn master David Fulker, Grammy-winner Don Grusin and jazz singers Robert Johnson and Teresa Carroll. They will “headline an exotic night train,” the Dairy’s website reads. Obermeier said the concert is in such high demand, they added a second show.
Obermeier said he’s also looking forward to two nights of two “outstanding” Fairview High School choirs on Feb. 23-24. The choirs are female vocal jazz ensemble Age of Guinevere and mixed-jazz choir Excalibur, both recently returned from New Orleans after performing at the national Jazz Education Network Convention. Age of Guinevere was the first all-female group to perform at the convention, Obermeier said.
“This is an opportunity for the community to get to hear these two outstanding high school choirs,” said Obermeier. “This is a chance for Boulder to witness what makes them so great and to witness what they did at the national jazz convention, which is very cool.”
Other notable events:
• Several national stars will be visiting Boulder and the Dairy, including: Violin virtuoso Karen Bentley Pollick on March 4; Washington, D.C.-based Tango Trio “Trifilio” on April 5; Los Angeles composer/pianist Reena Esmail on May 3; New York composer/author/filmmaker Payton Macdonald on May 3; and international string trio Ensemble Epomeo on May 17.
• “Alive” on March 4, will feature music from University of Colorado professor Carter Pann, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his saxophone quartet “The Mechanics”
• A “Soundscape World Beat” concert on March 8 will feature authentic music from Mexico, Bali and India
• The 5th annual Boulder Jewish Film Festival will be held at the Dairy from March 9-19
• Sept. 9 will feature the fourth-annual Dairy Center Honors and Obermeier said it will be a special event honoring the silver anniversary.
“The arts gives us an opportunity to experience a different culture,” said Obermeier. “The arts, I believe, make us better human beings. They make us more thoughtful and give us new perspectives.
“The arts help us have new empathy and help us talk about issues in a more civil manner than the typical political process and they give hope to people.”
Cheers to 25 years of arts, Dairy.
Christy Fantz: 303-473-1107, fantz@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/fantzypants
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