“To Bring Great Entertainment to Great Audiences and to Be A Warm and Welcoming Gathering Place for the Community”
This is something we work hard on every day. We currently are the site for over 150 events per year that range from live music concerts in a wide variety of genres, to art shows, fundraisers and awareness events for non-profits, as well as independent film festivals, corporate events, political forums, and private events.
The basic traits of a successful city are strong businesses, affordable housing, recreation opportunities and a strong arts community. We have lived in Colorado Springs for many years and it is so exciting to see our arts scene exploding! We are thrilled to be in the company of so many others that work for the promotion of the arts every day. Art is that wonderful frosting on the cake of life!
For our community art appreciators, we at Stargazers focus on providing an accessible, enjoyable, affordable, comfortable and inspirational experience, no matter what type of event they are joining us for. We keep our ticket prices as low as we can, providing free parking, reasonable prices on food and beverage, great customer service, great sound and a fun and unique environment. We feel that art belongs as a part of everyday life, not just on special, expensive occasions.
For our community artists, an important focus for us since the beginning of Stargazers is to spotlight the amazing amount of high quality talent that we have right here in Colorado Springs and along the front range and we do that by joining that talent with touring international or national talent whenever possible. We work to convince booking agents- sometimes not an easy task- that any of our concerts will have a much better turn out for their artist when we team them with a talented community artist that performs a similar genre. It is so amazing to see the artists meet and talk and exchange experiences and come away with inspiration and new ideas. The touring artist has an evening with a bigger crowd because of the influence of our community artists and our community artists win new local fans that may not have had the chance to get to know them previously.
“Stargazers is the premier live music venue in southern Colorado, bringing national acts to an intimate setting not to mention they are THE BIGGEST supporter of local music. I'm happy to say I've been a part of the Stargazers family since they opened the doors and I couldn't think of the Colorado Springs Art community without it! “
Austin Johnson, Blues Guitarist and member of Justus League.
“Since the opening of Stargazers Theatre, few have done as much to promote the thriving Music & Arts Community in Colorado Springs as Cindy & John Hooton. They have done much to nourish the talents of many upcoming artists and musicians by giving them a place to display their talents. There is no doubt that this is truly a labor of love on their part.”
Rikki Dee Hall, Founder and Lead Singer and guitarist - The Voodoo Hawks
We also work to support our community’s visual artists, established and “budding”, by providing gallery wall space in foyer and throughout the theatre offering the opportunity to sell their work without a heavy commission, an important perk for our established visual artists. We have literally sold artwork right off the wall! We are not open to the public every day, but we do have crowds of up to 500 during events and we do encourage them to enjoy the art, sometimes hosting openings for the artists on days that we have concerts and providing complimentary tickets to their guests for that evenings event.
For our budding visual artists, having their work displayed makes an important impact:
“As the Creative Director of Young Vision, an organization devoted to providing art programs for under-resourced and marginalized youth in this area, I am so grateful to the Hooton’s for their support in exhibiting artwork done by this population. The youth who have participated are validated in their efforts when their work is displayed in a public venue. This contributes immensely to their sense of self-worth and gives them confidence in their creative abilities.”
Elizabeth Stanbro -Visual Artist and Art Teacher
With the many moving pieces it takes to create an enjoyable event, we use our creativity to the maximum every day. It can be exhausting and involves a lot of long hours to make it work but there is nothing more rewarding to us then to realize halfway through an event that something magical has occurred- we have paired the right artist with the right audience and they are enjoying each other and living totally in the moment- while creating wonderful memories together.
