Doug Lamborn is a man of many letters. That is, he inspires a lot of strong feelings from people, who write letters to the Indy and other publications talking about how pissed off they are at the congressman.

That's probably the most non-partisan thing I can write about him, since the focus of this blog is that the 5th Congressional District Representative, with his wife Jeanie, will attend tonight's opening reception for Cottonwood Center for the Arts' Congressional Art Competition.

The Congressional Art Competition is a nationwide program started in 1982 that engages high school artists to show their efforts in local galleries with the chance to then exhibit in Washington, D.C. Tonight, a winner from the group will have his or her work displayed in the Capitol for one year and receive D.C. plane tickets, museum tickets and scholarships.

According to the competition's website, students submit their work to their local district representative and a panel of artists will select a winner.

The show features over 100 pieces from high school and home school students district-wide, Cottonwood says. In addition, it will also hang work from Ridgeview Elementary students upstairs "to show our continued support for student art and art in schools."

The reception runs from 5-8 p.m. and will have refreshments provided by the El Paso County Republican Women.

From the listings desk: Music and art meet again at the hands of Michele "Nelly" Johnson, a woman who told the Indy last June that she wanted to create events that blended sight and sound like the kind she was used to in her hometown Minneapolis.

Her effort, We Are Not Rembrandt, was such a success she hosted another, and now she's back with No. 3, slated for 6 p.m., Saturday, March 9 at Zodiac (230 Pueblo Ave.) A $5 door fee gets you 13 artists and six gigs. Here's the line-up:

• Artists:

K8E ORR
J9 Glass
Steffany Suze
Jeremy McAnally
Lexi Harris
Marcea Flowers
Jesse Allen Rozell
Sara McCandless
Miranda Davie
Marisa Madge
Heather Barlow
Carrie Miller
Michele "Nelly" Johnson

• Acts:

Chauncy Crandall
Bryan Ostrow
Andrea Stone and friends
Moonhoney
Floaty Raft
RayDio

In WANR tradition, Johnson will take donations for a local nonprofit, and like last time, it's going to All Breed Rescue & Training.

Click here for more info on the event.

Like most people, I trashed just about everything my boyfriend had given me after we broke up. What was personal I dumped in the garbage, what was possibly meaningful to someone else, I gave to Goodwill.

That's the way it usually goes when two people part, because when relationships end, they are usually deemed failures, and we move on, eager to forget. However, the Museum of Broken Relationships seeks to change that outlook.

• Museum of Broken Relationships
• All's fair in love, even curating the breakup.

Far from a punchline, or a Chicken Soup for the Soul-style pity party, the museum wants donations of objects that once meant the world to still mean something. A token of shared human suffering, an offering of closure of a chapter in one's life, "be it sheer exhibitionism, therapeutic relief, or simple curiosity — people embraced the idea of exhibiting their love legacy as a sort of a ritual, a solemn ceremony," reads the website.

Each of the items in the museum's holdings comes with a story from its donor. These include a cell phone — "He gave me his cell phone so I couldn’t call him any more" — a wedding dress, a "Divorce Day Mad Gnome" with a suitably crazy story and pink fuzzy handcuffs. Naturally.

While the brick-and-mortar museum resides in Zagreb, Croatia (home of its founders, who broke up), portions of the collection travel internationally. And one portion is currently on display at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.

BMoCA's 40-"story" exhibit opened on Valentine's Day (of course) and runs through May 26. It couches the show in the same philosophical terms as the collection's parent:

[A]s more and more people experience several significant relationships during their lifetime, with second and third marriages becoming increasingly common, we begin to acknowledge that our expectations and needs change as much as we do as we live longer, more educated, and self-determined lives. Simultaneously, the notion that the person we spent part of our life with was just “the wrong one” and should be erased from our memory becomes less plausible.

If the breaking-up thing is too much of a bummer though, you can, instead of parting with your relationship mementos, create a new one with BMoCA's March 1 HeARTifacts: a workshop for pARTners.

With your boo — or anyone, really — you collaborate to map your partnership. Using some guidance from an instructor, pairs will create a timeline of their relationship and divine meaning from what they've made. "Each participating couple will develop a personal atlas charting how their relationship started and developed as well as how it will continue in the future."

The workshop lasts three hours, supplies food and drink, and costs $45 to $50 per pair. Interested? Call 303/443-2122 to sign up. And if you're flying solo, you can check out the rest of the museum for a mere $4 to $5 any day of the week except Mondays.

Tidbits from the scene:

• A heart for art: The Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region announced today that it's going to get involved in the upcoming local elections by talking with the candidates in March "to share insights and information about the arts." It's also looking for volunteers to become an "arts advocate" for the community. You can download "advocacy tools" from COPPeR's website on how to do it solo, or sign up to help COPPeR with festivals, fundraising events, art openings and more.

In other COPPeR news, the Peak Arts Fund kicks off March 7.

• Mark your calendar: Aficionados Luncheon with Michael Howell, registrar and collections manager for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Howell will discuss the Colorado College Southwest Collection, which "consists of Native American objects collection through various expeditions throughout the southwest — conducted independently of, and by, Colorado College — from 1893 to 1940." Howell will also talk about key items in the collection and the relationship between the FAC and CC. A buffet lunch will be served.

Wednesday, Feb. 27, noon. Gaylord Hall in CC's Worner Student Center, 902 N. Cascade Ave. $17. RSVP to 389-6334 or swshulbert@coloradocollege.edu by Feb. 22.

• If you missed it: Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico: Architecture, Katsinam, and the Land opened at the Denver Art Museum Sunday. This series of 53 works covers O'Keeffe's interest in Hopi katsinam, or supernatural beings, along with the natural and man-made landscape she loved. Real katsinam figures and photographs of Native American ceremonies like those O'Keeffe saw are included in the show.

Through April 28. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy., Denver. Included in general admission: $3-$13 for nonmembers, free for members.

• Denver Art Museum
• Georgia O'Keeffe, "Paul's kachina"

• On the air: If you remember our recent cover story on blossoming local arts institutions, you may recall that Cottonwood Center for the Arts has plans to be on Roadtrip Radio once a month. Roadtrip is a local show that airs at 8 some Saturday mornings on KREL-AM 1580.

Cottonwood was last aired Jan. 27, and the next time it'll be on is Feb. 24.

In the meantime, Cottonwood is gearing up for its 30th Congressional Art Show, opening Feb. 22 (there's a reception that night starting at 5.) Read more about it here.

• The Cottonwood crew, including executive director Jon Khoury, on the far right.

• Left coast-bound: The FAC announced that its first Museum Society trip outside the state will be to Los Angeles in April (we first introduced the Society in the same cover story mentioned above). The four-day itinerary includes a private tour of the Getty Villa with curator Claire Lyons, a private reception at the Weisman Art Foundation and a visit to the home of collectors Cliff and Mandy Einstein.

The trip is available only to Society members, so keep this in mind if you're thinking about joining. Contact Tom Jackson tjackson@csfineartscenter.org for sign-up information.

Everybody loves mash-ups and crossovers. Hell, it's slash fiction that brought us 50 Shades of Grey.

But for something a little more inventive, and far more skillful, look no further than local artist Joe Bonomo's newest painting series that mixes steampunk with the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Bonomo, who has shown at the Hayden Hays Gallery, and the Modbo, only recently started experimenting with steampunk styles after focusing mostly on figurative and landscape work.

Now Bonomo wants to mix the Peter Max psychedelia with the Victorian-meets-Wild West vibe of steampunk. According to the press release ,he says, “The style of these paintings could be interpreted as Sergeant Pepper meets Nikola Tesla."

He's starting now with a series of "character sketches" to develop his ideas and serve as a teaser for paintings that will depict "the lives and stories of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Bonomo doesn't have a set date for the finished versions, but he is currently showing at Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts, and will attend the opening this Saturday.

In the meantime, here are some of his sketches:

• Joe Bonomo
• Sergeant Pepper

• Joe Bonomo
• Mr. Kite

• Joe Bonomo
• Lovely Rita

What does Brazilian dance have in common with motorcycle culture? Crêpes and the physics of color? How about the Salem witch trials and bicycles?

Well, probably not much, but you'll never find out unless you drop into one of the next ChitChat sessions from the Galleries of Contemporary Art. It's now in its third second season, but for you newbies out there, it's a series of paired lectures from experts in disparate fields. So, for the crêpe/color night, you'll hear about physics from Dr. Tom Christensen from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and food from Turu Marx Eurich of Coquette's Bistro & Bakery.

Better, ChitChats are all hands-on, "often edible learning!" says the website, so be prepared to eat a little, practice magic tricks or, perhaps, samba. It's a pretty good deal, considering it's free to UCCS students, and asks for a donation of $5 from GOCA members and $10 from the general public.

ChitChat begins Feb. 20, with each session starting at 6:30 p.m. with wine, beer and snacks followed by the program. They all take place downtown at GOCA 121.

Art on the Streets turns 15 this summer, and its organizers are looking for artists to contribute to this year's outdoor public art display.

Any entry should be durable enough to stand up outdoors, and appropriate for a public setting. Plus, it should be fairly large — the call suggests three feet (vertical or horizontal), minimum. Artists should submit mock-ups or images of the work, a plan for installation, an artist's statement and a narrative description of the work. According to the application, "proposals using alternative materials, and/or creative use of space is encouraged."

As usual, the awards for the top works are generous: $15,000 for first prize, $7,500 for second prize and $2,500 for third prize. The honors will be decided by exhibit juror Blake Milteer, museum director for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

The deadline for submissions is March 4; artists will be notified March 15, and the works will go on display in June, the same time the awards will be announced.

For more information on the application process, and to submit, click here. And for a look at last year's competition, click here.

It was brought to our attention Wednesday that an item in this week's cover story was not correct.

We referenced a Colorado Springs Business Journal story that alluded to the Downtown Partnership allocating $500,000 for the fledgling Alleyscapes project. That's an initiative to create a mixed-use arts alley district in the alleyway between Cascade Avenue and Tejon Street, stretching from East Platte Avenue to East Kiowa Street. But the Journal had erroneous information.

For one thing, the Downtown Partnership is not involved in providing Alleyscapes funds. We spoke with Nick Kittle, manager of administrative services and innovation with the city, who told us that money going toward the alley (1) will come from the Parking Enterprise; (2) is intended to improve safety and (3) won't amount to the figure quoted.

To begin, the Parking Enterprise, which Kittle manages, will have money allocated for several projects this year, alley improvements being one. However, there are two other projects that take priority: one to install streetlights or re-lamp existing ones between Boulder and Cache la Poudre streets, more effectively linking downtown and Colorado College. The other is to build some streetscape improvements on South Tejon Street near SouthSide Johnny's.

At this point, the city is still working on the cost for the Boulder-Cache lighting project. Once that's known, it will be able to figure how much it will be left over for the other initiatives.

Also, Kittle reiterates, the alley project has safety in mind. Should more lighting and even ground help a concept like the Arts Alley District, then that's even better.

In today's paper, we wrote about Ballet Folklorico de la Raza's trip to perform at the inauguration parade in Washington, D.C. The Mexican folk dance group represented the entire state in the parade, at a great cost. Ballet founder Connie Benavidez says they needed to raise about $15,000 to go, and now she's still working to pay it back.

To help, the group will host a fundraiser with dancing, food and a silent auction Saturday, Feb. 16 starting at 6 p.m. at the Fraternal Order of Eagles club at 1830 N. Academy Blvd.

In the meantime though, the group is basking in the glory of the trip, despite their blisters from the lengthy parade route. Here are some shots of the group, as well as a video from C-SPAN:

Colorado Springs must feel like Jan Brady right now.

Pueblo! Pueblo! Pueblo!

Always getting the arts and culture awards, that Pueblo. Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, grants from the Boettcher Foundation and now, the 2013 Governor's Arts Award from Colorado Creative Industries.

Yesterday, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced that the Steel City and Aspen were the winners of the coveted award, which recognizes a city for "collective efforts to enhance their community and their economy through strategic use of the arts," says CCI's press release.

The release includes this quote from Pueblo City Manager Sam Azad: "In Pueblo, art is the cord that ties us to our past and links us to our future."

Why did these two cities win? "[T]he review panel commended Aspen for their unparalleled long-term commitment to the arts and Pueblo for leveraging the arts to revitalize their community."

Both will be presented their awards at the Second Annual Creative Industries Summit, happening April 12 in ... Pueblo.

Colorado Springs was nominated, at least, along with Lone Tree and Broomfield.

We've already written extensively about Mark Wong, who will display 1,000 crane platters as part of the Galleries of Contemporary Art's upcoming Ceramica: Contemporary Clay show. However, we had yet to touch on the two other artists slated to show with him, Daniel Bare and Valerie Zimany of South Carolina's Clemson University.

• GOCA
• Del Harrow's "Machine Botany" detail.

And sadly, we won't, since Zimany and Bare had to back out of the show due to their infant son's illness. "While we are disappointed to lose the chance to highlight this duo's innovative work in ceramic installation, sometimes you cannot control the circumstances," GOCA's press release says. "We hope to bring them out at some point in the future for a different project."

Two Colorado artists will take their place: Corie Cole and Del Harrow. GOCA says they "are incredibly innovative in their field — Cole traveled to China to create the project we will be highlighting, while Harrow has been receiving significant national and international attention and was recently featured in the "Overthrown" ceramics-focused exhibit at the Denver Art Museum."

• GOCA
• Elaine K. Ng's "We Were On Our Way Home" detail

Still showing with Wong, Cole and Harrow are Jerry Wayne Morris, who will create a new, site-specific installation for the show, and Elaine K. Ng of the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art.

The show opens at GOCA 121 on Friday, Feb. 8, with a reception and artist talks. Look out for more coverage from the Indy in coming weeks.