The TANK Center for Sonic Arts has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $15,000.
This grant supports Connecting Colorado, an artist residency program bringing artists from the ATLAS B2 Center for Media Arts & Performance to the TANK Center for Sonic Arts in Rangely. Additionally, B2’s Black Box Experimental Studio will present TANK programming created by the resident artists.
“This award will directly benefit our rural community on the Western Slope,” said TANK Executive Director James Paul. “Plus it will introduce the Front Range community to the TANK’s resonant offerings, expanding the TANK’s reach across Colorado.”
Connecting Colorado has already been happening for a year, thanks to grant funding from CU Boulder’s Office for Public & Community-Engaged Scholarship. CU artists Gracie Fagan, Phu Le and Joel Ferst came to the TANK in May of 2024, and composer Alan Mackwell brought a string trio to record and perform in the TANK last September. Mackwell’s work, Rail Dynamics, will be presented at the B2 on February 8th (see below for more info).
“We’re so excited about this program,” said Ondine Geary, Managing Director of the B2 Center. “It nurtures a mutually beneficial relationship between two of Colorado’s most renowned and interesting acoustic spaces.”
Alan Mackwell’s Rail Dynamics
Black Box Experimental Studio (2B level)
Roser ATLAS Building on the University of Colorado Boulder campus
1125 18th Street
Boulder, Colorado
Saturday, February 8
6:30 to 8pm
FREE
Rail Dynamics is multi-movement work for string trio and fixed media, structured as ten landscape-style movements and inspired by a defunct rail line in northern New Mexico’s high desert.
The work was premiered and recorded at The TANK Center for the Sonic Arts on September 22, 2024, as part of Connecting Colorado, a residency program bringing CU artists to the TANK.
Jordan Grantonic (violin), Emma Reynolds (viola), and Peyton Magalhaes (cello).
This event is a FREE lights-out listening session, curated by members of the B2 community. Sounds will be spatialized on the 40.4 spatial audio array in the ATLAS B2 Black Box Experimental Studio. Cushions and pillows on the floor and some chairs are available for seating. Participants are also encouraged to move around the space while listening to spatial audio music and sound art. Reservations required.
What’s the TANK?
The TANK is a unique arts organization in Rangely, Colorado, dedicated to a seven-story water tank that possesses an extraordinary acoustic resonance, a reverberation longer and richer than the Taj Mahal’s.
In 1976, sound artist Bruce Odland was shown the place by two Rangely residents and immediately knew that he had happened upon a treasure.
For years after Odland’s discovery, the TANK was a secret performance and recording space for a dedicated group of sound artists and musicians, as well as a beloved hangout for the town.
Today the TANK Center for Sonic Arts is a nonprofit arts organization, a recording studio and concert venue, a haven for the local community, and a one-of-a-kind destination for artists, sonic explorers and curious visitors, who learn to listen in a whole new way.
What Happens There?
The TANK’s recording program serves musicians, sonic artists and ordinary folks, coaches them in making their own music in the Tank, and gives them a professional quality recording of the results.
More basic and informal is the TANK’s free, Open Saturdays program, popular with Rangely folks, who come together to sing in the TANK, as featured in a 2016 CBS Sunday Morning segment about the place.
Each season the TANK produces two major ticketed concerts and a bunch of free concerts by visiting artists. It also produces offsite free concerts and events in the local assisted living center, the town park, the local schools and elsewhere.
The TANK embraces a wide community of artists and visitors from all over, who trek to Rangely to record and attend concerts. The TANK reaches folks nationally with its remote recording and presenting, its online offerings, and its new record label, Round Sound.
Photo: The Tank
The TANK Wins $15,000 Award from the National Endowment for the Arts
