MANITOU SPRINGS — The Commonwheel Art Festival attracts thousands of people over Labor Day weekend. The event itself is part of a greater purpose - a group of artists supporting artists.
Art comes in many forms at the festival.
"I think God paints a beautiful canvas around us and I just want to capture it through my lens and be able to share it with other people," said photographer Tina Rodholm.
"It's recycled and repurposed and I like to use stuff that Mother Earth is not going to absorb, whatever the landfill does not absorb, the plastic of the films, the microfiche," said artist Marta Lacombe.
Crowds make their way to Manitou Springs for the Commonwheel Art Festival. It is also a preferred destination for artists.
"We only do one show a year and this is it," said jewelry artist Ginny Maiolo.
"This show is incredible. The people that come understand art, they appreciate what you're doing," Lacombe said.
The show is an extension of the Commonwheel Artists Co-op, which has a storefront in downtown Manitou Springs.
"We're currently the longest running co-op in the state of Colorado, 52 years this year," Rodholm said, "It's kind of nice to commiserate with each other and to share ideas and to collaborate as well."
"There are 39 local artists there and we all own a piece of the Commonwheel," Maiolo said,"It feels like our company, our space, and we enjoy working with the other artists and seeing what they're doing," Maiolo said.
Once a year, the co-op artists make an even larger welcoming space for other artists to join them in a Manitou Springs park. It boosts business for the Labor Day weekend and entices people to return to the shop through the year.
"This is definitely good marketing for us," Maiolo said.
When the festival is over, most of the artists at the festival head out to other communities where the work and live. A half dozen or so, head just down the road to their storefront in the heart of Manitou Springs.
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