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By Steve Wood of Concrete Couch
Last Saturday, Concrete Couch, Cool Science and the Business of Art Center (BAC) teamed up to offer a free "phase two" art experience for the Fruitcake Toss.

These groups wanted to offer the community a hands-on project to experience catapults and trebuchets firsthand, and in a creative way. (And there was a feeling that the Fruitcake Toss, by itself, wasn’t crazy enough!).

The BAC in Manitou Springs provided the venue, students Zeb Farmer and Brian Grove lent their homemade "flinging devices," and Cool Science brought construction and physics expertise.

From noon to 4 p.m. about 75 people made their way to the BAC to try their hand at catapult art. They picked their favorite device, loaded it with colors to their specifications, alerted passersby to the impending toss (and flying paint hazard) by yelling "fire in the hole!", and released their devise. The resulting splatter artwork was then moved to a sunny spot to dry, and later to be taken home, to further embellish with markers.

Event organizers felt it was a smashing success: people got to have fun, make art, visit with others, and meet the crew from Concrete Couch and Cool Science. For many participants it was their first visit to the BAC, with its free art galleries, fine crafts, open artist studios, and coffeehouse.

The whole experience put participants in a very Leonardo Da Vinci frame of mind, combining creation, invention and science (and exploding things).

Our next collaborative effort will be the second annual February "Lantern Parade," where middle school students and community people design and create large 3-D creature lanterns. After building, the lighted lanterns will be paraded through Manitou, accompanied by musicians, culminating in hot chocolate revelry. Prospective volunteers can write to: lanterns@concretecouch.org