Happy New Year to everyone! I hope that 2015 was good to you and wish everybody a wonderful upcoming 2016. It’s always exciting to look forward to a new year and the exciting things in our future. I’ve always been a progressive person and try to look ahead with lots of optimism and enthusiasm.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to visit with lots of the folks here in Golden and have dropped into several businesses to do my Christmas shopping. But one meeting stands out and made my day for sure. I stopped by the Foothills Art Center and met their new retail manager, R.J. Seidel.

R.J. is a recent transplant for Chicago with an extensive art background. We started talking about the Foothills Art Center, some of it’s history and what it’s future is looking like, and I have to say, I was impressed. He’s a great guy and brings a new outlook to an already well respected home for artists.

For those of you who don’t know, I inherited this column from my Mother, Dorothy Akal. She was a contemporary artist and art teacher herself and a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago. She was involved with the Foothills Art Center at the time it opened and as a result, I have been there to see all 50 years of exhibits and events. In fact, I won first prize in one of their first children’s art competitions back in 1963 when I was only 3 years old, so I’ve seen how much it’s grown through the years. This was back before it was even called the Foothills Art Center and still developing.

In speaking with R.J. Seidel, we got to talking about how there are some significant changes coming up as far as the direction of Foothills Art Center goes and how they are looking forward to the future of art and being more involved in presenting shows that reflect more of the contemporary ideas and messages of art in the 21st century.

One of the first things they have coming up to highlight some of these new concepts is a show called The Engaged Artist — presenting the work of fine craft artists whose work speaks to contemporary social, political, environmental and other issues that concern us today.

This is the kind of exhibition that is a little hard to pinpoint because it includes various art forms from drawings and paintings to sculpture and features things like a glass AK-47 depicting the fragility of war and an illustration of see-through buildings that makes an artistic comment on corporate transparency. All I can say is that from the previews I have seen, this is going to be a very interesting and thought provoking presentation that goes quite a bit outside the box from what you may have come to expect to see at Foothills and brings an exciting new dimension to the Center.

The show will be in the Main Gallery, opening on Jan. 23 and runs through March 26. There will be a member preview reception on Friday, Jan. 22, 5-8 p.m. to kick it off. The Main Gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.- 5p.m. and Sundays from noon- 5 p.m.. They are closed on Mondays.

You can find out more about the show and see the previews I mentioned at www.foothillsartcenter.org. The Foothills Art Center is located at 809 15th Street here in Golden at the top of the hill on Washington Ave.

I look forward to seeing what’s coming up in 2016. Here’s a toast to another great year of music, art, street fairs, great food and drinks, and loads of special events right here in Golden. We have a pretty special town and it’s you, the people who live here that make it so. I consider it a privilege to have grown up here and treasure this little corner of the world. Cheers!