Before it was filled with movies, dance, theater, and visual art, the building was literally a dairy. After the former milk-processing facility was abandoned in the 1980s, a group of local artists began imagining what else it could become. Among them was an experimental filmmaker, and the original vision focused on a community where artists could live, create, perform, and show their work under one roof.

Today, as many as 150 organizations use spaces at the Dairy Arts Center each year, regularly filling the building with a mix of film, visual art, dance, music, and theater. One local theater leader even dubbed the Dairy “Boulder’s Grand Central Station for the arts,” Fathman says. At the venue, artists and audiences cross paths in the lobby, trade notes about what they’ve seen, and might even be inspired to create something in real time.

Last summer, Turkish American artist Belgin Yücelen’s exhibition Matter Over Mind: Art, Science, and Materials Reimagined filled the Dairy with work exploring the relationship between art, science, and the materials that surround us. After encountering Yücelen’s work, dancer and choreographer Celia Perarnaud of Oracle Performance Ensemble was inspired to create a new dance piece in response to the work.

For Fathman, moments like that capture the essence of the Dairy: Here, artists work alongside one another and can influence what someone else creates next. That sensibility feels in line with New Frontier, where experimentation, creative interaction, and the mix of disciplines are part of the point. “We certainly are always promoting experimental things, ideas, emerging artists,” Fathman says.