The Art of Belonging: The Beauty of Blackness Fine Arts Show

2020 was a year that changed us all. In many ways, it feels like community gathering and community events are still recovering from the time we were all six feet apart and in our homes. 2020 was also the year that The Beauty of Blackness Fine Arts Show was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, an art show that, over the last six years, has worked to bring together community, fine arts, expression, and love for Black American culture in Northern Colorado.

Louise Cutler was well on her way to putting together the first show when the world shut down, and she could no longer gather in the venue or with her community. Instead of losing this opportunity, she pivoted. She taught the artists how to livestream, how to set up lighting, and they welcomed people into their studios for four days via livestream—finding community through the separation.

Louise Cutler posing at Foothills Mall

That moment of adaptation set the tone for everything that followed.

This was just the beginning. Over the last six years, the show has moved from livestream to the Foothills Mall before finding its home in the Opera Galleria downtown—bringing together a beautiful, underutilized space with a beautiful, underrepresented culture.

Listening to Louise speak about creating The Beauty of Blackness Fine Arts Show, two things become very clear: Louise loves Fort Collins, and she loves Black culture, two things that seemingly do not have much overlap. Fort Collins boasts a statistic of 1.6% of the population being Black, so bringing this show here may seem counterintuitive. But Louise said,

“Fort Collins is the place. I believe in building where you live, and I believe in Fort Collins.”

That belief is woven into every part of the show.

The show promotes appreciation of Fort Collins and the beauty of our community while, at the same time, promoting appreciation of the Black culture within our community.

It all culminates in a fashion show highlighting different aspects of Black fashion, this year focusing on vintage fashion from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, including a Black Panther line-up. Beyond the runway, the experience is deeply personal. The show only displays original artwork. You can interact with the artists in real time, learn about their process, their inspiration, and who they are as people, and, of course, purchase the artwork.

This is another major tenet of Louise’s belief in fine art shows: that they should support the artists who make them possible. After participating in many fine art shows around the nation that were more focused on the bottom line than supporting the well-being of artists, both emotionally and financially, she made it a point to change that when she created her own.

While she curates and organizes the show, she understands that without the artists, none of it would be possible, and they need to be cared for enough to keep going.

That intention comes to life through the artists themselves.

One of those artists is Adderly Grant-Lord, a creator where nothing is impossible, who has spent the last few years focused on bold hues that evoke emotion.

Adderly Grant Lord

Adderly Grant-Lord has been an artist her whole life. She grew up in the Caribbean on the island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines before moving to New Jersey and graduating in Pennsylvania, before attending art school in Pittsburgh and FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) in New York City, graduating with an illustration and fashion design degree. She then lovingly says she followed her husband around for a while, spending time working in art and fashion, including organizing a charity fashion show to benefit the homeless in Indianapolis, eventually landing in Boulder County, Colorado. After years of setting art aside to raise her daughter, this is also where she began to explore this side of herself again.

But returning to art wasn’t simple.

Starting over after a few years away was not as simple as just picking up a paintbrush for Adderly. She admits she was petrified that she may not have the same ability as when she laid the paintbrush down.

“Nothing great comes when you let fear control you.”

Adderly knew just that when she decided to start painting again, in secret. She took her thirty-minute window of time when her daughter was at practice and began painting in her car.If that isn’t the skill of a mother to multitask her way into greatness, I don’t know what is. This new era of creation opened up new worlds of expression for her. While she historically painted realism, this era brought vivid colors, bold expression, and abstract scenes, with a full understanding that nothing is off limits for her. She didn’t care what people thought; she was creating for herself.

Red by Adderly Grant Lord

As she found her way back into the arts world and stepped into the art scene in Boulder County, she looked around and noticed there were no other artists who looked like her. She could not find one African American artist to guide her through breaking into the scene, and over time, she has become that artist for others.

And that realization sparked something bigger.

After participating in art shows where none of the other artists looked like her, and where she continually had to explain that she was, in fact, the artist responsible for her beautiful work, on top of helping her daughter navigate being the only Black student in her classes, Adderly did not see a barrier; she saw an opportunity.

From this opportunity, the Black Futures in Art show was born. What began as a show featuring only three artists has grown into a thirteen-artist exhibition in 2026. This show is a testament to community, creativity, joy, and emotion. It is a space for the unseen artists, the artists that don’t feel like they belong.

“Art is supposed to make you uncomfortable.”

Art doesn’t come with a color or an identity; it comes with a message. Sometimes the paintings have an assignment, and if you are open to what the painting is giving, it will nurture you and give you peace, but it can also disturb you and awaken a darkness you don’t know is in you.

The Beauty of Blackness Fine Arts Show is returning to the Opera Galleria September 3rd–6th, 2026. Come and experience the emotion, the joy, and the darkness that the art will evoke.

For more information, follow along at www.tbobfas.com.