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Artrageous Arts Community is an artistic community and an American touring and virtual
performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
company. Formed in 2014 from a theater arts community, the group was first established in 1980 in Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beach ...
. The community began doing
street theater Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or university ...
in the 80's before growing into an internationally renowned touring band, The Pink Flamingos, as well as performance painters in 1998 with the act The 3 Painters. In 2014 the troupe combined their diverse artistic backgrounds into one show called Artrageous. With a history of over 3000 shows performed as an artistic community and averaging over 100 theater performances per year as Artrageous, the troupe has appeared on TV programs, had multiple national and international tours, and has been featured as primary performers and educators for educational institutions and corporations throughout North America and abroad.


The Live Experience

Artrageous is known for its blend of multiple art forms into a single, interactive live concert experience for all ages. They are based out of their community studio center and production offices located between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
''“Artrageous is really all about the arts, We try to throw as many different arts as possible on one stage. So if you come to an Artrageous show, you're going to see live painting, music, singing, dancing, comedy and audience interaction, and the artists are always collaborating with the musicians, to try to complete their portraits in the amount of time it takes to do the songs. It's always just like a rush to the finish - every note is being taken up with creating a masterpiece.”'' ''Lauri Francis''
Artrageous performances are high-energy and crafted to feature
immersive theater Immersive theater differentiates itself from traditional theater by removing the stage and Audience immersion, immersing audiences within the performance itself. Often, this is accomplished by using a specific location (''Site-specific theatre, sit ...
encouraging audience participation and typically highlighting several genres of music, dance, puppetry, storytelling, and speed-painted visual art. Artrageous performances feature 10-12 multi-talented performers in a 90-minute, high-energy, participatory concert, and fine art event. The various concert elements are highlighted by speed-painted re-creations of iconic works of art ( DaVinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’, Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’), colorful portraits of iconic pop culture figures (
Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter who achieved global fame as the lead vocalist and pianist of the rock band Queen (band), Queen. Regarded as one of the gre ...
,
Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
,
Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...
,
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
,
Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
,
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...
,
Vincent Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...
,
Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country' ...
,
Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...
,
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...
,
Martin Luther King, Jr Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his ...
.,
Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...
and more) and American patriotic-themed folk art (American Eagle,
Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...
). Artrageous paintings, created live-in-concert, are often auctioned for charity and are on display throughout the United States and internationally in public and private galleries and collections. Each Artrageous show typically concludes with an impromptu on-stage gallery event, where audience members are invited to view the art created during the show as well as meet and interact with the performers.


Artistic Community

The artistic community Artrageous calls home is a self-sustaining gathering of like-minded artisans,
entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...
and persons of all ages and backgrounds, with a 40+ year history living and working together.  The cohesive element, and a clear distinctive of the group, is their goal to unite persons around the world in service to a re-awakening to the importance of art and community - and how these naturally bring people together to enhance quality of life and health.
''“Artrageous wants to provide an atmosphere where people can participate and not just observe'' ''—'' ''so, for us, it's all about interacting with the arts. Our message is that it's important to work with others, as creating art is a whole other level of team work...no two shows are the same, because of the creative aspect of the experience.”'' ''John DeWolf , Director''
Artrageous emphasizes a communal effort in their approach to performance and show design.  Themes such as inclusivity, teamwork, and the belief that the spotlight is meant to be shared are evident in their performances and business ethic. No single performer is featured as a “star”, and audience members are often included on stage as co-performers during several portions of their shows.


Artist Residencies

Artrageous Arts Community also offers residency opportunities on their campus in New Mexico to people from around the world. Over 200 people from 18 countries have participated in their community where they feature “activities and tools for transformation: Meditation, movement, music, art & exploration. They have provided workshops in visual, performing, musical, and literary arts to guests as well as business for artist skills. Through their touring show Artrageous, they have also done residencies in different communities. These have included Arrow Rock, Missouri at the Lyceum Theatre in 2021, and Huntsville Alabama with Broadway Theatre League 2021, which focused on giving back to healthcare workers after the covid-19 pandemic.


History & Milestones


1980's

* Canadian Busking Troupe * Bunraku Puppet Theater * All and Everything Theater (1980-1984) * Comedy, "Dracula" with New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (1982) * Frankie and the Corvettes (1981-1987) * The Pink Flamingos (1988–present)


1990's

* Flamingo Express (1996-2014) * Art Explosion (1997–present)


2000's

* The 3 Painters (2002–present)


2010's

* Artrageous (2014–present) * Artreach (2014–present) * Residency Program (2018–present) * Artreach Summer Camp (2022)


2020's

* Artrageous Live Online (2020) * Artreach Summer Camp (2022)


Artreach, Education and Charity

As an arts community, service to others has always been a strong motivator for the company. They believe the arts are a critical piece to childhood education and can help develop empathy. In 2014, Artreach, a behind-the-scenes version of the Artrageous show was developed specifically for students. Artragous has donated over 100 Artreach shows to communities around the United States. Artrageous performers put on a 45-minute educational presentation followed by a question-and-answer segment between students and performers. The troupe has also created a study guide for students (K-College age) and teachers to engage with the arts outside of the performance. In March 2020, a live Artrageous Performance helped the Geary Community Hospital raise 1 million dollars. In 2022, Artreach led its debut children’s art summer camp in Albuquerque, partnering with the African American Performing Arts Center (APAC) in Albuquerque, NM. This was made possible by PNM Electric, The McCune Foundation, APAC, One Albuquerque, and others. This allowed the camp to be free for its participants, who were middle-school aged children with a focus on low-income students. The camp aimed to instill different positive values, such as creativity, teamwork, determination, inclusivity, and strength, and culminated in an interdisciplinary student performance for their families at the end of the 5 days.
"A focus of the community’s endeavors is to create opportunities for people to participate and be included. “It's not often that kids...get to participate or even be on a stage in their whole lives. So we try to create those memorable moments.” Lauri Francis
Artrageous donates the paintings completed during their shows to their theater or company patron as a tool to raise funds and awareness for the arts. Through visual art donations, Artrageous have helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars for charities all over the country and has been auctioned for up to $19,000 each at public and private auctions. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout North America, Artrageous sought to offset the wider cultural impact, and their own canceled slate of tour dates. In the spring of 2020 they created Artrageous Live, an audience-first outreach, via their online presence on Facebook. Offered at no cost, with the slogan, "Turning Isolation into Inspiration", Artrageous Live is an entertaining and educational set of live and recorded video offerings including performances, games, classes for painting, singing, dancing, juggling and drawing, guest interviews and peeks behind-the-scenes of their production facility outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Each class and event is then saved for later views and are available through their Facebook page. ''“As responsible parents, teachers and members of planet earth, we all see the effects of technology on our future generations. We understand the need for something more. We understand the critical importance of creatively using your body, mind and emotions.”'' Lauri Francis


Community Culture

A unique element of Artrageous is that in addition to being performers they also do their own production, show design, videography, logistics, marketing, web development, and promotions all in-house, with the varied skills of their community members. Their troupe members all wear multiple hats within their organization, which they attribute to a high quality of life and personal growth. "We're everything: we're the drivers, we're the crew, we set up, we're the performers, we're the marketing team, we're the sales team. Yup, we're it, " said Lauri Francis. They have worked with
Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
companies and other corporations since the 90's to design custom events featuring high-energy art performances resulting in a complete experience for the audience; from walking in the theater to after the show with the live, on-stage gallery.


Commissioned Projects and Installations

Artrageous has been involved in several commissioned projects such as the building of a 35’ foot tall Abraham Lincoln in the style of the Lincoln Memorial; the original Musical Comedy ‘Dracula’ performed with the New Mexico Symphony; the full
Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the or (puppeteers), the (chanters) ...
Puppetry shows ‘Isis and Osiris’ and ‘Perseus and Medusa’. They have also worked for corporate clients to bring to life custom art creations. Clients have included the NBA All Stars (2019), Duke University (2016), The Milwaukee Bucks (2015, 2017, 2022), SuperCell (2017), Ford Motors (1998), Marriott Hotels (2019), Bank M (2016) and ABSA Bank with Playback Media (2020), Doterra, VM Ware, Boeing, Gilette and ADP, Behr Paint, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Wells Fargo, IBM, Ink Magazine, Aebal Airlines and Pitney Bowes among others.


Notable Tours and Appearances

International shows have been performed in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
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Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...
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Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
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Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
,
Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...
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Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
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New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
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Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
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Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...
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Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
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Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
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Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
,
Los Cabos LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service (transportation), Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a ...
, Cancun,
Guanajuato Guanajuato, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato, is one of the 32 states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guanajuato, 46 municipalities and its cap ...
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Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...
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Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...
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Virgin Gorda Virgin Gorda () is the third-largest island (after Tortola and Anegada) and second-most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Geography Located at about 18 degrees, 30 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area o ...
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Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
and
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
among others.   Artrageous shows have been performed in all 50 US States with the exception of Delaware. Notable performances include a private event for Sir Richard Branson on Necker Island, British Virgin Island (2008); a performance at the World Cup Soccer Finals in Paris (1998); headlining at the 44th annual
Festival Internacional Cervantino The Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), popularly known as ''El Cervantino'', is a festival which takes place each fall in the city of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico. The festival originates from the mid 20th century, when short pla ...
(2016), the NBA All Stars (2019), and the Atlanta ArtsBridge Foundation at the C obb Energy Performing Arts Center where their show was called “the best field trip experience that we have experienced yet” by staff member Sarah Lynball


References

{{reflist 2014 establishments in New Mexico Entertainers from New Mexico Performing groups established in 2014