Mark your calendar for a very special event - it’s an art opening at a box factory! You’ll have the chance to view Wendy Mike’s latest beautiful art installation before it goes to its final home at St. Francis Hospital Interquest.  This reception will be held at Packaging Express, one of the last independent custom corrugated box manufacturers in Colorado, where Wendy has been creating this piece.

The event also serves as the kickoff for a new artist in residence program, P.E.A.R., devised by Packaging Express owner Matt Davis and his wife Maggie.

The intent of the program is to provide a space for an artist to work for free on a project that requires more space than they would normally have access to, and one with a finite deadline of 4-8 months. Interested artists will submit an initial form to determine their eligibility. Each residency will then end with a closing reception so that the public may honor the artist and experience their work.

Life long artist Wendy Mike is the first to enjoy the Packaging Express artist in residence program. In 2022, she was commissioned by Nancy Noyes Art Design for Centura’s new orthopedic hospital, St. Francis Interquest (SFI), to create a unique piece of art for the fourth floor lobby/waiting room of their surgical suites. The piece, which is comprised of five life-sized figures in various rock climbing postures, is made of packing tape and takes up roughly 18.5 X 14 feet. Mike’s downtown art studio wasn’t nearly big enough to execute the work, and so a collaboration was born. The studio at Packaging Express became the perfect landing place for her to stage and create this large-scale project. The piece will move to its permanent home at the hospital at the beginning of May.

More about Packaging Express:

Founded in 1998, Packaging Express, Inc. is a family-owned business and one of the last independent custom corrugated box companies in Colorado. Packaging Express, Inc. designs, manufactures, prints and delivers custom corrugated boxes and point of purchase displays to accommodate products perfectly at competitive prices. Just this past fall, Packaging Express has added the state of the art EMBA 175 QS Ultima box making machine to its facility in Colorado Springs. Made in Sweden, the EMBA 175 combines outstanding productivity, print quality, sustainability and is “the fastest box machine in Colorado, making 500 boxes a minute.” Maggie and Matt share a passion for the arts and are excited to launch this program to grow and nurture the artists in our community.