Some of Denver’s most important cultural milestones of 2024 came as a surprise. Others were the long-awaited results of good ideas hatched years ago — and the hard work and sacrifices of people who dedicate their lives to making the arts thrive here.
But these moments to remember have one thing in common: they developed out of bold and brave beliefs in the city’s potential to be a vibrant, engaging, energetic, accessible — and very human — place for culture.
A million “free kids” at DAM
In 2015, the Denver Art Museum opened its doors free to visitors 18 and under, meaning they don’t have to pay a penny to see a Picasso, not a dollar to spend the afternoon with a Degas. The move eased the financial burden for parents trying to expose their children to the best culture the city has to offer and made possible scores of school field trips.
The program has been a whopping success and a national model on how to make the arts available to more people, and this year, it reached a milestone — the millionth free, young visitor entered the museum.
Kids do still pay for special exhibits, (like the current “Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak”) though the price is reduced. It’s all made possible by the sponsorship of Bellco Credit Union.
A bridge to mark the moment
Every generation owes something to the ones that come after it, and that payment is often made through the construction of parks and monuments that are meant to last the ages. Denver’s Civic Center, built a century ago, was such a gift and it has done its job (for the most part) with grace and beauty. It is where we gather, by the tens of thousands, to celebrate who we are as diverse and vibrant Coloradans.
A new plan, announced by Gov. Jared Polis last month, to build a pedestrian bridge from the Colorado State Capitol to the open, green spaces surrounding Civic Center is our generation’s chance to do our part.
The bridge — if it is done thoughtfully and with sufficient funding — could be both a practical way to get people across busy Lincoln Street and something of a work of art that marks our present, prosperous moment as a state. There’s already a world-class architect on board (Studio Gang, which designed the new Populous hotel), adding even more potential to an already promising idea.
A museum moves outdoors
The outdoor experience “Nature Play” is an $8 million gift from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to the people who have supported it for the last century. And — thanks to co-sponsorship from Denver Parks and Recreation — it will likely be there for generations to come.
Everything is right about the new outdoor environment, which invites families to walk, climb and otherwise explore a series of science-minded objects set along a trail leading from the museum into surrounding City Park. The attraction is relaxed and playful, but educational. It’s a wonder of well-designed landscape architecture (Denver’s own Dig Studio led the planning) and it’s full of great art, everything from the animal-inspired interactive sculptures to the hand-hewn wooden benches made by the Loveland artist who goes by the name Chainsaw Mama.
Best of all, it is free; there’s no revenue in it for DMNS or the city, just an opportunity to serve.
This region is generous to its cultural institutions — they get millions of free dollars themselves through the taxes collected by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District — but attractions like “Nature Play” prove that this system, and the stability it creates for a crucial institution like the DMNS, can pay off for everyone.
Puppet play
Could a puppet show, performed at a restaurant, that only lasts 15 minutes, with a meager budget, rudimentary staging, bad acting, stupid jokes, gross props and kind of a bad attitude about Denver and the restaurant itself, actually have been the best work of art I saw in 2023?
Nah, the puppet show that comes free with the dinner at Casa Bonita was not as good as some of the opera performances I attended or the great art exhibitions I wandered through. But it is the thing that keeps me laughing, and it was one of the most daring — if only because it is so relentlessly self-deprecating.
Casa Bonita keeps the plot and the characters a secret the best it can, so I’m not gonna reveal much here. I’ll just say that it is a product inspired by the genius talents, and knowing attitudes, that made the restaurant’s owners — Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the animated TV series “South Park” — global superstars. Only this bit of low-ball theater is written and staged just for Denver, and the locals here who will get its hilarious in-jokes about the restaurant itself, which has been a local landmark for decades now. The puppet show is so broke, and so good.
Goodbye, and thanks
When it comes to the arts, some years are remembered for the new things that arrived — new actors or singers, new painters or dancers. But this year, Denver will remember several people who left. There were three major resignations from folks at the top of their organizations: Greg Carpenter from Opera Colorado, Nora Burnett Abrams from the MCA Denver and Deborah Jordy from the SCFD. It’s impossible, as they say, to overstate the impact his trio had on their respective fields of art-making and administration; they made art better here.
No job is easy in the arts and all three will leave behind a legacy of successes realized and dreams deferred for Denver.
Carpenter somehow kept the company going financially through the leanest years in the industry, yet those challenges were always a barrier to wider recognition for the organization. Abrams raised the curatorial level of the MCA to world-class heights, but a museum only has so much wall space, and presenting global stars meant there was never enough left over to give Colorado artists the exposure they deserved. Jordy, in several positions over the years, helped develop a professional class of civic-minded arts leaders worthy of the big city we are — she is everyone’s hero — though Denver still struggles to become a widely recognized cultural destination.
No doubt, all three leaders laid the groundwork for better things to come, hard-working, hyper-talented folks who gave their all and are ready for the next challenge. Good luck to the boards of directors whose job it is to replace them.
An exhibit larger than the art on the walls
In some ways, Derrick Velasquez’s current solo show at Robischon Gallery is just another exhibit — one of the city’s most talented artists unveiling recent work at one of the city’s most respected commercial spaces. But it is also Velasquez’s first outing at the gallery since July 2023, when he donated half of his liver to Robischon’s owner, Jennifer Doran, who suffered from a debilitating disease and was on the edge of her demise. The transplant saved Doran’s life
That made the show — which continues through Jan. 18 — something more. It serves as a symbol of how people can rise to the occasion and help others, even when that act requires so much of their physical and emotional selves. It also reminded everyone that the visual arts world — so often focused on sales, celebrity, wealth and the next big commodity to come along — is actually a community of people, and some of those people are valiant.
For Doran and Velasquez, the transplant was a personal and private event, but they told their story to the public, hoping to inspire others to donate organs, an act that has become increasingly easy to do over the past few years. So, see the exhibit (it’s a revelation on its own) but also think about the possibilities. Get more info from the American Liver Foundation, liverfoundation.org.