Currently the Colorado History Museum is in the process of moving and is “giving away” the opportunity for one and all to come visit and enjoy!

I had heard about the free day via a tweet, gotta love how much you can learn about the goings on in denver via twitter!
iknowdenver
DenverCenter
DenverHappyHour
5280Magazine
DenverWestword
DenverPostPerks
DNVdealofwk
WestwordStreet

And these are just the few that are in my current stream!

But I digress…  Today the husband and I took a trip to the museum to check out the Imagine a Great City: Denver at 150 exhibit!

We had never been in and decided a free day was as good a day as any to see what the museum was all about!
The volunteers at the front desk were friendly and helpful and sent us on our way into the exhibits.

The main exhibit took up most of one side of the museum with lots of placards and info spots.  Down stairs there was another exhibit on Allen True’s West. Also downstairs is where they restore artifacts and they do it in a large glass room so everyone can see – now obviously they are simply packing everything up to prepare for the move, but hopefully in the new location there will be the same sort of thing! I bet that would be really cool!

It will be free until March, so pop in and take in some history!

Again – another fun filled weekend!

So much to do, so little time!

Tonight at Barnum Park

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Tomorrow Night
at Skyline Park

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Saturday All Day:

Free Day of Museum of Art

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Saturday Morning:

2009 Neighborhood Conference

Mayor John Hickenlooper and City leaders will host neighborhood and community organizations in a day of community-wide networking and neighborhood leadership training on Saturday, Aug. 1, at Coors Field. For more details, read the press release here.
Or get another take on what will be going down here

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Saturday Afternoon:

Verso Cellars

Sunday Afternoon:

Avery Brewing Company – Anniversary Party!

SIXTEEN years in business and its time to celebrate! Join us and the rest of Boulder at the brewery for this annual summer event.  As always, we'll have dozens of styles of your favorite Avery Brews, a BIG pig roast (with vegetarian options too), vertical tasting and bands all day long!  Make your plans now.  

Featuring the sounds of 6 great bands: 

Felonius Smith Trio
Acoustic Hotfoot
Lost Alamos
Cari Minor & Ray Smith
Chris and Bardusco of Meniskus
The Alltunators

Sunday morning myself, the husband and couple friends headed out to explore RiNo – north!  (the north side of the tracks!)
We started at Ironton Studios and Gallery.  They were churning out the pancakes with smiles and jokes!
The outside seating area was gorgeous! All the art, the gardens, the sculptures! The studio areas were really neat too!

Our next stop was across the street at Weilworks.  Tracy the proprietor and his dog silo was great!

The house and studio spaces was amazing! The “watch tower” had great views of the city and the surrounding area.

We hopped on our bikes and headed across Brighton to the ZWick Place. An amazing old building manned by Susan Wick.

The gardens were beautiful with a tea house hidden in the corner. The main bathroom had amazing tile work. The artists in house were all super friendly, fun and very talented. We heard that this location was rarely fully open as it was today! Yeah!

Further south we popped into Plinth gallery and met jasmine the short haired pointer guarding the gate!

The space was really neat. I drive by this location every time we head to the 70 and finally got to go inside! We didn’t get to see the studio space in the back, but hopefully some time in the future we will.
We criss crossed back to the bike path north to 47th to visit Blue Silo Studios. The space was really cool, lots of fantastic artists including Sara Ashford. She has some amazing stenciled large panel peices and some great snacks to boot!

Our final stop was at the Taxi area. This is a super cool area on the other side of the river! We saw Katy Tartakoff’s fantastic photographs and other art.

Tried out the goodies at Fuel – can’t wait to come back for happy hour. Saw the folks at Blue and Yellow logic and heard about the cool things they are up to.  Chatted with the gals at Pilates Aligned -can’t wait to try them out!

It was a fabulous day! The sun was shining and the art was great!

We got a last minute text to come visit an art opening at Andenken. They have a small portion of a larger area. They are the big name, while a subset of local artist gather in the bigger area.

There was some fun and interesting art! Free beer on tab – or cheap wine and bottled beer if that was more your style.

Our favorites were:
Ben Eine
Buff Monster
and Shane Davis – he does some cool bowls with line drawings on them!

Just ran across an article in the Highlands Ranch Herald on the display of 14 sculptures across Douglas County, including Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree and Parker.

“Art Encounters is a year-long outdoor sculpture exhibit that showcases a number of sculptures, in various media and styles, displayed in highly visible areas in Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree and Parker. The project is designed to promote public interest in art, develop community pride and draw visitors to the retail or civic areas where they are displayed.”

Kick-off events started Wednesday and runs until June 14th. The sculptures will remain on display for a year, at which time new sculptures will take their place.

This program not only adds beauty and interest to the locations in which they have been displayed, it also benefits the artists. Along with exposure of their artwork, selected artists receive $500 and “have the chance for their artwork to be purchased.”

I live in Douglas County and appreciate that the DCCC (Douglas County Culture Center) has done the work to bring the sculptures into the community. I think I’ve seen one of them in the Highlands Ranch Town Center already, and didn’t realize it was part of this new arts & cultural program.

Besides viewing the actual sculptures out on the streets and the horse pictured above–LOVE junk sculptures–you can view the statues on the Douglas County website.

Last night we attended an art exhibit at Republic Plaza in Downtown Denver. “Artists from the San Luis Valley” is a mixture of over thirty artists from all around the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. My fiance is a native Coloradan, from the San Luis Valley, where we visit family at least once a year, so this was a “must see” exhibit for us.

The exhibit includes some truly exceptional paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, pottery and jewelry. There is also an eclectic mixture of artwork; ranging from landscapes of the San Luis Valley to more contemporary abstract selections. It’s worth it to drop by and view the presented works.

Last night there was an artist’s reception, but unfortunately, we only met Lorraine Solis Roberts. She has two amazingly detailed portraits done with india ink on clay board. Some of the other featured artists include: Henry Woolbert & Kathy Park, Roger Eriksen, David Montgomery, Bertha Gotterup, Tatjana Krizmanic, and Tom Lockhart, his Clouds Forming on Handkerchief Mesa shown right.

The exhibit runs until July 24th at Republic Plaza, 370 17th Street. The building is open Monday thru Friday from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Saturday from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.