50 APRIL 4-10, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC & VENUES | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | SHOPPING & SERVICES | CONTENTS | Best New Offerings at a Museum Denver Art Museum 100 West 14th Parkway 720-865-5000 denverartmuseum.org In May 2023, the Denver Art Museum con- cluded its multi-year effort to reinvent a trio of collections in its permanent galleries and showcase work that hadn’t been seen in years. There’s the Modern and Contem- porary Art collection, which covers 108 years of history with 145 works. The Arts of Africa collection comprises 800 works from a variety of countries, with some pieces hundreds of years old and others contemporary. The Arts of Oceania collec- tion, meanwhile, involves works in a variety of genres from all major island groupings. And while polishing its collections, the museum has continued hosting must-see exhibitions, including Desert Rider, which examined lowrider culture in Colorado and the Southwest. Best Museum to Make You Think Museum of Contemporary Art Denver 1485 Delgany Street 303-298-7554 mcadenver.org The Museum of Contemporary Art has earned a reputation for exhibiting works that make visitors think in new ways. This year, the MCA turned a critical eye toward the archetype of the American cowboy in its show Cowboy, which included both loans and new commissions from 27 artists across the globe, including Asian American, Latinx and Native perspectives. The museum also looked at the American South through the lens of Black artists in the acclaimed travel- ing exhibition The Dirty South. Both shows exemplifi ed how this museum continues to bring fresh perspectives to the city. Best Museum Exhibit With a Mural Series Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History Museum of Boulder 2205 Broadway, Boulder 303-449-3464 museumofboulder.org Eight local muralists painted across down- town Boulder for a series called Celebrating Colorado’s Black Street Artists, produced by Street Wise Arts and the Museum of Boulder to go along with the museum’s exhibition Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History. Thomas “Detour” Evans, Yazz At- more, Jahna Rae, Rob Hill, Marcus Murray, Devin “Speaks” Urioste, Jasmine Holmes- Piesco and Selah Laurel all created murals that refl ected the exhibit’s theme of Black history in the state. The exhibit, which was two years in the making, is on view through September 2025. Best Museum for Visiting Dads Forney Museum of Transportation 4303 Brighton Boulevard 303-297-1113 forneymuseum.org It’s fun when relatives visit, but fi nding a place in the Mile High City that will please dear old Dad can sometimes be a tricky task. This nearly seventy-year-old trans- portation history museum near the Coli- seum (the museum’s original home is now the REI fl agship store) is at your service. Dad will enjoy the old-timey cars at the Forney, and the look of childlike wonder on his face when he gets to climb into the Union Pacifi c Big Boy is well worth the $17 admission fee. Best Museum Programs Museo de las Americas 861 Santa Fe Drive 303-571-4401 museo.org Museo de las Americas has been a staple of the Art District on Santa Fe for more than three decades. From First Friday celebra- tions in its intimate gallery space to Day of the Dead festivities that take to the streets outside the hot-pink stucco building, the Museo offers an immersion in Chicano cul- ture. It also has a wide variety of programs, from workshops for schools and groups to mural tours, public gatherings and discus- sions, to special options for members. Best Future Home Latino Cultural Arts Center lcac-denver.org Latino Cultural Arts Center founder Adri- anna Abarca donated warehouse spaces at 1935 West 12th Avenue to the nonprofi t, and after signifi cant fundraising, includ- ing a gift of $2.5 million in congressional spending pushed by Senator Michael Ben- net and $1.9 million from Colorado Cre- ative Industries, LCAC is planning to fi ll the space with Las Bodegas. An intergen- erational creative hub, Las Bodegas will include digital and visual arts programs, including LCAC’s Day of the Dead Ofren- das project and a mentorship setup for burgeoning artists. Best Return Home Chicano Humanities and Arts Council chacgallery.org The Chicano Humanities and Arts Council received the gift of a lifetime this year: Kyle Schneider, the son of late artist Katherine Payge, gave his mother’s gallery building at 834 Santa Fe Drive to CHAC. The non- profi t, which began in north Denver in 1978 and moved to the Art District on Santa Fe in 1986, was priced out of that neighbor- hood in 2022. While CHAC will maintain its space in the 40 West Arts District in Lakewood, the gallery on Santa Fe not only allows more engagement with Denver, but marks a sentimental return to its original community in the city’s historically Chi- cano neighborhood. Best Museum Retrospective Vance Kirkland’s Cosmos Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art 1201 Bannock Street 303-832-8576 kirklandmuseum.org The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decora- tive Art is named for Vance Kirkland, the iconic Colorado artist who came to Den- ver in 1929 as the founding director of the University of Denver’s School of Art. While the museum is known for its expansive col- lection that includes artists of note from this state and beyond, its 2023 Kirkland retrospective, Vance Kirkland’s Cosmos, was a revelation, showing how the artist moved from landscapes and surrealism to expressionism and radical modernism. The museum also unveiled several never- before-seen works by the late master. Best Gallerist Retrospective From All Angles: Fifty Years in the Art Business William Havu Gallery 1040 Cherokee Street 303-893-2360 williamhavugallery.com William Havu once had rock-star dreams, even performing with Jimi Hendrix in 1967, but luckily for Denver, he became a gal- lerist and staunch supporter of the local arts. His career has now passed the fi ve- decade mark, which he celebrated with a retrospective show at his Golden Triangle gallery that highlighted the wide variety of artists he represents: Sushe and Tracy Fe- lix, Tony Ortega, Emilio Lobato and more. Havu has been integral to the city’s grow- ing art scene, and From All Angles: Fifty Years in the Art Business showed just how indispensable he is. Best Longstanding Gallery With Museum-Worthy Exhibits Robischon Gallery 1740 Wazee Street 303-298-7788 robischongallery.com The Robischon Gallery has been a bea- con for the city’s arts community since it opened on Wazee Street in 1982, back when LoDo was just becoming a hub for the arts. And it goes back even further than that: Jim Robischon originally founded his gallery as Blue Door II on Parker Road in 1976. While many other galleries moved from LoDo after Coors Field opened in 1995, Robischon has remained for four de- cades, a testament to the museum-quality exhibitions mounted there throughout the year, usually highlighting multiple artists at once. Sleek, contemporary paintings and more mind-boggling works await in this art lover’s paradise, where you’re always sure to discover something new. Best Place to Start an Art Collection Denver Art Society 734 Santa Fe Drive 303-534-1132 denverartsociety.org A nonprofi t community art hub, Denver Art Society is where many up-and-coming artists of all ages are able to fi rst showcase their work. The volunteer-run co-op main- tains multiple artist studios and offers a variety of classes and workshops to the public, so you can try your own hand at creative pursuits. But with art at affordable prices set up in booths inside the sprawl- ing space, this is where you can also start becoming an art collector — and support a local artist at the same time. Once you catch the collector bug, Denver Art Soci- ety’s location presents you with the perfect medicine, since it’s situated in the Art Dis- trict on Santa Fe. Best Community Support for a Gallery Leon Gallery 1112 East 17th Avenue 303-832-1599 leongallery.org Leon Gallery opened in 2011, rewarding artistic risk-takers, outliers and forward thinkers with a space where they could showcase work that other commercial galleries might not deem “sellable” — and giving 70 percent of any sales to artists who show there, when most galleries split sales 50/50. Recently, Leon has presented ev- erything from the clubbing snapshots by Shadows Gather and photographs docu- menting police brutality protests in Iran to Raafi Rivero’s jerseys honoring Black victims of violence. But while the exhib- its were rich, the gallery was not, and by mid-January, Leon continued on page 54 GETT Y IMAGES/MUHARREM HUNER
