4 W E S T W O R D F a l l A r t s G u i d e 2 0 2 5 westword.com Science Rules The Denver Museum of Nature & Science, which is featured on the cover of this year’s Fall Arts Guide, is celebrating 125 years of its own history this year. It got its start as the Colorado Museum of Natural History in 1900, with a modest display of taxidermy and crystallized gold. Colorado had only become a state 24 years prior, Denver’s population was just shy of 134,000, and City Park was still a shortgrass prairie. Today, Denver is home to more than 700,000 people, and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, which has expanded more than a dozen times since opening to the public at its current City Park location in 1908, spans more than 711,000 square feet in a complex that holds more than 4.3 million objects. DMNS is full of rocks and fossils that are millions of years old. But the museum is also always adding new and interactive features for more than a million annual guests. Last year, the museum partnered with Denver Parks & Recreation to open Nature Play, a four-acre immersive outdoor experience in City Park that teaches people about Colorado’s different environments. The East Wing Project, a $20 million renovation that will rejuvenate the museum’s historic theater, lobby and plaza, is underway, and those areas are expected to reopen next summer. Meanwhile, fans of the popular Coors Hall of Gems & Min- erals should head to DMNS to see their favorite rocks while they can; that exhibition will be closing early next year for its own facelift and immersive redesign. Much of this is possible thanks to the Scientifi c and Cultural Facilities District. As an SCFD Tier I institution, DMNS gets millions of dollars every year from a regional sales tax that gives one penny from every $10 purchase back to cultural institutions across seven counties in the Denver metro area. SCFD funding helps museums, galleries, dance studios and other cultural, art and science institutions across the region con- tinue to evolve into accessible experiences for Coloradans. In this issue, we explore what that looks like for the fi ve Tier I institutions. “A museum of natural history is never fi nished,” asserted John Campion, the fi rst president of the DMNS board. His words still ring true today — not just for the museum, but for a whole region of cultural opportunity. — KRISTEN FIORE Fall Arts Guide is published by Westword, 1278 Lincoln Street, Denver, CO 80203; the contents are copyright 2025 by Voice Media Group.
