11 AUGUST 28-SEPTEMBER 3, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Skyline Park, improving accessibility, lighting, safety features, the performance stage and the concessions building; $2.7 million to secure new downtown retail space for Green Spaces Market; $750,000 to expand Sundae Artisan Ice Cream on Glenarm Place; and $400,000 to renovate space for the Denver Immersive Repertory Theater. More than 100 projects have submitted applications seeking funding. The DDA plans to distribute a total of up to $570 million. — Hannah Metzger Art Leaves Fingerprints Downtown On a sunny Tuesday in late August, 16th Street is quiet, save for the chirping of birds and crosswalk meters, buses squealing to their stops and occasional snippets of con- versation in many different languages. On the corner of 16th and Market streets, a man cups his hands against the window of an empty storefront, peering not into a vacant space, but a moving installation of pink and purple cowboy boots. It’s Kenzie Sitterud’s “All Roads Lead to Charlie’s,” a tribute to the Capitol Hill neighborhood and its landmark gay bar. This installation is one of seven pieces of interactive art peppered along 16th Street, each telling the story of a different Denver neighborhood. The installations make up Leave Your Fingerprints Downtown, a col- laboration between Denver Arts & Venues, the Downtown Denver Partnership and project manager Brian Corrigan. “Sixteenth Street has long been consid- ered Denver’s Main Street, and after three and a half years of construction that was preceded by two years of the pandemic, we are working hard to ensure that the newly revitalized space authentically refl ects the spirit of Denver and brings meaningful in- vitations for Denverites to rediscover 16th Street,” says Kate Barton, DDP chief of ex- ternal affairs & managing director. Getting local artists involved through the Fingerprints project was one way to do that. In addition to “All Roads Lead to Charlie’s,” there’s a tribute to Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe, “Santa Fe Streetwear,” by Andrea Fischer; “Greetings From Barnum” by Starry Night Productions; “Fun in the Denver Sun” by OhHeckYeah; “Untitled,” a piece repre- senting downtown, by Joe Palec; “Colorful Denver,” a vibrant installation representing the Northside, by Kyle Vincent Singer and the Waffl e Cone Club; and “The Future Points,” Zoid Hæm’s installation honoring the past, present and imagined future of Five Points. More than sixty people applied to be featured in the Fingerprints project; the selected artists were each given a $5,000 stipend for their creations. The installations went up at the end of May, and Barton says they are expected to remain until the spaces are fi lled by permanent tenants. “It was to really think about how people see themselves in downtown and in their neighborhood,” says Corrigan, whose com- panies Farm-to-Spaceship and OhHeckYeah were part of Fingerprints for project manage- ment and video game installation, respec- tively. “We want people looking through the glass and leaving their fi ngerprints. When you see your fi ngerprints on something, then all of a sudden, it kind of becomes a part of you.” Any good community project should have a lot of fi ngerprints on it, he adds: “I think what really defi nes Denver as a cool place to be an artist is the collaborative nature.” While the other installations feature vari- ous neighborhoods in the Mile High City, Corrigan and his team took a more macro approach. “It’s no secret that here in Den- ver, we love our sun, we love our outdoors,” Corrigan says. “Fun in the Denver Sun” features colorful murals of clouds, sculptures of watermelon and grass, plus two games. In “Sun Catcher,” two people compete to see who can catch the most picnic supplies, and in “Cloud Blaster,” the fi rst person to break away all the gray clouds to reveal a sunny day wins. A data tracker records how many times the games are played. “The last one we pulled was just a bit over 7,000 plays,” says Corrigan, who adds that he loves going downtown on a random night and seeing people playing. The games got their start as part of a large in- stallation in 2014 that created an immersive street arcade over three blocks of the nearby Denver Theater District. “It’s full circle, but in a totally different format,” Corrigan says. The same can be said for the Finger- prints installations. Whether these tributes to Denver neighborhoods are viewed by someone visiting 16th Street for the fi rst time or a person who has been coming for years, the evolving city is refl ected in the glass. — Kristen Fiore OhHeckYeah’s “Fun in the Denver Sun.” KRISTEN FIORE
