Denver

IdeaLab kicked off Denver Arts Week with a daylong conversation.

Event Recap: IdeaLab

About 200 attendees gathered for a day of collaboration at IdeaLab, and a chance to connect and network, hone ideas and get inspired. "I'm particularly excited, looking around the room, I don't know…


Carl Atiya Swanson of Creative Exchange.

New & Next: Arts and Community Converge at IdeaLab

The people who make a place matter. The artists, creative collaborators and community organizers who create local arts and culture can have a national impact by sharing their work, programs and…


A still from Katie Torn's

Digital Placemaking Sparks Human Connections in Denver

Working in large-scale public art in Denver has changed the way Ivar Zeile experiences other cities. "Whenever I travel, I'm always looking for the LED screens," he says. "In places like Minneapolis,…


Get Inspired and Connected at the Denver IdeaLab

On November 6, plug in to the IdeaLab! Join creative leaders from Denver and nationally for a full day event featuring panel discussions and workshops on getting inspired,…


Kenny Be's Colorado map captures all of the states nooks and crannies.

A Cartoon Garden: Kenny Be's Denver Neighborhood Seed Company

The cartoonist most associated with Denver, Kenny Be has planted 60 of the city's neighborhoods as seed packets for a fictional brand. He's a fixture at the annual Denver County Fair, held this year…


Cavem and Alkemia are making the rounds with a new series of Culinary Concerts.

OG (Organic Gardener) DJ Cavem Raps about Kale

Hip-hop and healthy eating are twin inspirations for Denver's DJ Cavem, who deftly melds music and food justice with both rhymes and activism. If you've ever met Ietef Vita, it was probably no…


Shannon Spurlock

Denver Urban Gardens: Growing a garden, growing a community

Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) has been serving the five-county area of Metro Denver for 30 years and manages about 150 community gardens.   "Our mission is to create community one…


Jen Cole

Sharing, Building, Leading

What does the passion for local art look like on a national scale? What if the sharing economy valued sharing?          What can we do to connect people to resources that support their creative…


Wird's fourth child was born in an earthship in Taos.

Lifting Off: Mike Wird Launching Earthship Movement in Denver

How to address the environmental cost of growth in a boom time, like the one Denver is experiencing? Mike Wird, a 33-year old Colorado-born writer, rapper, educator and environmental activist, has an…


Jami Duffy

Denver-based Youth on Record is an innovative music education program with national relevance

Youth on Record was formed in 2007 by members of Denver hip hop and rock band Flobots as a platform for youth and youth-adult organizing. It has evolved significantly since those early days, and is…


Adam Buehler

Reach Studio reaches artists homeless and in transition, treating them as artists first

Art therapy is a well-established practice that uses the creative process to help improve a person’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. RedLine Denver, an "urban laboratory" that fosters…


Kirsten Stoltz

M12 Collective brings experiential art to the American High Plains

M12 is an artists' collective based in Byers, Colorado, a rural town in the American High Plains. The work of the collective inhabits rural places, and explores the aesthetics of those rural cultures…


Laura Zabel

Welcome to Creative Exchange (again)

"I believe in the magic of storytelling, not only for teller but also the listener," says agrarian artist Nikiko Masumoto, who lives and works in California's Central Valley. "The possibility of…


Anderman became a full-time art photographer after working as a geologist.

Eye in the Sky: Evan Anderman captures images of the Colorado plains from above

Most local lens-folk point their cameras west to the Rockies. Evan Anderman likes to cast his gaze east -- and down. "I was born and raised in Denver and spent a lot of time out [on the plains]…


Jolt works in the GuerillaGarden.

Guerilla Gardening with Jolt, Denver Street Artist Deluxe

This is a story about a graffiti artist. A graffiti artist who, by his own admission, has found various additional outlets for his talent. He's done commercial work, he's been commissioned to create…


Adam Lerner is the Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.

Adam Lerner is mixing tastes at MCA Denver

Fact: MCA Denver Director Adam Lerner grew up in Queens, New York, in a family of Jewish immigrants who square danced competitively. As the youngest dancer at the AL'e'MO Squares square dance club,…


ScrewTooth fundraiser performance with Adam Stone and Andrew Novick.

An artistic X-ray: Adam Stone and Screw Tooth

Screw Tooth Artistic Director Adam Stone will take the stage solo for his new original comedy, 2GD2B4G-10, a dramatic departure from the 17-member cast featured in his production company's first…


Pieces for a new project sit on the table while the women crochet.

Ladies Fancywork Society of Denver is painting the town in thread

In early April, Denverites were devastated when the iconic Big Blue Bear leaning against the Colorado Convention Center was seen sporting an unwelcome splatter of green paint down its back after an…


Andrew Novick posing with a model from his Blood Lustre photography exhibit.

The weird world of Andrew Novick: Blood, pancakes and punk rock

"If I'm not back in a few hours," I said to my husband on an otherwise ordinary Saturday, "let the police know I was having coffee with the man who makes art out of human blood." My fears were put to…


Brian Corrigan's

Meet Brian Corrigan, Denver's "Oh Heck Yeah" phenom

It was during an unlikely -- and very cool -- marriage of something Pong and Space Invaders-like in downtown Denver last year when Brian Corrigan had himself an "aha!" moment. It was Create Denver…


 Williams inspires the DIY ethic in our local community by offering workshops.

Life Hacks with Mar Williams

Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves, but Marlana Williams -- Mar, for short -- prefers to wear her hacks on her sleeves. Her tattoo sleeves, that is. The most surprising thing about…


The Buntport Theater Company (left to right): Brian Colonna, Hannah Duggan, Erik Edborg, Evan Weissman and Erin Rollman.

Buntport Theatre Company is the kookiest and most inventive theater troupe in Denver

Wildly original. Brilliant. Intellectual nitrous oxide. Crazed creativity. Riotously funny. These phrases are just a small sampling of the breathy reviews of Denver's own Buntport Theater Company's…


Cleo Parker Robinson: Denver's modern dance pioneer

Cleo Parker Robinson grew up in Five Points, where her company resides today, and has been immersed in the mystique of the arts since birth -- her mother played with the San Diego Symphony and she…


The Nix Bros.'

The Nix Bros. are weaving web of laughter in Denver

By their own admission, and even though they're three years apart in age, brothers Evan and Adam Nix -- the imaginative forces behind Nix Bros. Films -- became movie nerds at roughly the same time.…


Sarah Fox poses with a few of her art-campers.

Fox Art School raising bar for arts education in Denver

Fifteen to 20 kids assembled in an art gallery. All of them somewhere in the age range of 4 to 12. And a $10,000 painting hanging on the wall right over there. Not behind a pane of glass, or even…


A postcard showcasing Denver's skyline and sunshine.

If you heart local, you will love I Heart Denver

The idea of selling merchandise that celebrates a place is not new -- especially along Denver's 16th Street Mall. But Samuel Schimek has come up with a new and hip model for locally made goods that…


The itchy-O sound is a catchy mixture of percussion and  handmade electronic instruments.

Denver's itchy-O Marching Band: Chaos of the best variety

Imagine this: It's late on a weekend night and Denverites are out and about. Maybe they're hanging out at the latest hipster bar along South Broadway or enjoying an adult beverage at a popular…


Viviane Le Courtois

Viviane Le Courtois creates processes and Processus

Viviane Le Courtois is a Denver-based multi-media artist from Brittany, France. Her work ranges from etchings and drawings to video to interactive installation pieces that go outside of the studio…