Arts and Culture in Colorado

Colorado holds more than natural wonders. Its American Indian communities, Southwestern heritage, university towns, and sophisticated Front Range cities inspire a myriad of art and culture experiences. Coloradans take advantage of their state’s sunny skies and large natural formations to create dramatic outdoor venues that host festivals, concerts, and other performances. HIGH ARTS   The Colorado Symphony, based in Denver, performs under the artistic direction of Jeffrey Kahane. The season includes classical concerts, pops, family programs, and a summer park series. The Denver Philharmonic Orchestra is a community orchestra founded in 1948 that presents monthly concerts. Other classical ensembles include theDenver Brass, Denver’s St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, the professional Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and Lafayette’s Colorado Chamber Players. One of the Denver area’s premier locales for concerts, both classical and popular, is the dramatic Red Rocks Amphitheatre, located in Morrison. The 300-million-year-old natural rock structure provides a stellar ambiance for major performers and ensembles.A variety of music comprises the programming at Breckenridge Music Festival, with the chamber concerts being a highlight. Durango’s Music in the Mountains brings orchestras, chamber ensembles, fiddling, pops, and world music artists to its summer-long festival. Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festivalhosts major touring ensembles and more than 40 soloists in summer chamber music concerts. Three major productions compose the season of Denver’s Opera Colorado, founded in 1983. The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Colorado Light Opera focuses on operettas and musical theater. Central City Opera stages professional opera during its summer season, always presenting a classic, an American piece, and a rarely performed work. One-act operas, operettas, and opera-inspired musical theater form the seasons of Emerald City Opera, based in Steamboat Springs, and the Loveland Opera Theatre. For 50 years, Denver’s Colorado Ballet has presented major works of classic ballet as well as innovative contemporary pieces. Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, a partnership between Colorado and New Mexico, presents established and commissioned work. The organization also sponsors performances by major touring dance companies. Boulder’s Frequent Flyers Productions performs aerial dance theater that has sampled swing dance, comic superhero moves, vampire culture, and Las Vegas-style revues. Based in Broomfield, Ballet Nouveau Colorado is a professional company and ballet school interpreting jazz dance, multimedia-infused performance, genre-defying work, and classics. Museums There are over 40 museums in the Denver area, and the Denver Art Museum is a highlight. Italian Architect Gio Ponti (1891–1979) designed the seven-floor building that holds paintings, sculpture, and crafts, with deep holdings in American West art, British art, European modern art, Asian art, pre-Hispanic art, Northwest Coast Native American objects, and modern furniture. Inside an avant-garde structure, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver devotes five galleries to provocative and educational exhibits highlighting contemporary artists and themes. Denver’s Museo de las Américas fosters appreciation of Latino culture and people through art and history exhibits. Other Denver art museums include the Mizel Museum of Judaica and the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art has dynamic temporary solo exhibits, group shows, and performances highlighting contemporary regional and international artists. Also in Boulder, the Leanin’ Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden of Western Artcontains 250 paintings, surrounded by a 50,000-square foot garden with monumental bronze sculptures representing the American West. A historic brick building houses the Aspen Art Museum. Temporary exhibits of international contemporary art form the heart of the programming, complemented by art workshops, docent tours, lectures, and events. Pueblo’s Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center serves as a cultural hub, exhibiting a notable Western art collection as well as housing a children’s museum and organizing a performance series. The Koshare Indian Kiva and Museum, on the Otero Junior College Campus, displays Southwestern Native American art and artifacts within a 1949 replica of a Pueblo kiva. Its resident youth dance troupe, the Koshare Dancers, performs traditional American Indian dances. Kirkland Museum displays 20th-century decorative arts highlighting the arts and crafts movement, art nouveau, art deco, Wiener Werkstätte, De Stijl, Bauhaus, modern, and pop art. The institution devotes gallery space to 19th- and 20th-century Colorado artists as well. At the San Luis Valley Museum in Alamosa, photographs, antiques, and artifacts illuminate regional cultures, among them Native American, Latino, Japanese, and European, and chronicles cultural and historical contributions of cowboys and farmers. Englewood’s Museum of Outdoor Arts displays outdoor sculpture by major artists such as Henry Moore (1898–1986), Daniel Sprick (b. 1953), Giovanni Antoniazzi (b. 1935), Beniamino Bufano (1898–1970), Robert Mangold (b. 1937), and Lonnie Hanzon. MUSIC Colorado has a diverse music scene. Notable figures in jazz include Dianna Reeves andPaul Whitman. Bluegrass and folk artists from Colorado include Hit and Run, Jill Sobule,Judy Collins, and Yonder Mountain String Band. Singer-songwriter and guitarist John Denver personified the country folk sound that proliferates in Colorado. His lyrical work earned him the title of Poet Laureate of Colorado in 1977. Among his many hits were Take Me Home, Country Roads; Sunshine on My Shoulders; Leaving on a Jet Plane; and Annie’s Song. Denver also made his mark on the political forefront, campaigning for Jimmy Carter’s presidency and raising money for environmental causes and social issues. Among the rock and alternative bands associated with Colorado are crunkcore band30H!3, rock outfit Big Head Todd and the Monsters, avant-garde performance artistLaurie Anderson, indie band DeVotchKa, ska group Five Iron Frenzy, nu metal bandFlobots, funk artist Philip Bailey, rap singer Playalitical, singer India.Arie, death metal outfit Cephalic Carnage, industrial electronic band Velvet Acid Christ, and punk groupZephyr. THEATER AND PERFORMING ARTS Colorado has several major performance venues, outdoor amphitheaters, historic opera houses, and professional, regional, community, and independent theater groups. Denver contains the most offerings, and also the most diverse. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts hosts productions by the Tony Award-winning Denver Center Theatre Company, as well as touring Broadway productions and cabaret shows. Denver’sArvada Center showcases regional theater, emphasizing established classic dramas and musicals as well as children’s theater. As of 2010, Denver’s Paragon Theatre shares a space with Kim Robards Dance and presents established work as well as premieres of plays by local playwrights. Other Denver-based performance art venues and theater companies include Fillmore Auditorium, Paramount Theatre, Ogden Theatre, Bluebird Theater, Industrial Arts Theatre, Hunger Artists Ensemble Theatre, Gravity Defied Theatre, Miners Alley Playhouse, Vintage Theatre Productions, the contemporary and provocative Curious Theatre Company, the Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League, improvisation troupe Impulse Theater, Bovine Metropolis Comedy Theater, the interdisciplinary Lida Project Theatre, and Bug Theatre. Boulder has a few notable venues and theater groups. The historic Boulder Theaterhosts major bands, rock artists, comedy, and films. The Boulder Ensemble Theatreinterprets classic dramas and stages regional premieres. The city’s only professional resident troupe, the Nomad Theatre, had humble beginnings. The troupe pitched a tent behind a liquor store in 1951, and filled all 100 folding chairs. Since then, the company has moved to a permanent space to stage its mix of musicals and other established work. The professional company in residence at the University of Colorado at Boulder performs in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Pueblo’s Damon Runyon Repertory Theater Company stages interactive murder mysteries and lighthearted shows, while the Steel City Theatre Company presents community theater. Colorado Springs has a diverse performing arts scene. The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center organizes a season of live theater, educational programming, and art exhibits. The Flying W Ranch puts on an old-fashioned Western variety show featuring cowboy songs and bunkhouse comedy. The Simpich Showcase Theatrepresents original marionette shows.  The Gunnison Arts Center, housed in an 1880 building, hosts performing art, gallery shows, dance classes, and literary events throughout the year. Grand Lake’s Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre performs summer musical theater. Colorado’s oldest repertory theater, the Creede Repertory Theatre, was voted one of the ten great places to see the lights off Broadway by USA Today. The troupe stages professional productions of contemporary and classic drama. Fort Collins is home to several theater groups and performance venues, among themLincoln Center, Debut Theatre, the salon-style Bas Bleu Theatre Company, andNonesuch Theater. Other venues hosting theater, concerts, and performances include the Crested Butte Center for the Arts, Cripple Creek Butte Opera House, Cripple Creek’s Gold Rush Outdoor Palladium, Salida’s SteamPlant Theater, Boulder’s Macky Auditorium,Silverthorne Pavilion, Rocky Ridge Music Center, Englewood’s Gothic Theatre, The Aurora Fox, Leadville’s Historic Tabor Opera House, Backstage Theatre in Breckenridge, Nederland’s Back Door Theatre, Castle Rock Players, Louisville’sCenterstage Theatre Company, Cañon City’s Fremont Civic Theatre, and Sedalia’sCherokee Ranch and Castle. FILM Some of the world’s first films were made in Colorado in the 19th century. Since then, Colorado’s dramatic landscape, Wild West towns, and Native American historic sites have served as sets for many movies. Colorado’s film-related locations include the Durango Silverton Railroad, site for Around the World in 80 Days(2004); Durango’s Rochester Hotel from City Slickers (1991); Colorado Springs’ Camp Carson, a location for One Minute to Zero (1952); Estes Park’s Stanley Hotel, made infamous in the horror movieThe Shining (1980) and less so in the comedy Dumb and Dumber (1994); theIndependence Day (1996) site of Peterson Air Force Base; Crawford’s Gunnison National Park, the backdrop in The Unsinkable Molly Brown(1964); How the West Was Won’s (1962) Old Fort National Monument; Mr. & Mrs. Smith location Glenwood Canyon (2005); Union Station, which appears in Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995); the Sheridan Bar from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(1969); Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989); True Grit’s (1969) Camp Bird Mine; and Gateway Canyons from Thelma and Louise (1991). Colorado’s most notable figures involved in film include Amy Adams, Jessica Biel, multiple award-winner Don Cheadle, Pam Grier, and comic actor Bill Murray. LITERARY ARTS Beat Generation writer Neal Cassady (1926–1968) grew up in Colorado and earned notoriety for being the inspiration for the character of Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s (1922–1969) novel On the Road. Beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), lived in Boulder and helped found the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Boulder’s Naropa Institute. Beat and counterculture novelist Ken Kesey (1935–2001), famous for his 1962 book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was born in La Junta.  Other literary figures associated with Colorado include nursery rhyme poet Eugene Field(1850–1895), thriller novelist Clive Cussler (b. 1973), historic writer and activist for Native American rights Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885), epic novelist James Michener (1907–1997), science fiction writer Connie Willis (b. 1945), and gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005). VISUAL ARTS Some Colorado artists have earned fame beyond state borders, including Tomory Dodge(b. 1974), a painter of urban landscapes. Other well-known artists associated with Colorado are Western photographers William Henry Jackson (1843–1942) and Robert Adams (b. 1937), Hispanic blanket weaver Eppie Archuleta (b. 1922), Bloom Countycomic strip creator Berke Breathed (b. 1957), and Western landscape etcher George Elbert Burr (1859–1939). ARCHITECTURE In Denver, the Molly Brown Historic House Museum has Victorian architecture. The museum pays tribute to Margaret Brown (1867–1932), known as The Unsinkable Molly Brown, a woman who survived the sinking of the Titanic. Mesa Verde National Park has an intricate complex of prehistoric cliff dwellings. The 52,000-acre (21,045-hectare) national park contains several highlights, including the Square Tower House, the Spruce Tree House, and Cliff Palace, a four-story dwelling. Downtown Golden’s Astor House Museum and Clear Creek History Park illuminate life and design in Colorado at the close of the 19th century. The Colorado Historical Society operates the Healy House Museum and Dexter Cabinin Leadville. The 1879 cabin has a surprisingly luxurious interior, reflecting the wealth of people in the area during its silver mining days. The 1878 Healy House has Greek Revival architecture and features Victorian furnishings and collectibles.  In Greeley, the Centennial Village Museum holds 40 late 19th-century and early 20th-century residences, businesses, and tepees, as well as a church, school, and homestead. The Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum originally served as a general store during its heyday in 1883. Pueblo’s Rosemount Museum is located within an 1893 mansion. The 37-room residence was designed by New York architect Henry Hudson Holly (1834–1892) and contains era furnishings, decorative art, paintings, custom panels, window treatments, wall coverings, and accessories. The Pueblo Railway Museum, located behind the historic Union Depot, exhibits static steam diesels, operating diesel engines, freight cars, and passenger cars in the coach yard. El Pueblo History Museum showcases the region’s diverse cultural heritage. The site has an adobe trading post and plaza in 1840s style, as well as exhibits about Pueblo ethnic groups. The Dushanbe Teahouse was a gift from Boulder’s Tajik sister city, Dushanbe. Persian paintings and hand-carved architectural elements decorate the structure. Manitou Springs’ 42-room Miramont Castle is outfitted in antique Victorian furniture. In the Queen’s Parlor Tea Room, visitors can dine upon Victorian specialties. Adolphe Francois Gerard (1844–1900) was a wealthy Parisian who traveled to Colorado during the gold rush era. He used his inheritance to transform a bakery into a rococo hotel, now the Hotel de Paris Museum in Georgetown. Furnishings, dining room floors of silver maple and black walnut, iridescent green walls, frescoes, and a fountain make up the elaborate interior. HANDICRAFT AND FOLK ART Colorado’s native cultures have provided ample handicraft and folk traditions in Colorado. The Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores collects artifacts that represent archeology and Native cultures in the Southwest’s Four Corners region. Southwest and Plains objects and tribal art compose the collection of the Koshare Indian Museum. The University of Colorado Museum at Boulder’s Anthropology Hall showcases pottery, tools, sandals, and archeological finds representing ancient Puebloan, Zuni, Navajo, and Hopi tribes. Montrose’s Ute Indian Museum, situated at the center of historic Ute territory, holds the world’s most comprehensive collections of art, ceremonial items, and daily life objects related to the Ute people as they lived in the 19th century. The museum grounds also hold the Chief Ouray Memorial Park, a native species garden, and a memorial to Spanish conquistadors. Summertime Native American dance performances take place at the prehistoric Indian ruins of the Manitou Cliff Dwellings in Manitou Springs. In Delta, the Council Tree Powwow and Cultural Festivalshowcases American Indian culture. The folk life of the Wild West lives on in many Colorado historic sites. At Golden’sBuffalo Bill Grave and Museum, Wild West shows, Indian art, Western art, and firearms pay tribute to William F. Cody (1846–1917). Burlington Old Town holds 19th-century buildings, a backdrop for living history reenactments such as cancan dancing, gunfights, and Old West melodramas. Steamboat Springs’ Saddleback Ranch allows visitors to try their hands at driving cattle and other ranch work. Grand Junction’s Museum of the West holds a replica stagecoach, Old West firearms, and Native American pottery. In Victor, the Victor Lowell Thomas Museum interprets Colorado’s gold rush history and offers tours of a gold mine. Pioneer, rancher, cowboy, farmer, railroad and mining cultures are celebrated at various sites such as Durango’s Animas Museum, The Tread of Pioneers Museum in Steamboat Springs, Fairplay’s South Park City Museum, Colorado Springs’ Western Museum of Mining and Industry, and Creede’s Underground Mining Museum. HISTORIC ART MOVEMENTS Colorado played a role in the Chicano Art Movement. In the formative years of the movement, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales (1928–2005) created The Crusade for Justice, and championed the emerging Chicano cause.Emanuel Martinez (b. 1947) began working with The Crusade and wound up painting several murals in Denver that depicted Mexican history and Chicano culture. Carlota Espinoza (b. 1943) also painted murals, often incorporating famous Chicanas or themes relevant to women in her paintings. Leo Tanguma (b. 1941), a transplant from Texas, created mobile murals that could be dismantled and later reassembled so he could exhibit them in multiple venues. Other artists in the Colorado movement worked in the traditional media of painting, photography, sculpture, and ceramics. Later, Maruca Salazar (b. 1952), Sylvia Montero, and Meggan Rodriguez DeAnza (b. 1951) used the traditional religious art of nichos, or small altar boxes, to create contemporary Chicano artwork, sometimes incorporating saints and other religious icons and imagery, and sometimes using the medium to address contemporary Chicano themes. -World Trade Press