This month: Four NE Denver Neighborhood Groups Hold a Community Forum; A Groundbreaking at Project Worthmore; The Colfax Bus Rapid Transit Project is Underway; New Wildlife Mural Along Sand Creek Trail; Westerly Creek Reconstruction Project to Begin in Early November; A New Exhibit Lets Visitors Experience a Rainforest; and Neighborhood Businesses Win Medals at Great American Beer Festival.
On a warm October Saturday, a deer walked in the distance as Denver artist Michael Gadlin cut the ribbon on one of two new art installations at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. It was a fitting backdrop for the colorful sculptures now lining the path to the 56th Street & Chambers entrance to the refuge.
Children learn at an early age how to mix colors of paint. Red and blue combine to make purple. But adults don’t always see those two colors in alignment during a heated election season.
Julie Johnson started drawing seasonal chalk greetings in front of her house on Beeler St. during the pandemic: an Easter message with colored eggs, a New Year’s greeting, a heart for Valentines Day. “It was my effort to bring a little cheer to members of the community,” she recalls.
Sofia Macias has known she wanted to work in the film industry since she was very young. “I’ve loved horror films since I was 8 years old,” she says. A senior at the Denver School of the Arts, she recently found out that her 6-minute film Resonance was accepted into the All-American High School Film Festival in New York City.
There isn’t always a big, shining sign pointing to the future. But on East Colfax Ave., there is, and the local arts community in northwest Aurora believes it’s a beacon of what’s to come for the neighborhood and its overlapping 16-block creative district.
This month: 1) Take an Immersive Space Walk at Stanley Marketplace; 2) Check to See If You Have Unclaimed Property; 3) Proposed Changes to Sidewalk Repair Ordinance; 4) Ashley Elementary First Graders Get Bicycles; School Doubles in Size; and 5) Mayor’s Plan to Combat Auto Theft.
Purchased by the City of Aurora in 2015 and converted into an arts venue, The People’s Building is revitalizing the neighborhood by providing platforms for artists, entertainment and culture for audiences, and foot traffic for businesses. Now a new venue called Manos Sagrados (Sacred Hands), expected to open this spring, will augment the District by offering live music, art studios, and yoga sessions.
Sporting a wide-brimmed hat and a large paintbrush, artist Ed Natan can often be found on Colfax Avenue, South Broadway, in the Uptown neighborhood, or in one of Denver’s municipal parks, chatting with locals or tourists as he creates vivid watercolor paintings of some of the city’s most iconic street scenes.
New interactive art is now adorning the East Colfax neighborhood in some of the most unexpected places, from panels atop wooden posts throughout McNichols Park to vinyl-wrapped electrical boxes along Colfax Avenue. The panels and electrical boxes are inscribed with original poetry and are the “stops” in a “StoryWalk,” the first art installation by the Denver non-profit Sidewalk Poets.
This month: 1) 4 Noses Brewing Expands to Park Hill; 2) FlyteCo Brewing Offers Tours of Former Air Traffic Control Tower; 3) Camp Christmas Returns to Stanley Marketplace; 4) New Mural on Sand Creek Trail in Central Park; and 5) Cheluna Brewing Wins Gold Medal.
Primarily a contemporary ballet company, Wonderbound also curates and displays visual works, collaborates with local songwriters, stages productions with live bands, and has incorporated spoken word poetry into performances. Wonderbound exists “to foster bounding curiosity and thoughtful storytelling,” Fay says. “Everything is created for Wonderbound and choreographed by Garrett.”
