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Gift cards may be redeemed onsite for tickets, memberships, or merchandise within the Shops in the Hamilton Building and Sie Welcome Center. Not valid for online purchases.

Gift cards should arrive within 5-10 business days.

Limit 1 per transaction. To purchase multiple gift cards, call 720-913-0130 to speak with an associate.

We look forward to your visit!

Gift cards may be redeemed onsite for tickets, memberships, or merchandise within the Shops in the Hamilton Building and Sie Welcome Center. Not valid for online purchases.

Gift cards should arrive within 5-10 business days.

Limit 1 per transaction. To purchase multiple gift cards, call 720-913-0130 to speak with an associate.

We look forward to your visit!

Gift cards may be redeemed onsite for tickets, memberships, or merchandise within the Shops in the Hamilton Building and Sie Welcome Center. Not valid for online purchases.

Gift cards should arrive within 5-10 business days.

Limit 1 per transaction. To purchase multiple gift cards, call 720-913-0130 to speak with an associate.

We look forward to your visit!

Gift cards may be redeemed onsite for tickets, memberships, or merchandise within the Shops in the Hamilton Building and Sie Welcome Center. Not valid for online purchases.

Gift cards should arrive within 5-10 business days.

Limit 1 per transaction. To purchase multiple gift cards, call 720-913-0130 to speak with an associate.

We look forward to your visit!

 *Price includes a $60 Studio Fee for all materials provided.

Class Description:

In this class, students will use red rock clay from Colorado and reconnect with the earth. Focus will be on the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), with time for exploring one’s own ancestral relationship to cultural holidays. Bring your imagination and voice to the medium of clay while learning sculptural techniques.

What to Expect:

We will start with looking at objects in the museum’s collections on display, researching, and sketching. Students will plan a vision for their Dia de los Muertos sculpture and build a paper armature. Remaining time will be spent on working with clay, sculpting, and finally painting.

Class Cancellation Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a FRIDAY or SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Materials:

All materials will be provided for this workshop and are included in the Studio Fee of $60.

Educator:

Cal Duran is an artist and art educator focusing on connecting with his ancestors from an Indigenous and Latinx background. His work often explores parallels between hybrid identities found in myth, religion, and ritual. Duran has shown altars, installations and artwork in museums and galleries throughout the Denver Metro area and beyond. He continues to honor his ancestors and recently created a room at Meow Wolf in Denver, honoring the indigenous tribes of Colorado and the Americas.

https://www.artbycal.com

 *Price includes a $30 Studio Fee for all materials provided.

Class Description:

In this class, students will experiment with different watercolor techniques to make a set of 10 postcards. We will practice wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques to make mini paintings. Subjects for these paintings include DAM-inspired artwork, landscapes, flowers, and abstract designs. I will demonstrate and have examples of each of these styles.

What to Expect:

Students will roam the galleries for a set period to look for inspiration. They will be challenged to re-create a loose, watercolor version of at least one chosen art piece for one of their experimental designs for their postcards. Participants will experiment with different techniques and subject matters, and walk out with several (10 or more) finished watercolor postcards that they can mail or display.

Class Cancellation Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a FRIDAY or SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Materials:

All materials will be provided for this workshop and are included in the Studio Fee of $30.

Educator:

Elizabeth Truskin is a Denver artist and instructor who specializes in community-driven public art, portrait painting, and multimedia artwork. She shows at galleries in the Santa Fe Art District and Next Gallery in the 40 West Arts District.

https://www.nextgallery.org/elizabethtruskin-1-1

*Students will purchase their own materials and should expect to spend $30-70.

Class Description:

In this 4-week class, students will be introduced to the techniques of tapestry weaving. They will learn about the basic elements of weaving (the loom, warp, and weft) and how to set up a frame loom for hand weaving. We will cover the fundamental weaving patterns and tapestry design techniques, such as plain weave, color block design, and methods for creating texture in the weave. The course will engage with the many examples of woven works from the museum’s Indigenous Arts of North America and Textile and Fashion Collections as well as the work of contemporary weaving artists. Through this class, students will gain a deeper understanding of the textiles that we engage with in our everyday clothing, homes, and lives and become familiar with one of our oldest technologies: weaving.

What to Expect:

The first half of the class will focus on loom set-up, weave basics, and skill building. This class will offer a mix of hands-on making, art viewing, discussion, and designing. We will look at images of the work of contemporary tapestry weavers and students will be offered reading material to add context to the skill-based class. We will then take a group visit to the galleries to look at works from the museum’s collection as inspiration for designing a final tapestry project. As students develop their skills, they will be encouraged to experiment with the materials they use in their weavings, using non-traditional wefts and found materials. Students will leave the class with one sampler weaving and one final piece and a tapestry loom for future weaving. Students do not need any prior knowledge for this course.

Timeline:

CLASS 1 – Introductions and Basics

• Introductions and community agreements

• Slide lecture/demonstration: Weaving basics

• Demonstration/activity: Setting up the tapestry loom

• Demonstration/Activity: Basic weave structures

• For next time: bring a found material to weave with

CLASS 2 – Texture Play

• Re-introductions, questions/reflections from last class

• Slide lecture: Contemporary Weaving Artists

• Demonstration/Activity: Texturing Techniques

• Demonstration/Activity: Finishing Techniques

• For next time: begin thinking about final design; optional reading

CLASS 3 – Designing

• Welcome and gather, introduce final project/check-in

• Gallery visits to woven textile objects

• Designing and beginning final weaving

• For next time: finish setting up loom and begin weaving, if you can; optional reading

CLASS 4 – Project

• Welcome and gather

• Project weaving

• Share work and wrap-up

Class Cancellation Policy:

If a class or workshop needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather or teacher illness, a “make-up” day will be scheduled on a FRIDAY or SATURDAY as the educator’s schedule allows.

Educator:

Etta Sandry is an artist, educator, and facilitator from the midwestern United States, currently based in Boulder, Colorado. Her material-focused research is rooted in weaving and spans media through sculpture, writing, and installation. Etta completed her MFA in the Fibre & Material Practices program at Concordia University in the spring of 2021. She has exhibited her work in the United States and Canada and was the 2022 Experimental Weaver in Residence at the Unstable Design Lab in Boulder, Colorado. Her work as an educator has recently included positions teaching fibre structures and critical thinking & writing at Concordia. Etta has over ten years of experience working as an organizer and administrator in arts communities. Most recently, this has included roles as a board member at the artist-run centre articule in Montreal and as a volunteer staff in ACRE Residency’s fibre studio in Wisconsin.

www.ettasandry.com

Watch a play, Art Emergency: Sendak Edition to get more insight into what inspired Maurice Sendak to create all that he did! Two museum staff members can't agree on what inspired Sendak the most and need your help. Meet them in Sharp auditorium in the Hamilton building to hear stories and secrets about Maurice Sendak's life and art.

Allow additional time for entry and exit into the auditorium.

Tickets to the play do not include admission to the museum.

Purchase tickets to Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak here.

Purchase tickets to the Member Preview of Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak here.

COMPOSING COLOR: THE WORLD OF ALMA THOMAS

American artist Alma Thomas once wrote “Love comes by looking.” In this multi-session course, take a closer look at the artist, her art, and her world. Learn about Thomas’s creative philosophies and inspiration, fall in love with her eye for color and pattern, and dive into the deeper context of her long life and impactful career.

Session #1 – Alma Thomas: The Creative Age

September 14th, 2024 - 2:00 PM

Alma Thomas’s long life and late-career breakthroughs prove that creativity gets better with time. Like other artists who were prolific well into older age, Thomas’s creativity dynamically evolved in her later decades. In this course session, we’ll celebrate Thomas’s vibrant abstractions from the 1950s-1970s and consider her journey and others’ who worked well into their seventies, eighties, and beyond.

Session #2 – Alma’s World

October 19th, 2024 - 2:00 PM

Alma Thomas’s life was as rich and complex as her paintings. The third session of this course focuses on the larger context in which Thomas lived and worked, paying particular attention to the artistic, social, and political movements that influenced Thomas’s development as an artist.

Session #3 – The Meaning and Making of Color

November 16th, 2024 - 2:00 PM

For Alma Thomas, the “spirit and living soul of the world” was manifest through colors. She used art’s most luscious resource brilliantly, concentrating on what she called “beauty and happiness,” rather than urgencies of “inhumanity.” This session offers deep context for how and why artists throughout history have found, manipulated, coded, and celebrated color to achieve staggeringly diverse ends. It’s the ultimate shape-shifter. Color produces happiness—and it also registers power, privilege, spirituality, symbolism, technologies, emotion, and reason. With color at the forefront, artists create endless pathways to expression and offer us inexhaustible insights.

Presented by Stella Paul, writer and educator, author of Chromaphilia: The Story of Color in Art

COMPOSING COLOR: THE WORLD OF ALMA THOMAS

American artist Alma Thomas once wrote “Love comes by looking.” In this multi-session course, take a closer look at the artist, her art, and her world. Learn about Thomas’s creative philosophies and inspiration, fall in love with her eye for color and pattern, and dive into the deeper context of her long life and impactful career.

Session #1 – Alma Thomas: The Creative Age

September 14th, 2024 - 2:00 PM

Alma Thomas’s long life and late-career breakthroughs prove that creativity gets better with time. Like other artists who were prolific well into older age, Thomas’s creativity dynamically evolved in her later decades. In this course session, we’ll celebrate Thomas’s vibrant abstractions from the 1950s-1970s and consider her journey and others’ who worked well into their seventies, eighties, and beyond.

Session #2 – Alma’s World

October 19th, 2024 - 2:00 PM

Alma Thomas’s life was as rich and complex as her paintings. The third session of this course focuses on the larger context in which Thomas lived and worked, paying particular attention to the artistic, social, and political movements that influenced Thomas’s development as an artist.

Session #3 – The Meaning and Making of Color

November 16th, 2024 - 2:00 PM

For Alma Thomas, the “spirit and living soul of the world” was manifest through colors. She used art’s most luscious resource brilliantly, concentrating on what she called “beauty and happiness,” rather than urgencies of “inhumanity.” This session offers deep context for how and why artists throughout history have found, manipulated, coded, and celebrated color to achieve staggeringly diverse ends. It’s the ultimate shape-shifter. Color produces happiness—and it also registers power, privilege, spirituality, symbolism, technologies, emotion, and reason. With color at the forefront, artists create endless pathways to expression and offer us inexhaustible insights.

Presented by Stella Paul, writer and educator, author of Chromaphilia: The Story of Color in Art

COMPOSING COLOR: THE WORLD OF ALMA THOMAS

American artist Alma Thomas once wrote “Love comes by looking.” In this multi-session course, take a closer look at the artist, her art, and her world. Learn about Thomas’s creative philosophies and inspiration, fall in love with her eye for color and pattern, and dive into the deeper context of her long life and impactful career.

Session #2 – Alma’s World

Alma Thomas’s life was as rich and complex as her paintings. The third session of this course focuses on the larger context in which Thomas lived and worked, paying particular attention to the artistic, social, and political movements that influenced Thomas’s development as an artist.

COMPOSING COLOR: THE WORLD OF ALMA THOMAS

American artist Alma Thomas once wrote “Love comes by looking.” In this multi-session course, take a closer look at the artist, her art, and her world. Learn about Thomas’s creative philosophies and inspiration, fall in love with her eye for color and pattern, and dive into the deeper context of her long life and impactful career.

Session #2 – Alma’s World

Alma Thomas’s life was as rich and complex as her paintings. The third session of this course focuses on the larger context in which Thomas lived and worked, paying particular attention to the artistic, social, and political movements that influenced Thomas’s development as an artist.

COMPOSING COLOR: THE WORLD OF ALMA THOMAS

American artist Alma Thomas once wrote “Love comes by looking.” In this multi-session course, take a closer look at the artist, her art, and her world. Learn about Thomas’s creative philosophies and inspiration, fall in love with her eye for color and pattern, and dive into the deeper context of her long life and impactful career.

Session #3 – The Meaning and Making of Color

For Alma Thomas, the “spirit and living soul of the world” was manifest through colors. She used art’s most luscious resource brilliantly, concentrating on what she called “beauty and happiness,” rather than urgencies of “inhumanity.” This session offers deep context for how and why artists throughout history have found, manipulated, coded, and celebrated color to achieve staggeringly diverse ends. It’s the ultimate shape-shifter. Color produces happiness—and it also registers power, privilege, spirituality, symbolism, technologies, emotion, and reason. With color at the forefront, artists create endless pathways to expression and offer us inexhaustible insights.

Presented by Stella Paul, writer and educator, author of Chromaphilia: The Story of Color in Art

COMPOSING COLOR: THE WORLD OF ALMA THOMAS

American artist Alma Thomas once wrote “Love comes by looking.” In this multi-session course, take a closer look at the artist, her art, and her world. Learn about Thomas’s creative philosophies and inspiration, fall in love with her eye for color and pattern, and dive into the deeper context of her long life and impactful career.

Session #3 – The Meaning and Making of Color

For Alma Thomas, the “spirit and living soul of the world” was manifest through colors. She used art’s most luscious resource brilliantly, concentrating on what she called “beauty and happiness,” rather than urgencies of “inhumanity.” This session offers deep context for how and why artists throughout history have found, manipulated, coded, and celebrated color to achieve staggeringly diverse ends. It’s the ultimate shape-shifter. Color produces happiness—and it also registers power, privilege, spirituality, symbolism, technologies, emotion, and reason. With color at the forefront, artists create endless pathways to expression and offer us inexhaustible insights.

Presented by Stella Paul, writer and educator, author of Chromaphilia: The Story of Color in Art

Join us for our annual Día del Niño (Children's Day) festivities, a global celebration of children, with a wide variety of live music, dance performances, art making, and free general admission for everyone.

April 27 is a Free Day at the DAM. Advanced reservation is recommended, but not required.

Give to the Denver Art Museum's Annual Fund

Your 100% tax-deductible contribution supports inspiring art connections, powerful artist collaborations, community-minded programming at the Denver Art Museum. During these unprecedented times, your donation helps the museum reimagine how we connect in person and online through a series of new opportunities for visitors of all ages. Thank you for your support of the Denver Art Museum's annual fund.

Dylan McLaughlin (Diné) is a sound and video artist, storyteller, and educator from the Navajo Nation. In experimental music, improvisational performances, and multi-media installations, McLaughlin critically examines the impact of extractive systems on threatened ecosystems. Weaving Diné mythology, ecological data, and environmental histories, he engages in the poetics and politics of human relations to land.

McLaughlin's work has been presented at Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas; Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado; RedLine Contemporary Art Center, Denver; SITE Santa Fe; and Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, New York. He is the 2024 Native Arts Artist-in-Residence at the Denver Art Museum. McLaughlin lives and works in Austin, Texas, and Brooklyn.

Trained in mathematics and engineering, Jim Campbell creates custom-built electronic sculptures and installations that have made him a pioneer of computer technology as an art form. Presenting low-resolution moving images within LED matrices, Campbell blurs the line between representation and abstraction. Images extracted from found movies, closed-circuit television of natural phenomena, and his own films of protest marches appear as hazy recollections that test the limits of human perception and digital information.

Campbell's work is in the collections of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.  He lives and works in San Francisco.

Sonya Clark transforms everyday fiber materials hair, flags, and found fabrics into profound statements on race, culture, and class. Working with her chosen objects, Clark weaves, stitches, folds, braids, dyes, pulls, and snips threads of ideas to create new meanings. For more than thirty years, she has explored ideas of Blackness, uncovered little-known objects from American history, and sought to bring greater visibility to figures from the African diaspora.

Clark is professor of art at Amherst College, Massachusetts, and was Distinguished Research Fellow in the School of the Arts and Commonwealth Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond where she served as chair of the Craft/Material Studies Department from 2006 to 2017. Her work is the public collections of Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Wisconsin, among others.
 
This lecture is co-sponsored by the Avenir Institute of Textile Arts and Fashion and the Modern and Contemporary Art department.

See Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak before the museum opens to the public. This time is exclusive for members.