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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!

Class Description:

Flow State is a one-day workshop that explores the connections between intuitive painting, mindfulness meditation, and community. Participants will learn how to combine abstract painting and drawing skills with mindfulness meditation techniques and will explore how this hybrid practice can be used to hold space for our Selves and each other. Participants will work individually and as a group using acrylic paint, pastels, paper and canvas. This class connects to abstract works in the Denver Art Museum collection, including pieces by artists like Mark Bradford, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Sam Gilliam, Shinique Smith, and Sonia Gechtoff.

What to Expect:

Students will be led into the galleries at the beginning of the workshop to observe and discuss one work. The selected work will serve as an introduction to and inspiration for the exercises that will be practiced during the day, which will include guided meditations, gestural painting prompts, and group reflections. Students can expect to:

• Be guided through various meditations as a group with visualization and mindfulness-based techniques.

• Practice guided, individual meditative painting/drawing exercises on paper.

• Create a large-scale, group painting on canvas.

• Reflect on the day’s work in a group discussion at the end of each workshop.

Participants will walk away with a series of personal abstract paintings on paper, a set of creative meditations to use in everyday life, and the opportunity to co-create a large-scale group painting with others. The large group painting will require participants to work on the same surface at the same time in some instances.

No prior painting or drawing skills are required. No experience with meditation or mindfulness required. This class is open to all skill levels.

Class Make-up Day 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 students and are included in the price of this workshop.

Educator:

Visual artist, Sarah Darlene, explores the functionality of abstraction through a feminine, queer, and contemporary perspective. Her work investigates the intersections of painting, social practice, and meditation and their collective ability to promote self-reflection, cathartic healing, and true social change. Palmeri holds a BFA in Painting and Drawing from Louisiana State University, and an Executive Certificate of Nonprofit Management from the University of Notre Dame. She has been a member of Strangers Art Collective since 2015 and is a former Artist in Residence at RedLine Contemporary Art Center in Denver. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Iceland.

www.sarahdarlene.com

Class Description:

Students will learn the history of Cherokee basket making materials from pre-European contact through to contemporary Oklahoma Cherokee weaving. Following Sarah H. Hill in her book, Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry, we will meet some notable weavers and touch on different material traditions. The DAM Indigenous Arts of North America has a small selection of basketry from the Original Peoples of the Southeastern US and their descendants, and this class will both expose students to more examples of these traditions and give them an opportunity to weave their own round reed Oklahoma style Cherokee basket.

What to Expect:

The first 60-90 minutes will be a presentation providing a close look at Cherokee basket weaving traditions and weavers, students are welcome to move around as needed during lecture and discussion. Instructor will spend 20-30 minutes providing a demo of starting, shaping/forming, and finishing a basket, and the remainder of the class, provide step-by-step instruction to the group, followed up with one-on-one support. After the demos, students are expected to take breaks, including lunch, as needed. Every student will be able to finish at least one basket, possibly more than one.

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:

Salix is a 35-year-old two-spirit, multiracial creator and educator of Muscogee/Cherokee descent. Salix has had baskets on display at the Evergreen Center for the Arts, and they teach basket weaving for Colorado Native Org's Native cultural night. You can also find them at events such as the Harvest of All First Nations Corn Festival, and áyA Con Denver.

https://www.instagram.com/salix.weaves/

Class Description:

In this class, students will be introduced to the art game Exquisite Corpse, popular among the Surrealist artists. Students will relate Surrealism and the creative creatures that emerge from the drawing game to the exhibit Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak. Drawing on this inspiration, students will create their own original illustrations and learn how story can help influence and mold an artwork's inception. Students will intertwine their illustrations and stories they construct for their creatures – connecting image and text through playful interactions of art viewing, sensory details, collaboration, and creation.

What to Expect:

We will be going into the galleries and making during class time. Exercises each class will build up to creating a final illustration at the end. Beginners welcome! The aim of this class is to jump start your creative thinking and make illustrating accessible and fun instead of intimidating for students.

Timeline:

Week 1

• Learn about and play the Surrealist drawing game exquisite corpse and relate it to the work of Maurice Sendak by visiting the Wild Things exhibit together.

Week 2

• Create your own creature from the exquisite corpse game and begin thinking about the story and personality for your creature.

Week 3

• Look at the work "Dream of Arcadia" by painter Thomas Cole in the gallery and consider how to use color, mood, scale, and environment in our final illustrations.

Week 4

• Bring everything together and work on final illustrations using gouache and color pencil.

Class Make-up Day 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:

Students will purchase their own materials and should expect to spend $30-50. We partner with Meininger’s for local shopping, purchase a kit of your required materials online for in-store pickup, or purchase the items individually.

Educator:

Charis Fleshner is an art educator and nationally exhibiting conceptual artist who earned her MFA from the University of New Mexico. She currently teaches art at the Denver Art Museum and Aims Community College. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Art Fort Collins, Emmanuel Gallery in Denver, and Strata Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has been awarded two artist residencies elsewhere in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her work can be seen at charismakesart.com. She is currently working on projects in color pencil and soft sculpture.

https://www.charismakesart.com/

Class Description:

In this class, students will explore oil painting fundamentals in an accelerated format. They will survey the DAM’s collection and sketch from art within the galleries. Students will create individual pieces inspired by their research sketches, utilizing their newly built skills. The intent of this class is to bring each artist through the entire process of researching and creating a completed piece of work.

What to Expect:

Students will learn or in some cases relearn fundamental skills in addition to some tricks of the trade. This knowledge will help them work within the museum to sketch and generate ideas and bring those ideas into the studio to complete a finished project.

Timeline:

Week 1

• Focus on oil painting fundamentals

Week 2

• Focus on oil painting fundamentals

Week 3

• Gathering sketches and ideas in the museum’s galleries

Week 4

• Gathering sketches and ideas in the museum’s galleries

Week 5

• Painting in the classroom

Week 6

• Painting in the classroom

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:

Students will purchase their own materials and should expect to spend $60-100.

We partner with Meininger’s for local shopping, purchase a kit of your required materials online for in-store pickup, or purchase the below items individually.

Educator:

Born in Denver in 1972, Michael Dowling spent much of his early life as a typical kid apart from being an obsessive drawer. It wasn’t until the age of 25, and after several years studying various subjects as well as working in many fields, that Michael started painting. With that late beginning, Dowling dove full in and began studying extensively. At 28, he decided to sell a burgeoning art sales company and moved to Florence, Italy to focus on painting. He has since returned to his native Denver where he lives and works.

Michael Dowling's work has been characterized as a combination of traditional practices in realism and his explorations of mark, pattern, and color to disrupt that reality. In many compositions, figures presented as portrait, morph into their surreal self, and lone objects tell stories through their subtle positioning. These objects and characters sit in bizarre spaces with intentionally disrupted atmospheres in order to find further meaning within the imagery.

https://m2lr.com/artists/72-michael-dowling/

Please note that the Art Emergency: Sendak Edition play runs 45 minutes long. Please purchase your play ticket one hour before or after your entry time to the Wild Things: Art of Maurice Sendak exhibition.

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.

Doug Salati, author of the award-winning 2022 picture book Hot Dog, began developing the idea for his book during his Sendak Fellowship in 2015. As an archives assistant at the Maurice Sendak Foundation, Salati immersed himself in Sendak’s creative world, studying original sketches, preliminary drawings, and final works. In this lecture, Salati will share behind-the-scenes insights into his creative process, lessons learned from one of the greatest storytellers of our time, and how Sendak’s methodologies continue to inspire his work today.

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

Art as Agency: Creating Beauty at Amache and Beyond

During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes on the West Coast and into American concentration camps, where they lived in uncomfortable barracks while battered by extreme climates without knowing when their unjust incarceration would end. For many, the arts became avenues to beauty, comfort, and survival in the face of prejudice. Inspired by the exhibition "The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama", the Petrie Institute’s 19th annual symposium explores how painting, gardening, screen printing, and other art forms helped reassert humanity, creativity, and resilience at camps including the Granada Relocation Center in Southeast Colorado, now the Amache National Historic Site.

The museum’s Sensory-Friendly Mornings is a program for kids with neurodiversity or sensory processing disorders and their families to visit the museum in a safe and fun way. The museum will open early, dim the lights, and provide tools to aid and guide a sensory-friendly experience for the whole family.

Vance Kirkland, namesake of Kirkland Museum, was a lifelong painter, art educator, and proponent of modernism in Denver, Colorado. His involvement with the University of Denver, Denver Art Museum, and many of Colorado's artists from 1929 to 1981 left a lasting impact on the cultural landscape of our state. Kirkland Museum's merger with the Denver Art Museum is the culmination of almost 100 years of connections. Join us to learn about this visionary artist and his enduring influence.

Maya D. Wright grew up in Denver and has worked at Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art since 2005, most recently as Director of Interpretation. She is now on staff at the Denver Art Museum, managing the interpretation and communications aspects of the Kirkland integration.

Art as Agency: Creating Beauty at Amache and Beyond

During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes on the West Coast and into American concentration camps, where they lived in uncomfortable barracks while battered by extreme climates without knowing when their unjust incarceration would end. For many, the arts became avenues to beauty, comfort, and survival in the face of prejudice. Inspired by the exhibition "The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama", the Petrie Institute’s 19th annual symposium explores how painting, gardening, screen printing, and other art forms helped reassert humanity, creativity, and resilience at camps including the Granada Relocation Center in Southeast Colorado, now the Amache National Historic Site.

Donations to this fund are invested by the DAM foundation with the intention to grow the fund in value over time. This fund provides an annual distribution based on the Foundation's policy.  Distributed funds are used to acquire new artwork for the DAM.

The Museum regularly reconciles expenditures made from distributed funds to ensure that they are allocated as intended.

Please note that the exhibition is filled with over 400 wonderful artworks and delightful surprises. We recommend planning to spend at least 1 1/2-2 hours in the exhibition to ensure you see it all.

This ticket includes General Admission to the museum. To purchase a General Admission ticket without access to Wild Things, click here.

Purchase tickets to a Wild Things Member Morning here.

Access Free Day special pricing for Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak here.

Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak presents more than 400 artworks created by Maurice Sendak. One of the most versatile artists of the twentieth century, Sendak is best known for picture books, especially the award-winning titles Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, and Nutshell Library. He also designed theater sets and collaborated on films.

Wild Things is named after Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, the beloved children’s book he authored in 1963 that became a cultural touchstone. The exhibition's title signals to all the beauty, whimsy, and mischief that his art inspired over his 65-year career. Visitors will see unique examples of Sendak’s timeless art, such as the final artworks for Where the Wild Things Are, and get a sense of his extraordinary skill and his deep understanding of the process of creating picture books and designs for the stage, television, and film productions. The show will include a wide array of drawings, paintings, posters, and mockups for books. It will also include set designs for the Where the Wild Things Are opera and the costumes for the live-action, feature-length film.

Alongside Sendak’s work, Wild Things will showcase works by other artists that Sendak collected throughout his life, tracing the origins of his creativity to William Blake, Winsor McCay, Beatrix Potter, George Stubbs, and Walt Disney. Sendak’s collaborations with distinguished directors, composers, writers, and choreographers such as Carroll Ballard, Frank Corsaro, Carole King, Spike Jonze, Tony Kushner, among many others, are also illuminated throughout the exhibition.

Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak is a ticketed exhibition and not included in general admission. On free days, enjoy $15 tickets to see Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak.

Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak presents more than 400 artworks created by Maurice Sendak. One of the most versatile artists of the twentieth century, Sendak is best known for picture books, especially the award-winning titles Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, and Nutshell Library. He also designed theater sets and collaborated on films.

Wild Things is named after Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, the beloved children's book he authored in 1963 that became a cultural touchstone. The exhibition's title signals to all the beauty, whimsy, and mischief that his art inspired over his 65-year career. Visitors will see unique examples of Sendak's timeless art, such as the final artworks for Where the Wild Things Are, and get a sense of his extraordinary skill and his deep understanding of the process of creating picture books and designs for the stage, television, and film productions. The show will include a wide array of drawings, paintings, posters, and mockups for books. It will also include set designs for the Where the Wild Things Are opera and the costumes for the live-action, feature-length film.

Alongside Sendak's work, Wild Things will showcase works by other artists that Sendak collected throughout his life, tracing the origins of his creativity to William Blake, Winsor McCay, Beatrix Potter, George Stubbs, and Walt Disney. Sendak's collaborations with distinguished directors, composers, writers, and choreographers such as Carroll Ballard, Frank Corsaro, Carole King, Spike Jonze, Tony Kushner, among many others, are also illuminated throughout the exhibition.

This ticket includes General Admission to the museum.

Please select the date you would like to visit the Denver Art Museum. Your tickets will be valid for the entire day.