
Get to know Joyce Tsai, innovative leader of the Clyfford Still Museum
Less than one year ago, Joyce Tsai took the helm of the Clyfford Still Museum from its founding director. She is an award-winning educator and scholar whose research received support with fellowships from, among others, the Fulbright Foundation, Dedalus Foundation, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, and the Phillips Collection. She has published…

The Considerable Contributions of Bennie L. Williams
“I don’t feel no ways tired. I’ve come so far from where I started from.” — Traditional Spiritual Bennie Lucille Williams has always felt the music first. Since she was a child, growing up in small-town Texas and listening to former slaves turned sharecroppers sing in the Quarters, she knew the rhythms were a guiding…

Columbusing and the art of modern Indigenous Living
Gregg Deal is an artist and member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Nation. His body of work, from performance art to murals and more, explores what it means to be indigenous in the 21st century. Deal has served as artist in residence at both the Denver Art Museum as well as the Art Students League of…

Hispanic, Latino, Chicano, Latinx arts and culture expand influence, inform a deeper understanding of identity
In the Hispanic, Latino, Chicano, Latinx community there isn’t always agreement on self-identifiers. Applying just one broad brush moniker can quickly wipe out thousands of years of ancestral tradition, rich and varied national histories and each individual’s journey. Allow the individual to paint their own portrait of how they stand in their community and the…

Meet the new leadership of the SCFD
Since voters created the seven-county SCFD more than 30 years ago, the district has been overseen by an 11-member board of directors that ensures the district is delivering the value voters intended. Last year, the board oversaw the collection and distribution of about $64 million to more than 300 organizations across the district. This month,…

Thoughts on freedom
During July celebrations of our nation’s founding, our thoughts often turn toward the nature of freedom as it relates to the higher calling of our country’s creed. We might also think about that concept in the context of freedom to live our lives to their fullest potential and in the ways we each determine individually,…
Our understanding of the natural world roots and connects us
When you think of culture, what do you include? Maybe the traditions and holidays your family holds dear. Or your favorite works of art hanging in a museum or gallery. Or the festivals and events we celebrate as a collective each spring, summer and fall. Do you add to this list foundational contributions made to…

Diffuse in their focus, one in their mission
The arts and culture landscape surrounds us every day. It buoys and challenges our thinking. It illuminates our most sacred moments and our largest gatherings. It was built and is maintained in the Denver metro area in no small part by the passion and purpose of women. They are the tradition keepers, the ecosystem warriors,…

At SCFD, #CultureForAll means culture BY all
For Paul Stewart, it all started with a fascination with the Black experience in the American West. It became an ever-growing display on the walls of the barbershop he owned. People from the neighborhoods in Northeast Denver who did not need a haircut would come just to look at his menagerie of artifacts and curiosities….

Arts through it All holiday campaign launches to help save local arts and culture
New SCFD survey data signals threat to arts and culture sector due to economic challenges of the pandemic Read the full COVID impact survey If you just can’t live without live music. If your holiday season won’t be complete without the Nutcracker or Granny Dances to a Holiday Drum. If you treasure a childhood memory…

A life well lived carries on
There is a deep interconnection between culture and community. Wilbur Flachman knew it. So, when the native Iowan settled with his wife in Westminster in 1961, he set about making that connection tangible and visible. Flachman passed away in September. But the foundations for art and culture he built in the north metro area will…

Local artist focuses on his own work and the cultural future of his community
Jeff Lapin will be the first one to tell you he spent about 40 years as a magazine publisher living vicariously through the artists his magazines featured. Then retirement came. Suddenly, he had the time and space to reconnect directly with art and reimagine himself as the artist he had been during his undergraduate years…