Down in the Valley

Just blink, and you'll miss another change to the landscape in the Central Platte Valley. It's really happening that fast in a now-populated land that just a few years ago was home only to railroad tracks and industry. Like any sign of progress, the burgeoning valley's got its pros and cons, but there's at least one big checkmark in the "yea" column: public art. Lots of it, surrounded by sculpted greenery, from Robert Tully's "Visions Born With This River," at Gates Crescent Park, and Zhang Huan's "Pilgrimage," on the Millennium Bridge Plaza, to "Aerial," local artist John Davis's newly dedicated sculpture at the Denver Skatepark.

A lucky band of riverside tourists will be brought completely up to date on these and other notable downtown artworks today from 9:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., when public-art maven Mary Valdez of the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs leads a Public Art Tour of the Platte Valley by bus to benefit the E-Learning Center at the Auraria Library. For tickets, $50 (box lunch included), call 303-556-2438; board the tour bus at the Lawrence Way circle between the King Center and St. Cajetan's on the Auraria campus.
Sat., June 9, 9:45 a.m.-1 p.m.