Six Arty Things to Do This Week in Denver

Say goodbye to summer vacations and hello to a new season of arts and culture: Here are six ways to get a head start on fall exhibits.

Chime On, Denver!
Denver City and County Building
1437 Bannock Street
Thursday, August 24, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Free, RSVP requested
Public art comes in different shapes and sizes — and even in disciplines that aren’t necessarily visual. The latest work commissioned by Denver's Public Art program is actually a musical composition, designed by Denver composer Kevin T. Padworski to be performed on the City and County Building’s problematic ten-bell chime, whose limited notes make it hard to mold to a lot of written music. The piece, “Ascent,” bypasses that obstacle and will, at least for the time being, replace the traditional Westminster chime on the hour and quarter-hour. Later, “Ascent” will ring out occasionally on special days. To celebrate, the city is hosting an unveiling on the City and County Building steps, followed by a free party with live music by the Perry Weissman 3, Greg Tanner Harris and kuxaan-sum, starting at 6 p.m. at the nearby McNichols Building.

Jann Haworth: Never the Less
Emmanuel Gallery
1205 Tenth Street, Auraria campus
August 24 through November 11
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 24, 4 to 7 p.m.
Soft-sculpture pioneer and pop artist Jann Haworth, best known for co-creating the iconic album cover for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with fellow artist Peter Blake, was also a trailblazer for women artists in the ’60s. Decades later, she revamped the cover to reflect 21st-century pop-culture figures in a mural, “SLC Pepper,” completed in Salt Lake City in 2005. Now, we’ll get a taste of her work here in Denver at Auraria’s Emmanuel Gallery, in what we’re banking on being a not-to-miss.

Variance
Abend Gallery
1412 Wazee Street
August 25 through September 9
Opening Reception: Friday, August 25, 6 to 9 p.m.
Abend Gallery waxes on change and its rebirth in a shared LoDo space with two other galleries by unveiling Variance, a fresh group show mixing vibrant works by old and new gallery artists. A tribute to new avenues and unexpected subject matter, this show will also reassure fans that one of Denver’s strongest representational-art galleries continues to excel.

Food & Lodging for Travelers
Alto Gallery
4345 West 41st Avenue
August 26 through October 7
Saturday, August 26, 6 to 10 p.m.
Alto opens its doors to artist Tom Bond, a jack-of-all-trades and former gallerist at the defunct Love Gallery, who waxes on the joys of cross-country road-tripping for Food & Lodging for Travelers. The exhibit will include both new two-dimensional works and site-specific installations; refreshments and live music will enhance the reception. If you can’t make the opening, mark additional receptions on the First Fridays in September or October on your calendar.

New Beginnings
Zeel Gallery/Stanley Marketplace
2501 Dallas Street, Aurora
Reception: Saturday August 26, 5 to 10 p.m.
The Zeel space in Stanley Marketplace delves into issues of incarceration and social justice with a show of works by Nashville artist Ndume Olatushani, who spent 27 years in prison (twenty of them on death row) for a crime he says he did not commit and was released in 2012 after a string of appeals. Olatushani found solace in art, and, since his release, has sought to fight the systemic “cradle to prison” syndrome in African-American communities through hard imagery.


’duct-work 2: Transforming the I-70 Viaduct
East 46th Avenue, between York Street and Brighton Boulevard
Saturday, August 26, 2 to 6 p.m.
’Duct Work, the community mural project that debuted last fall on doomed viaduct walls underneath I-70 in the Globeville neighborhood, is back for round two, with new work by 25 local artists. After a week or more of painting, ’duct-work 2 will be unveiled at a street party under the highway, with food vendors, music by DJ Beau Sanchez, and a community wall where kids can polish their own urban-art skills.