Sitting pretty? PlatteForum seeks funky chairs

Another year, another residency -- it's business as usual at PlatteForum, the award-winning nonprofit that pairs struggling kids with resident artist/mentors to create something communal and beautiful. The latest resident, installation artist Jessica Kruetter, has been working with ArtLab students for a few weeks already, with an imaginary environment as...

By Susan Froyd

February 1, 2012

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Another year, another residency -- it's business as usual at PlatteForum, the award-winning nonprofit that pairs struggling kids with resident artist/mentors to create something communal and beautiful. The latest resident, installation artist Jessica Kruetter, has been working with ArtLab students for a few weeks already, with an imaginary environment as the culminating project: a personal, "in-between" place made of found objects and a lot of hard thinking. What are they thinking about now? How they need chairs. Sixteen of them, in fact: one for each of the sixteen participating students.

That's where you come in. PlatteForum is desperate for donations of cast-off chairs so that this group can begin building the installation. (And I repeat: They need just sixteen of them -- unlike Sean O'Meallie, who borrowed hundreds of them for his Manitou Chair Project in Manitou Springs last fall. Chairs are now so popular in that tourist town to the south that Manitou's Business of Art Center is accepting entries for a chair-inspired art exhibit.)

So can't we manage to dig up just sixteen chairs for PlatteForum?

Yes we can, since shape, size and condition don't matter. "Can be tattered or broken," PlatteForum begs. "The funkier the better!" If you have one to spare, drop it off at PlatteForum during business hours; the chairs are needed by February 10 at the latest, so that Kruetter and the kids can be ready for their March 1 opening.

Call ahead at 303-893-0791 or e-mail director Judy Anderson. For more information, visit the PlatteForum website.

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

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