Comments (0) Best Free Entertainment - 2009
"Mustang"
Readers' Choice: Jazz in the Park
Denver art takes off
Devil horse inspires us
to write Mile Haiku
Who would imagine that a piece of public art could provide endless hours of entertainment? Back in 1993, New Mexican sculptor Luis Jim?nez won a $300,000 commission to create a giant sculpture of a horse for the still-unopened Denver International Airport. From the start, art insiders were betting on what the final price would be ? and when Jim?nez would actually deliver. But all bets were off when the horse killed Jim?nez before he could complete it; his estate finally finished the piece in late 2007. It was installed at the entrance to DIA in February 2008 ? twelve years late, and with a price tag of $650,000 ? and that?s when the fun really began. Armchair critics complained that the horse looked evil; children cowered on car floors as their parents drove by the Devil Horse. And the discussion really took off after realtor Rachel Hultin set up a Facebook page encouraging people to write poems inspired by the horse. She wound up delivering close to 300 poems to the city?s arts office ? and many of those will be read at a special Mile Haiku City poetry slam at the Denver Public Library on April 27. A horse is a horse, and the event?s free, of course.
