Arty Parties: Your Guide to December’s First Friday and Art Shows in Denver

The monthly First Friday celebrations that take place around Denver are some of the city’s most popular events, drawing thousands of people looking to shop, eat, browse galleries and immerse themselves in the arts scene of the Art District on Santa Fe, the River North Art District (RiNo), Tennyson Street Cultural District, 40 West Arts District in Lakewood and more.

December’s First Friday is December 5, and every month, Westword lists some of the most interesting shows opening, plus ongoing shows worth a visit.

Pro tip this month: Pop into Petals & Pages in the ADSF any time between 6 and 8 p.m. on December 5 to hear Colorado poets laureate (and Governor Jared Polis!) speak and do poetry readings during the book launch event for Begin Where You Are, the first-ever anthology of poetry from all of Colorado’s poets laureate. Proceeds from the book will help support the state’s Poet Laureate program.

It’s also worth noting that Mirada Fine Art in downtown Denver will be closing its doors at the end of this year after sixteen years in business. The gallery is holding a sale through December 24 at which patrons will get $150 off every $1,000 spent.

What is the First Friday Art Walk in Denver?

First Friday is a largely unofficial event celebrating community, culture and art on the first Friday of every month. Thousands come to the metro area’s art districts to view art, visit galleries, meet artists and browse street vendors selling handmade wares and food.

What Time Does First Friday Start in Denver?

First Friday events start at different times in different art districts.

• Art District on Santa Fe: 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
• RiNo: 6 to 9 p.m.
• Tennyson Street: 6 to 10 p.m.
• 40 West Arts District: 6 to 9 p.m.

Where is First Friday in Denver?

Art District on Santa Fe: Spans from West 13th Avenue to Alameda Avenue and Kalamath Street to Inca Street. The bulk of the galleries are in a walkable area between Fifth and 11th avenues.

RiNo: Most galleries are on Blake, Walnut, Larimer and Lawrence streets between Broadway and Downing Street.

Tennyson Street: Along Tennyson Street in the Berkeley neighborhood in northwest Denver.

40 West Arts District: Lamar Station Plaza, 6501 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood

Other popular art gallery locations include the 1400-1500 blocks of South Pearl Street, and arts areas in Englewood, Littleton and Arvada.

Are There First Friday Public Transportation Options in Denver?

At the start of this year, the Regional Transportation District added a new ART District Connector bus route. The route connects pockets of some of Denver’s most visited cultural sites, including the Art District on Santa Fe, Denver Theatre District and RiNo Arts District.

The route serves the Baker, Five Points and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods. Earlier this year, Westword tested out the route.

What Can I See During First Friday in December?

There are new shows opening all over town on First Friday weekend. Here are some of the most intriguing:

X Somos Chavos: Un Archivo de lo Banal (Oh Well, We Are Young: An Archive of the Mundane)
First Friday/Opening: December 5; Gallery open by appointment only outside of First Friday; Show on display through February 20
910Arts, 910 Santa Fe Drive, Studio 12B
This show features the work of artist Ruth Alvarez Luna, who describes the show as “a materialized archive of identity.” Within everyday banality “unfolds a culture that connects us and shapes us,” she says. “Mexican iconographies — our symbols, colors and gestures — operate as a silent language: they carry stories, inheritances, and affections even when we do not name them.”

Saints and Santos: Picturing the Holy
First Friday/Opening: December 5, 5-9 p.m.; show on display through January 16
CHAC Gallery at Santa Fe, 834 Santa Fe Drive
This show curated by Lynn and Carlos Fresquez displays the devotional artwork of local artists, immersing the viewer in some of the oldest living folk-art traditions in the United States. Saints and Santos brings divine icons, Catholic patron saints, sacred symbols and more to life.

7th D’art Holiday Market
First Friday: December 5, 6-9 p.m.; Through December 14
D’art Gallery, 900 Santa Fe Drive
Explore a showcase of diverse artworks from around 30 artists during D’art Gallery’s Holiday Market. Mediums include painting, photography, encaustic, ceramics, mixed media, printmaking and more.

The Collective at BASECAMP
Fridays through Sundays December 5-21
BASECAMP Market Station, 1465 16th Street
Looking for an artsy holiday gift? This three-week pop-up art show features the works of local artists and outdoor enthusiasts at BASECAMP Market Station. Artists included in the show are Brent Bishop, Mark Risius, Dolan Geiman, Fred Becker, Ariana Barnstable, Chris Beedy, Dave Reiter, and Brittany Horrigan, and there will be works in a variety of mediums and price points.

Little Contemporary – Small Works by Big Denver Artists
Second Saturday/Reception: Saturday, December 13, 3-7 p.m.; Show on display December 2 through January 3
EASEL, 3485 South Broadway, Englewood
Small Works by Big Denver Artists is a tradition in the local art community, this year featuring the work of artists include Eric Anderson, Michael Dowling, Greg Forber. Michael Gadlin, Anthony Garcia Sr., Terry Gardner, Moe Gram, Mark Johnson, Joey Kerlin, Cody Kuehl, Brett Matarazzo, Christine Nguyen, Faatma Be Oné, Tony Ortega, Alexandrea Pangburn and Tony Zellaha. All work will be sized at approximately 18 by 18 inches, a good size for gifting and a more attainable way for collectors to acquire work by some popular Denver artists.

Just Desserts
First Friday/Opening Reception: December 5, 5-8 p.m.; Show on display through December 20
Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 East Colorado Avenue, Colorado Springs
This month’s juried exhibition at Cottonwood Center for the Arts is Just Desserts, a celebration of our love for sugar. All mediums were considered, resulting in a wide variety of sweet art.

Ongoing Shows Worth a Visit

Glimpses of Reality Aquatical
Through December 7
931 Gallery, 931 Santa Fe Drive
In this colorful show by artist Terry Decker, Decker hopes to show the vanishing reality of marine life. Various “Aquatical” works are a record of what was once a thriving, vibrant aquatic world that has been “diminished by humans to the point of unrelenting mayhem and toxic extinction.”

Sculptural Ceramics by Margaret Bohls
Through December 26
Plinth Gallery, 3520 Brighton Boulevard
Plinth Gallery rounds out this year of exhibitions with a display of sculptural ceramics by Margaret Bohls, an associate professor of art at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Plinth will showcase her “Bucchero” collection of black and white coil-built stoneware from her “Italian” series, which is based on an examination of several types of historical ceramics produced on the Italian peninsula. “I strive to identify a set of physical, formal attributes of these objects that visually communicate something about the culture that produced them or the era during which they were created,” Bohls says. “I do this through a close visual examination of the objects and by making drawings of the objects. In these drawings, I attempt to distill the objects down to what I consider to be their critical visual and formal characteristics. These drawings become the basis for the creation of a series of ceramic forms of my own.”

It Comes in Waves
Through December 31
The People’s Building, 9995 East Colfax, Aurora
It Comes in Waves is an exhibition by and about Coloradans living with long COVID. Through a combination of illustrations by incarcerated people and mixed media work by Colorado artists, the show captures the resilience of those whose lives were permanently changed by the virus.

CO Transplant
Through January
The Storeroom, storefront window at 1700 Vine Street
Centered around pop-art iconography, this exhibit features the work of Henry Tucker and uses imperfect ceramics to highlight some of the key icons of Colorado, featuring brands like Snarf’s and Tattered Cover. Tucker, who lives in Denver, is from Australia.

Biyáál
Through January 3
Union Hall, 1750 Wewatta Street
Biyáál is a debut family exhibition featuring the work of JayCee, Randall and Wayne Beyale. The title of the show comes from the Navajo translation of the family name, Beyale, and the exhibition traces an intergenerational relationship to the Nightway ceremonial cycle, a
foundational element of Diné healing and storytelling traditions.

Harmonious Dissonance
Through January 11
RedLine Contemporary Art Center, 2350 Arapahoe Street
Harmonious Dissonance is a show celebrating the five-decade career of American artist Bruce Price, who was also one of RedLine’s first Resource Artists. Price is primarily known as a painter, but this exhibition — Price’s largest and most comprehensive — will consider not only significant painting series made since the 1980s, but also his lesser-known activities in sculpture, drawing, collage and installation.

Gary Simmons: Rush
Through May 9
Cookie Factory, 425 West 4th Avenue
The Cookie Factory‘s latest show features the work of Gary Simmons, known for using erasure as both a material process and a conceptual strategy. Recognized his unconventional use of the blackboard, Simmons brings the medium into the exhibition space, drawing with chalk and partially erasing it by hand, commenting on history, imposed identities and a liberated vision of the future.

Interested in having your First Friday event appear here? Send details to editorial@westword.com.