- Aside from your organization (or yourself), who is doing the most interesting work in Denver right now?
- When you go out on the town, what's your favorite cultural activity?
- What's the on thing you'd like to see happen in the next year to improve the local arts scene?
The first twenty responses we received are included in the guide (and you can read them here), but great answers keep coming in -- so we'll be posting those on Show and Tell.
See also: - Now Showing: A Westword guide to the fall arts scene - 2012 MasterMind Awards honor our eighth class of artistic entrepreneurs - Meet the 2008 MasterMinds, including Jill Hadley Hooper and Tracy Weil
Here's the response from Jill Hadley Hooper, artist, gallery owner and co-founder of the River North Arts District (an act that earned her a 2008 MasterMind):Westword: Aside from your arts organization (or yourself), who is doing the most interesting work in Denver right now?
Jill Hadley Hooper: Two names come to mind, in no particular order.
1) Theresa Anderson (theresaandersonart.com) for her fine art first -- her big, messy, crazy, awkward (in the best way) paintings. Some of the most interesting two-dimensional work in Denver right now. She's also a writer, thinker, blogger, promoter of the arts and member of Ice Cube and Pirate galleries.
2) Ink Lounge Creative, Nicky Alden and Stu Alden (inkloungecreative.com). They are designers by day who have morphed into evangelical screen-print gurus. They offer workshops to adults and kids, at-risk youth, non-profits. Aside from being talented artists themselves, they are just good people.
When you go out on the town, what's your favorite cultural activity?
If we're staying in RiNo (to close Ironton at the end of the night), we'll start at Chocolate Crisis to buy supplies and get hopped up on chocolate, walk to the neighboring galleries -- Hinterland and Pattern Shop among them -- then head to the other side of the tracks to those galleries including Ironton. After we shut down, we'll go to Navajo to see what's happening there, and end the night with a drink at the end of the bar at Patsy's.
And then, because the local scene is full of endless entertainment opportunities and connections (Theresa Anderson just happens to be one of the people whose survey answers are included in Now Showing), Hadley Hooper sent an addendum that covered both of those first two questions, and name-checked an early Westword calendar editor:
Donna Altieri: creator, small business owner and employer, world traveler, clothes-maker and fashion plate, art supporter, joiner and collector. If you want to know what's happening in Denver on any given day, ask Donna. She curates her and husband Mike's frequent outings carefully, assembling elements of fine art, music, performance, movies, food and fashion. A recent invite from her was an evening to start at Robischon for an opening, then a movie at 7 p.m. about the designers of the Highline Canal at the Denver FilmCenter and then a discussion on architecture and a bite to eat at ACE after. Her sense of curiosity and passion for everything makes her a Denver creatives BFF. The last question: What's the one thing you'd like to see happen over the next year to improve the local arts scene? We absolutely need more coverage of the arts. There is so much going on now and it is difficult to get the word out to the general public. It seems like a dream that at one point we had two papers and Westword covering arts full time. Denver's cultural scene is booming -- just try to plan an event and find a night where something else equally compelling isn't happening, it's amazing.
We hope that Now Showing gives readers a feel for just how amazing the scene is -- and that the issue helps to fill some of the gaps. In the meantime, if you'e like to answer the same questions, post your answers -- or any other comments about the scene -- below.
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