By the end of the year, the trees were gone.
But creativity is sprouting from these trees. Denver artist Darrell Anderson, who lives near the park, has started the Art of Community, a project that will use wood from the downed trees and work with youth to turn it into art.
The project, a collaboration with Cherry Arts, the nonprofit that runs the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, and Saunders Construction, the contractor hired to rebuild the golf course, will work with roughly a dozen nearby schools, where students ranging from preschoolers to twelfth-graders will create projects from the salvaged wood and ultimately compete in a juried exhibition. Winners will display their works in the golf course clubhouse when it reopens.

Art made from City Park Golf Course trees by students at Clayton Elementary School.
Darrell Anderson
Like many, Anderson worries that people living in the neighborhoods surrounding City Park are struggling with big changes in the city, from predatory fix-and-flippers trying to buy their houses to city brass redesigning the golf course.

A Clayton Elementary School student holds a piece created for The Art of Community.
Darrell Anderson
The project is also a way to bring art into Denver schools that have little access to it, where students rarely have the chance to collaborate with professional artists.
“Art is a precious thing, and everyone should have it in their life, whether it’s dancing, singing, theater or art shows," Anderson says. "It’s important to have that flavor of life in order to accomplish beautiful things.”
To find out more about the Art of Community, go to the gofundme page.