In 2005 Westword introduced the MasterMind awards, honoring the artists and arts organizations that were changing the cultural landscape of Denver. Since then, we’ve awarded more than $150,000 to 55 MasterMinds — and we’ll be celebrating our twelfth creative class at Artopia 2016 tonight. Meet Mar Williams, 2016 MasterMind. From…
In 2005 Westword introduced the MasterMind awards, honoring the artists and arts organizations that were changing the cultural landscape of Denver. Since then, we’ve awarded more than $150,000 to 55 MasterMinds — and now we’re rolling out our twelfth creative class. Meet Jeromie Lawrence Dorrance, our first 2016 MasterMind. Dorrance,…
A giant, inflatable orange rhino dominated the stage at the first-ever annual breakfast meeting of the River North Art District, which sounds like a somewhat bourgeois affair (although there were mimosas, and the gathering didn’t start until 9:30 a.m.) for a concept that seemed so wild a dozen years ago…
Denver has a winning reputation — and not just because of the Denver Broncos. This city’s arts scene is renowned across the country, and for our annual Winter Arts Guide, inserted in this week’s edition of Westword, we asked a dozen people intrinsic to that scene a few questions about…
Ten days ago, La Loma announced that later this year, it would be leaving its home perched high on a hill in Jefferson Park, and moving to a spot downtown while it builds a new home by the Denver Aquarium. Now La Loma’s owners have revealed where that downtown location…
After more than three decades in downtown Denver, the Trinity Grille closed at the end of service on Saturday, February 13. Another restaurant is slated to take over the space, and owner Tom Walls will focus on his last remaining restaurant, Castle Cafe at 403 Wilcox Street in Castle Rock,…
Tonight, the Emily Griffith Foundation will host what it’s calling the Party of the Century in honor of legendary educator Emily Griffith, who founded Denver’s Opportunity School in 1916. That school is still going strong, offering an array of high-school and continuing-education courses that dwarf the three classes Griffith offered…
The Tavern Platt Park has finally announced an opening date: Monday, February 29. Tavern Hospitality Group broke ground three years ago at the 1475 South Pearl address once occupied by India’s Pearl (and many occupants prior to that); while the project team was unable to save the facade, as Historic…
Three years after the groundbreaking for Tavern Platt Park, the latest edition to the Tavern Hospitality Group finally has an opening date: Monday, February 29. And really, if you count by leap years, that puts Tavern Platt Park — which occupies the address at 1475 South Pearl that was once home…
From a hillside overlooking downtown Denver, La Loma has been slinging green chile for more than forty decades. That green chile is from a recipe created by grandma Savina Mendoza, and it became the focal point of the modest Mexican restaurant that the Mendoza family opened in 1973 in a…
In December 2011, Jerry Feld sold Club 404 — the bar he’d bought six decades before, when he was too young to even have a liquor license. But since then, the spot at 404 Broadway has seen some tough times. Initially it was turned into the Denver Wheel Club 404,…
The Broncos weren’t the only hometown heroes to hit it big this weekend: Comic/event entrepreneur Andy Juett also scored. The Sexpot Comedy mainstay and High Plains Comedy Festival co-founder is featured in the first installment of the Pepsi Halftime Show-Show anchored by Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer. Juett’s episode aired…
In the first of a new neighborhood series, Teague Bohlen recently served up “Seven Things That Make Stapleton Really, Really Mad.” Well, you can now add his piece itself to the list, making it eight. Nick’s response was one of the most moderate on the Westword Facebook page: We are not Stapleton…
The forty-foot-high Willie Nelson statue has yet to appear on the edge of Colorado Boulevard — but that could only be a matter of time. Because otherwise, the construction crew is putting the finishing touches on what promises to soon become one of metro Denver’s top tourist attractions: The Smokin’…
This project has moved slower than traffic on I-70 at rush hour — after a thirty-car pileup. On Friday, January 15, the Colorado Department of Transportation released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on the I-70 East project, kicking off a thirty-day public review period. According to CDOT, the FEIS…
Nearly two dozen states have legalized marijuana for medical use; four states, as well as Washington, D.C., now allow the sale of recreational cannabis to adults – and many more states are considering doing the same. Nevada already has a measure that would legalize pot on its November ballot, California…
Penny Parker, longtime reporter and On the Town columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Post and then Blacktie Colorado, passed away on January 2. There will be a celebration of Penny’s life from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday, January 22, at the EXDO Events Center, 1399 35th Street,…
History Colorado is ready to make some history. The day after the organization announced that University of Colorado prof Patty Limerick would be the new state historian, History Colorado posted an ad (see below) for a new executive director to replace Ed Nichols, who in August announced that he was retiring, in…
History Colorado has been making some history of its own over the past six months, with a complete reconfiguration of the board to make it leaner and meaner (at least when it comes to financial matters), buyouts and layoffs of staffers, and the departure of many of the organization’s top managers, including state…
Is there any topic that gets Denver residents talking more than growth — and what comes with it? High rents, traffic congestion and, in my neighborhood, renewed parking wars, with an entire block (see above) now closed, and two side roads often off limits, too — or so clogged with…
After twenty years in the Denver Tech Center, Brook’s Steak House quietly closed on January 1, and its location at 6538 South Yosemite Circle could become a hotel. “When we first opened, we were the only fine-dining steakhouse south of Cherry Creek. And we were extremely successful,” Brook’s owner Robert Melton…
Brad Evans packs a lot of ideas into his big brainpan. Last year at this time, the founder of the Denver Cruiser Ride was still considering running for mayor of Denver — riding on the discontent expressed by so many for the seemingly uncontrolled growth in this city. Instead, he…
