Arts & Entertainment

It's a sad day when you can't go inside Denver's brick-and-mortar museums, but there's no need to feel like you're missing out on the cultural experiences normally available in the city. Many museums — particularly art museums — have devised ways to share their collections virtually. At the Kirkland, that includes a 360-degree virtual tour of the museum's handsome, salon-style groupings of objects and artifacts, including decorative arts, regional art and the work of Colorado artist Vance Kirkland.

Night Lights Denver brings a "bright lights, big city" mentality to downtown Denver: The sophisticated original video projection series sources Colorado artists for after-dark programming for three hours every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The videos are projected on the side of the Daniels & Fisher Tower at 16th and Arapahoe streets. It's free and lights up just around the time downtown revelers are normally between dinner and clubbing, looking for something to do. But now that restaurants and clubs are closed or are offering takeout only, think of Night Lights Denver as a serendipitous destination in itself rather than something you just stumble upon on the street.

Jaime Molina's "La Veleta/The Weathervane" is a forty-foot-tall totem in Barnum Park on Sixth Avenue, visible to drivers going by on Federal Boulevard. Denver native Molina has developed an approach to figuration in which facial features are distinctively conventionalized. For "La Veleta," he rendered seven monumental heads of animals — a red fox, a rattlesnake, a black bear, a bison, a mountain lion, an owl and a bighorn sheep — and shaped them like notched cubes. To convey each creature in his signature style, Molina used mosaic tiles, stacking the tile-covered cubes to create a totemic column à la Constantin Brancusi. Southwest Denver has not seen its fair share of public art, but with Molina's obelisk — and murals by Anthony Garcia Sr. nearby — maybe that's changing.

In a time when social distancing is robbing art lovers of their gallery experiences, the Storeroom's time has truly come. The ingenious storefront gallery is always open, day or night, whenever the urge to see art hits. But its proximity to Vine Street Pub & Brewery is an incentive to go during restaurant hours, when you can pick up takeout food and a growler to go curbside for an art party in your car. Catch Maya Linke's installation, A Fairy Tale_Deconstructed, at the Storeroom through the end of April, and watch the Facebook page for future drive-by exhibits.

Partners Jessica Langley, a multimedia artist and curator, and Ben Kinsley, an artist who teaches at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, have spread their creativity all over the world. But since moving here, they've found life in Colorado liberating and conducive to trying new things. So they opened a curated outdoor art space in their front yard, showcasing artists from Colorado and around the globe with quarterly exhibitions. That's cool in any social climate, but almost essential when galleries everywhere have temporarily closed their doors. Currently on view at the Yard, 24/7, through June 20: Prague-based Mexican installation artist Jimena Mendoza's Monolith.

There are artists whose deaths are impossible to get over. One of those is Prince. Happily, somebody painted a mural of the late rocker, who now looms over a small parking lot at 1082 Broadway. Depicting Prince with a purple face and psychedelic imagery — blue and orange clouds, a pink sun and winding roads — sprouting from his hair, the painting is at once comforting, spiritual and even evocative of the artist's brand of pop. Walk by in the middle of the day, and before you know it, you'll be singing "Purple Rain" to yourself.

Adán de la Garza's Collective Misnomer has offered some of the most compelling experimental media programming in town, screening works about everything from visions of disaster and political depravity to smart looks at landscapes. Along the way, he's kept track of his various programs on his website. Now that his series has gone dark — in theaters, at least — he's added links and more information about each artist to his website. So if you're looking to plummet into the abyss of media art, head to collectivemisnomer.com and start exploring.

As a nomadic, nonprofit experimental art museum, Black Cube has always pushed boundaries, mostly functioning without a permanent physical location. The museum has now gone virtual, though, and the Black Cube Vimeo channel is another medium used to showcase artists' work. Conveniently, the channel launched in January with Jaimie Henthorn's "Cadet Chapel," and it will soon include works by ten additional artists chosen through an open call for submissions.

What does a film center do without a theater? When the nonprofit Denver Film closed the Sie FilmCenter, its arthouse cinema, it decided to bring the movies that had been slated to be projected on the big screen before the theater shut down right into your living room. For $12, the price of a seat at the Sie, you can now rent new movies from distributors like Kino Lorber, Oscilloscope and Film Movement at denverfilm,org. And every Friday, the offerings will rotate out — just as if the theater were open — helping you stay up on the latest and greatest in independent film.

If you’ve never had a chance to get to know Denver’s extensive collection of public artwork, now’s the perfect time to dig in — either virtually or on foot, in proper socially distanced form — by using online self-guided tour maps on Denver Public Art’s website. Some tours are themed, while others focus on certain areas of the city.

In the beginning, circa 1981, the Museum of Outdoor Arts was truly a museum without walls, founded by John W. Madden Jr. and daughter Cynthia Madden Leitner as a collection scattered around Greenwood Plaza, Marjorie Park and other outdoor spots in the Denver Tech Center. While MOA switched gears after its indoor home opened in City Center Englewood, it has continued to maintain and grow the outdoor collection, which you can explore both virtually on the website or on foot, using a downloadable tour brochure.

On any given day, you'll see only a fraction of the Denver Art Museum's vast collection as you walk through its galleries. When you're out and about and busy with life, that might be enough, but when you're stuck at home with nothing to do? That's the time to explore everything that's not on the floor, including collections that are in storage until the Martin Building partially reopens in June. And you can do that: It's all there online at the DAM's website, with several search ranges at your disposal.

You know MCA Denver doesn't do things like other museums. It doesn't have a collection to catalogue online, and many of its events are all about inviting audiences to be a part of something communal, from hands-on workshops to lighthearted lectures. And while the museum is closed to the public, you can still participate in the serendipitous fun: Follow @mca_denver on Instagram for weekly prompts dropped on Tuesdays and submit your contribution using the hashtag #LetsMCA. The Insta page will also host artist talks, live streams and other content, beginning with video from MC Rakim's recent talk and performance hosted by the MCA at the Oriental Theater.

From the comfort of your couch, explore the digital offerings of the Denver Botanic Gardens. Start your visit by going on the venue's YouTube channel to see the various parts of the gardens and learn more about them. Next, take a photo stroll through the Japanese garden, steppe gardens and more. The website also shows what's blooming, and once you've exhausted those options, you can check out the Instagram page for even more pictures. After all, even if the place isn't open, gardeners will be on hand to keep up the grounds, so you might as well watch everything grow.

The Denver Zoo has put effort into digitally sharing what its animal residents are doing whenever the grounds are closed. We're talking Instagram, daily Facebook Live feeds at 1 p.m. under the hashtag #bringthezootoyou, and tons of information about the creatures on the website. As a bonus, the zoo's social-media posts show videos of the new baby rhino, yet to be named, and other cute wildlife on the premises. Map out which animals you want to visit the next time the zoo gates open.

Although the Denver Public Library had to close its doors to the public, the institution's online platform is as robust as ever. DPL offers respite for stressed-out parents with ebooks, animated children's books and the Phone-a-Story program (720-865-8500), which allows you to pick English, Spanish, Amharic or Vietnamese selections. You can even chat with a librarian online and get answers to questions Google can't figure out. DPL offers free access to its Kanopy streaming service, too, which includes more than 30,000 film titles, as well as thousands of albums in an online music library and hundreds of releases from local artists.

If you're really desperate for art to look at, how about renting some on the fly? Joe Clark of Get the Gallery devised the art-rental service to be affordable and easy but handled with care, meaning that after you select something online, it'll be delivered to your door, ready to hang, with the option of having the concierge hang it for you for an additional fee. Prices range from $17 to $49 per month, according to the number and value of the pieces you rent. And Get the Gallery keeps it local by offering art by Colorado artists, another reason to feel good about what you see on your wall.

RedLine has always put artists first. While the Five Points gallery, studio and event space may be closed, the nonprofit continues to offer solid resources for artists, providing an online list of grants, funds and residencies available now to help creatives in need. RedLine also asks artists to fill out a brief survey on its website, attempting to assess real-time needs. Executive director Louise Martorano is a bright light in dark times, working directly with the community on what can be done right now to meet artists where they are.

PlatteForum has long connected young people from Denver with artists from around the world through residencies, exhibits and workshops. The nonprofit also understands the exceptional challenges that youth from under-resourced communities can face day to day. During these uneasy times, PlatteForum is working to offer information relevant to young artists and their families, starting with a list of resources for the community that includes connections for rental and utility assistance, information about meal and food-access programs, resources for freelancers, youth-specific grants and more.

The music-education nonprofit Youth on Record has served two major functions in the Denver area: hiring artists to teach, and using contemporary music education to keep youth in school. With all of its in-person programming currently shut down, the organization still plans on paying its artists and continuing with some of its virtual programming. That includes My Youth on Record, the podcast where artists share music they created when they were teens. Hosted by Shawn King from DeVotchKa, the program has included interviews with Sunny Jain of Red Baraat, underground rapper Sage Francis, Zac Barnett of American Authors, and Denver rapper Kalyn Heffernan of Wheelchair Sports Camp.

How often do you think about Colorado and what makes it unique? Why not take advantage of this period of isolation to learn more about the great state we live in through stories documenting Colorado history, places and people? The podcast Lost Highways, sponsored by History Colorado and compiled by folksy Colorado Springs polymath Noel Black and producer Tyler Hill, who traveled around the state gathering information about Japanese internment camps, the African-American settlement of Dearfield and other Colorado-centric sagas, will get you hooked in a minute. You can just feel the hours indoors melting away.

Josh Mattison has made himself a staple in the Denver podcasting scene with his audio magazine Low Orbit (formerly called Denver Orbit). In the fall, he and Shannon Geis dropped a podcast documentary series called The Order of Death, which investigates the murder of talk-radio host Alan Berg, who was gunned down in his driveway in 1984 by members of a white-supremacist group called the Order. The podcast explores the group's ideology, Berg's role in the talk-radio revolution of the early '80s, and how his killers' hateful ideas continue to influence today's white-supremacist movements.

Addiction is a beast. Lives are destroyed. People are forever changed. And sometimes...every now and then...recovery occurs. Colorado Public Radio journalist Vic Vela, an addict himself who spent years smoking crack and doing coke while serving in the press corps at the Statehouse, decided to chronicle people's stories of recovery on a serial podcast he's making with Colorado Public Radio called Back From Broken. The stories he tells, of musicians like songwriter and musician Anders Osborne and baseball player David Mellor, are often depressing — but ultimately hopeful. And whether you're dealing with an alcohol, drug or gambling addiction, PTSD or other mental health issues, these stories offer a rare sense that things can get better.

One of the biggest pandemic-driven stories coming out of the creative community is the plight of performing artists of every ilk who are out of work overnight after entire seasons came to a standstill in the name of social distancing. The Pandemic Collective, a nonprofit company that normally stages horror-inspired theater, has devised a stopgap to keep unemployed theater people busy, with modest remuneration for their trouble. Project Outbreak is seeking submissions of short audio and radio plays responding to themes of uncertainty; the project is recruiting actors and production crews interested in being part of the project as well. If you're none of the above, consider donating to Project Outbreak's GoFundMe page.

Brush up on your writing skills while you're sequestered: The social-distancing-correct Lighthouse Writers Workshop will move its spring events online in real time via the Zoom remote platform for at least a few weeks. Yes, you'll be at home in an easy chair and pajamas while experiencing a live lesson and discussion. Keep up with Lighthouse on social media and/or its website as the organization devises new ways to provide literary experiences online. Write on!

With a constant flow of stressful news coming from all sides, Denver poet Suzi Q. Smith has been there for us, providing art that comforts. From a Twitter feed that offers laughter and truth to an organized online poetry broadcast, Smith uses her platforms to be there for us virtually. The standout is "Poems for the End of the World," a poem-a-day service on her website. Make reading Smith's stark and searing writing a part of your daily routine, and break up the noise of news with some humanity.

Brandi Homan's novel in fragments, Burn Fortune, is proof that small presses are still putting out some of the best literature available in today's market. The piecemeal format isn't the only inventive move that Homan makes in this story of a sixteen-year-old girl trying to survive in the 1990s Midwest with a dysfunctional family, an abusive boyfriend and the cornfield world spinning around them all. The poetic voice, the first-person narrator, the vibrant world built in minimalist but thorough style — it all culminates in a focused and sharp-edged narrative that leaves readers breathless.

Like most cities, Denver has suffered from cutbacks in arts and culture writing. But a new generation of art critics is emerging and taking on the daunting task of launching publications and bringing a critical eye to the city's arts scene. Run by Genevieve Waller, DARIA, which stands for Denver Art Review Inquiry and Analysis, has recruited a diverse cast of emerging culture writers to pen smart criticism about Denver's gallery scene. Along with stalwarts like Mary Chandler, a longtime arts writer for the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, this emerging pool of critics is filling a gap in the city's cultural coverage, regularly online and quarterly in print.

Jennifer Wortman's collection is a jubilant celebration of both language and love in all their forms. The thirteen stories that make up This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love. are bites of nourishing literary foodstuff that both impress and satisfy; the prose is at once smooth and strong, luxurious and striking. The characters will draw you in, make you laugh, make you cringe and make you think. And you'll thank them for the journey they take you on as a reader — every surefooted or stumbling step.

When Deer Pile, the empty room above City, O' City that hosted everyone from crusty folksingers to Dave Chappelle, closed in 2018, organizers threw their energy into Birdy, the stylish literary magazine they'd launched back in 2014. Continuing the tradition of celebrating all manner of Denver culture, fiction and art (and occasionally work from far beyond), Birdy has become a staple of the scene. When you're lucky enough to find one out in public, it's free. And Birdy is not just a great read filled with gorgeous art; it's also collectible. Jonesing for past issues? Buy them online at the mag's website.

Normally, a Colorado-themed board game would fall under the categories of "tacky" and "touristy." But this year, while we're stuck inside dreaming of all the things vacationers dream of once they've come and gone from our great state, we finally understand the appeal of Colorado-Opoly. Visit Colorado Ski Country from the safety of our homes? Sure! Hoard green chili (spelled that way in the game) without going to the grocery store? You bet! Visit Rocky Mountain National Park in our pajamas? Absolutely! Order a copy and play with your friends, whether you're trapped in the same house or just a video chat away.

Half Past Fate, made for Nintendo and PCs by Boulder's Serenity Forge Games, is a charming rom-com adventure rendered in 3-D pixel-art graphics. The story follows six people over the course of eight years through the twists and turns of fate as they all find love. Half Past Fate creates a heartwarming world where couples help a stranger change a flat tire or eat a perfect bowl of spicy ramen. This single-player game is social-distancing-approved, and is a much better alternative for digital romance than endlessly swiping on Tinder.

The sounds of a laughing crowd offer a reprieve from cabin fever. Lonesome listeners will find guffaws, groans and chortles in abundance on A Boatload of Jokes, the debut standup album from local comedian Zach Reinert. A one-liner wunderkind with a comedic fixation on DUIs, imaginary dead family members, and the cinematic oeuvre of M. Night Shyamalan, Reinert packs his filler-free hour with an onslaught of hilarious misdirects, grim surprises and unexpected wordplay, pausing only for quick comments or to allow peals of laughter to reverberate through the audience. Recorded late last year at the Denver Comedy Underground, a performance space in the basement of the Irish Snug, Reinert's debut is a testament to what the Denver comedy scene can achieve. A Boatload of Jokes is available on streaming services, including Apple, Amazon and Spotify; visit orcd.co/zach to start listening now.

Discovering new music is one of the great joys of life. The DJs at Colorado Public Radio's Indie 102.3, formerly known as OpenAir, have mastered the art of recommending new music from around the world to Front Range listeners. Whether they're playing the new or the nostalgic, the DJs at Indie know how to put together a playlist. From cheeky new collections like "COVID Dance Break" and "Social Isolation With You," to tried-and-true compilations like the monthly "Waking Life" and "Especial Favoritas," Indie playlists are sure to introduce you to new tunes and remind you of old ones you've loved and forgotten. Follow Indie 102.3 on Spotify, or stream music online at cpr.org/indie.

Denver has a reputation for being cheery, sporty, sunny and high. What's often forgotten is that the city also has one of the nation's fiercest metal scenes. Blood Incantation, one of the most nationally celebrated Colorado death-metal acts, has been ravaging speakers for half a decade, creating eardrum-splitting soundtracks for brutal times. The group's sprawling four-song EP, Hidden History of the Human Race, is one of the latest and angriest records — an epic, mythical origin story about how humans came from Mars after that planet's ecosystem collapsed. Celebrated by Pitchfork and landing on plenty of end-of-year best-album lists, Blood Incantation's latest is an urgent listen.

From Jeremiah Fraites’s first melancholy piano lines on “Donna” to the barn-burner sing-along chorus led by Wesley Schultz in “Gloria,” the songs on the Lumineers’ III paint a sprawling portrait of several generations of a family wrangling with addiction. Inspired by the musicians’ own relatives’ tragic struggles with drugs and alcohol, the project, accompanied by a series of music videos, is the Lumineers’ greatest, most cohesive artistic statement to date. While the band may still be best known for its breakout song “Ho Hey,” its past two albums, Cleopatra and III, have proven that the group is more than just a foot-stomping, feel-good Americana act that fills stadiums.

Jay Triiiple has been a hardworking, steady presence in Denver's hip-hop scene for the past few years, and her latest album, Change Over Dollars, is a perfect introduction to her gritty voice. Triiiple delivers smart, often funny lyrics, taking swings at inauthenticity, embracing lust, dodging the cops and paying homage to the community and its possibilities. She brings in talented local rapper A Meazy for a few bars and hook on "Energy," and also features Keenan TreVon on "Tell the Money." With throwback skits between songs and club-worthy beats, Change Over Dollars is a fun journey through the imagination of one of the city's greatest lyricists.

In an industry dominated by cis white male musicians, TúLips stands out. The band describes itself as a "colectivo of feminista, genre non-conforming, BIQTPOC in Denver full of queer glory"; all of its members identify as queer and trans people of color or black indigenous queer and trans people of color. The group's sound falls somewhere between Mexican pop rock and South American alternative folk, and its politically minded lyrics often chronicle the immigrant experience. "I'm both confined and without borders/I'm a floating entity with no roots/I am adrift/I am halved, cortada a la mitad."

Even before the current crisis, the electronic-music scene in this city had been debating whether to embrace the mainstreaming of its music or try to hunker down in the underground and keep rave culture alive. Along the way, Denver-based site Beatport has been doing the heroic work of documenting, selling and promoting all styles of electronic music, keeping today's DJs up to speed on all the changes going on in the style. For those floundering in the endless genres and subgenres, the site is one of the best places to bone up on the differences between hypnotic techno, psy-trance or nu disco. Does any of that matter? Get to listening and decide for yourself.

Live concerts have been shut down, but many musicians still want to play for a crowd. National artists like the Indigo Girls, Willie Nelson and Blake Shelton have put on blockbuster live streams, and now Colorado music promoters and musicians are starting up online festivals. One of the most energetic is the Rocky Mountain Virtual Music Festival, a Friday night live-streaming performance by musicians that you can cheer in the privacy of your living room. Bands and musicians ranging from Andy Sydow to Elder Grown, Float Like a Buffalo and Future Joy have chipped in. There's an open call on the festival's Facebook page for future events.

For kids wanting to explore the fascinating world of classical music, Inside the Orchestra has provided educational concerts and opportunities, where kids see and hear firsthand what different instruments sound like. These days, without that as an option, the nonprofit has pivoted to offering online resources to kids and families with Outside the Orchestra. The programming includes plenty of activities, themed playlists, performance videos, STEAM experiments and more, which parents can use to keep their kids learning and occupied during turbulent times. These offerings have already reached more than 35,000 people in over 35 states, taking the group's work to a national audience.

Plenty of bands drop music videos. But few are as consistently quirky as Bolonium, which makes oddball songs and videos about meat. Now, vegans might not dig a musical group that seems endlessly obsessed with bologna — nor would anyone else who doesn't like looking at or thinking about sausage. But there is something special about a rock-and-roll band that refuses to be chained to earnestness, that breaks from every conventional subject matter, and that creates something heartily geeky to boot. So if you're looking to spend a little more than an hour bingeing on the weirdest of Denver, don't miss Bolonium's Snacktacular series.