Best Developing Look at Denver Culture 2019 | TheyShootn | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Developing Look at Denver Culture

TheyShootn

Organizing events around photography is nothing new, but there's something refreshing about TheyShootn's approach. This loose collective of photographers has put together Día de los Muertos gatherings, Lotería-inspired art shows, lowrider car events and panel discussions about the gentrification of Denver's east side. By bringing the community together with art, TheyShootn co-creators Armando Geneyro and Blake Jackson and their crew of shooters have created context and given weight to important and often overlooked elements of the city's culture and people.

@TheyShootn

Best Light-Art Instruction

Lumonics School of Light Art

If you haven't seen the light art of Lumonics, a working studio and homage to the colorful illuminated works of nonagenarian Dorothy Tanner and her late husband, Mel, Google it now. Though best seen in person in a dark room, you'll get an idea of the magic being made there. Inspired? Now you can make your own light sculpture from Plexiglas and LED lights, with expert instruction at the Lumonics studio. Taught by Tanner associate Marc Billard, the four-session classes are an opportunity to bring the wonder of light to your own living room; no experience or artistic talent required. Let there be light!

Best Place to Make a Tiny Chair

Chairs Lady

Carla Atwood Hartman, granddaughter of celebrated furniture and architectural designers Charles and Ray Eames, has every reason to be interested in chairs, and that's how she became the Chairs Lady. For nearly twenty years, she's been teaching kids and adults to release their inner artists by creating their own sculptural visions of miniature chairs. At her brick-and-mortar studio in the Golden Triangle, Hartman offers private and occasional drop-in classes; she also stocks a design-focused retail corner that's full of finds for last-second gift-giving. Please be seated.

Best New Community Makerspace

My Own 2 Hands

Who knows what humans could build with their own two hands if only they had the space? And the tools? And maybe a few maker-friendly tips? All three are available under one roof at the well-named My Own 2 Hands, a comfy, 6,000- square-foot workshop that offers state-of-the-art tools, work benches, storage lockers and in-shop mentors and experts, as well as how-to classes and camps for kids. No excuses: It's time to make your masterpiece.

Best Arts Programming at a Bar

Fort Greene

Courtesy of Fort Greene

Fort Greene's low-key brick exterior highlighted by an 0x000Aancient "Budweiser on tap" sign may not signal much from the outside — but crack open the door to this Globeville watering hole and you'll find the sights and sounds of a robust arts and music community. The bar's tiny set of expertly decorated rooms makes a big deal of Denver creatives, hosting album-release shows, dance nights and the occasional Selena-themed party/art show/costume contest. In a city where you can find a formulaic bar in almost every neighborhood, Fort Greene's dim lights, mini-stage and comfy couches create the perfect environment for creating true community.

Best Arts Programming at a Restaurant

Mercury Cafe

Marilyn Megenity's Mercury Cafe has long been a haven for Denver's creatives, welcoming artists as patrons, employees and, of course, featured entertainers. The cavernous space has three rooms that are constantly being transformed by swing dance lessons, in-house theatrical productions, live music, witchy workshops and craft markets, movie screenings and more. Its website calendar (which is also conveniently printed out and hung in the establishment's bathroom stalls) is consistently jam-packed with both down-to-earth and out-of-this world events. This Mercury is always rising.

Best Queer-Centered Movie Programming

Sie FilmCenter

Programmer Keith Garcia has been bringing Denver into the cult-film fold for more than two decades, and his latest foray, Big Gay Matinee!, is nothing short of brilliant. With an intentional 1:30 p.m. Sunday time slot — sliding perfectly between drag-queen brunch events and Sunday evening beer busts — this afternoon movie snack brings sometimes obscure favorites out of the celluloid closet. Garcia gives educated and entertaining introductions to obvious classics like Valley of the Dolls and Auntie Mame, along with more nuanced picks such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge and Troop Beverly Hills. Each showing is preceded by an appearance from a local drag performer, ramping the camp up a notch as only Garcia can.

Best Mind-Blowing Film Experience

UA Colorado Center Stadium 9 & IMAX

At between $19 and $20 a pop, a ticket to an IMAX show is steep. But the experience is totally worth the price of admission if you're watching a movie that deserves a larger-than-life screen. Not only is the IMAX screen at UA Colorado Center Stadium 9 so massive that it teeters on overwhelming, but it brings in the right films to maximize its size. (Free Solo, anyone?). If you're an IMAX newbie, we recommend opting for seats in the back of the theater so that your eyeballs don't explode. But if you like living on the edge, sit front and center to feel like you're part of all the action and adventure.

  • 2000 S. Colorado Blvd., Denver, 80222 Map

Best Artful Art House

Mayan Theatre

Watching a movie at the Mayan Theatre is like taking a trip back in time. Between the faux Mayan iconography — heads seemingly severed from Mexican stone totems— that decorates the three theaters, the seats that feel oh-so-quaint (read: mildly uncomfortable) and the bar stocked with Colorado craft beer and other boozy treats, you're not sure exactly what city you're in. Or what century. But that's what makes this weird, wonderful movie theater so much fun. In a town that seems to love trashing its past, the Mayan has maintained its 1930s art-deco glory since the Prohibition days. Take a seat and take it all in.

Best Movie Theater — Food/Drink

Alamo Drafthouse Sloan's Lake

Alamo Drafthouse

There's nothing new about dinner and a movie. But what the Alamo Drafthouse practically revolutionized is combining both, so that you never have to rush through a meal to make a movie or starve through a two-hour flick before dinner. And this menu is the reel deal, offering a variety of "snacks" that include everything from loaded fries to chicken and ricotta meatballs, gourmet pizzas, creative salads, hot dogs, and sandwiches that offer a nod to cinema history, like the Royale With Cheese. The beer, wine and cocktail menu is just as elaborate, and the Drafthouse 0x000Aregularly rolls out thematic menus based on the movies it's showing. Sit back, relax and just remember to chew with your mouth closed.

Readers' Choice: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

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