Arts & Culture

Some of the fashionistas in the Emily Griffith Opportunity School’s fashion design program have used their trendsetting skills to raise funds for fun activities throughout the year — but they’ve decided it’s time to give back now. Several members of the Fashion Group International’s Denver student group have banded together…

Sometimes the best way to stimulate creativity is to saddle yourself with limitations. “Once you put a seeming constraint on something, it seems to make people freer in how they think about it,” says Dea Webb, co-owner of Plastic Chapel. That’s the idea behind Square Footage, one of the gallery/store’s…

Colorado is known for its world-class outdoor activities, but this time of year, it’s much nicer inside. William Biety, director of the van Straaten Gallery, was riffing off this idea when he put together Interior, which features paintings of rooms. But don’t be misled: While the works may detail the…

“Our production of The Westside Oratorio is appropriate and timely,” says development director Tanya Mote of Su Teatro’s latest show. “But it’s the story that Su Teatro is always telling in different ways. The history of Chicanos in the Americas is a history of tenacity and resilience. We believe that…

Don’t you just love a win-win situation? Everything about the BordoBello Skateboard Project screams perfection: The AIGA Colorado benefit for Youth Design Denver and Access Gallery, organizations that pair high-school students with professional mentors in graphic design, embraces youth culture by offering up artist-designed skateboard decks for bidding. “People affiliate…

When I reread the whole Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder with my daughter a few years back, I became immediately hooked on its compelling stories, and, even more so, on the backstory of Wilder’s own life, which sometimes parallels and sometimes diverges from the saga…

Sunshiny fashion entrepreneur Brandy Shigley has made a name for herself not only for promoting Denver designers, but also for producing an ongoing series of seasonal fashion markets where it’s easy to pick up unique clothing and accessories, direct from the source. But her move to Taxi, 3455 Ringsby Court,…

In the canon of the Kwanzaa tradition, Ujamaa stands for cooperative economics: the idea that it takes a village to help everyone thrive. But, notes African-American community leader Brother Jeff Fard, that’s not necessarily a nod to cold commerce. “A key piece to Kwanzaa is that it’s not really based…

Cherry Creek North jewelry maker Elizabeth Lindsay made her first Token Tags for her father to wear when her mother’s battle with cancer ended. “He never took them off,” she says of the precious-metal charms, which were stamped with encouraging words. “Then I made some for myself, and everyone asked…

Truthfully, the annual Swallow Hill Holiday Party is really just a concert, though there’s usually a pre-show potluck shmooze for members. But as publicist Chip Herter makes clear, it’s not only a really good concert, but also a cheap one. “Historically, it’s always been a showcase where we try to…

Graphic designer Rick Griffith is type-cast, but in his case, it’s a good thing. His fascination with fonts led him this year on a pilgrimage to three shrines to the wooden letterpress progenitors of the modern typeface: the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Hatch Show Print in Nashville, the Hamilton…

There’s a dark side to the holiday season: stress. Thankfully, there’s also a simple solution: YoChi for Holiday Stress and Beyond, a combination of tai chi and hatha yoga that will leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. “We’re going to deal with some light stretching and energy work to clear…

In this age of digital art and computer graphics, Salvador Dalí’s art still stands ahead of the crowd in terms of sheer weirdness, perfectly executed. And right now, you don’t have to take a long trip to see Dalí’s work live and in person; just head up to the Loveland…

“This time of year, a lot of us come out with heartier, small-batch beers made for the holiday season and colder winter months,” notes Marty Jones, Wynkoop Brewing Company spokesman. Those brews were the inspiration for tonight’s Holiday Beer Dinner at the Wynkoop, which will feature locally made seasonal beers…

You can always count on Nancy Smith and her Frequent Flyers aerial dance troupe to serve holiday fare with a twist, and this year’s Swing Into the Holidaze, an up-in-the-air tribute to the swing era, follows suit: Accompanied by music that ranges from rave-ups like Louis Prima’s “Sing, Sing, Sing”…

Copper Mountain has opened its lifts, and one of the best ways to kick off the ski and snowboarding season is with the US Snowboarding Grand Prix, which includes men’s and women’s half-pipe competitions. This is the second time Copper has hosted the event — the first stop for the…

Most people have heard Duke Ellington’s music. But for some — like Scott O’Neil, Associate Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra — Ellington’s lure is much more personal. “My father was a high-school band director and had his own stage band through college,” O’Neil remembers. “He’d play albums around the…

You thought dropping off a 90-foot waterfall in a kayak was nuts? Try dropping off a 70-foot waterfall twice. Well, sort of: Kayakers Anton Immler and Steve Fisher just set a World Record for highest tandem kayak descent.Even cooler is their obvious sense of humor and willingness to lampoon the…