CRUSH Festival to Bring Over 100 Graffiti Artists and Muralists to RiNo

You might want to take an extra-long stare at your favorite RiNo murals, because CRUSH 2017 will see them coated with a whole new layer of aerosol art. The lineup for this year’s street art festival features over over one hundred muralists and graffiti artists; it’s the biggest roster CRUSH, which was founded in 2010, has hosted yet.

Jacob Lemanski’s Otherworldly Ant Space Art

There are more than 1000 ants in the Boulder basement art gallery where Jacob Lemanski sits cross-legged, explaining how he got from biking across continents to building ant farms. All four walls of the room host what Lemanski calls Ant Spaces: thin layers of soil and brightly-hued sand set between glass and illuminated by LEDs that change color. The ants tunnel through the soil, creating slowly-shifting patterns in the dirt to reveal the background image of the Carina Nebula. In a word, it’s mesmerizing.

Denver, Here’s What You Looked Like This Weekend

Whether you were celebrating body art, protesting white supremacy, dancing to music at Red Rocks or tubing down the Platte River, you were sure to miss some amazing events this past weekend. Thanks to our photographers, you can relish the memories and see the events you weren’t able to attend. Denver, here’s what you looked like.

Six Places for Arts and Craft Lovers in Denver

Sure, Denver’s a hub for music fans, art lovers, and craft brew and cannabis connoisseurs, not to mention all stripes of outdoorsy types. But for people who prefer to huddle inside and create arts and crafts, the Mile High City has you covered too. Here are six of our favorite metro area resources for craft lovers.

Free for All: The Five Best Free Events in Denver This Week

Art lovers, cinephiles and comedy nerds in particular have plenty to look forward to this week: Nearly every day holds a free gallery opening, movie screening or performance for the viewing pleasure of this city’s thrifty and adventurous residents. Here are five of the best free events in town.

Reader: Get Ready, the Developers Are Coming for Your Neighborhood

Earlier this week, Westword reported, “The River North Arts District is booting out actual artists: That’s the claim of a group of arts activists/residents who ramped up the fight against gentrification in the River North neighborhood by redecorating three iron slabs touting the RiNo Art District with flowers, crosses and other objects of mourning on Monday, August 14, 2017.”

Behind the Scenes at The Moth

“The Moth is a battle of narcissists,” says Morley McBride, standing at the front of a stage at Swallow Hill Music as it fills with a crowd eager to hear the stories of strangers. It’s the third Friday of July, which means McBride, a blonde in a black jumpsuit, is seeing to the final steps of preparing the monthly Story Slam event, a live offshoot of the ever-popular story-sharing podcast where Denverites tell and receive scores on their narratives of personal experiences. If you’ve ever wondered what the in-person get-togethers are like but haven’t yet managed to snag the in-demand tickets, here’s your answer:

Fringe Festival’s Our Boy Asks How We Raise Better Men

David and Carrie Wintersteen dove into the stuff of parental nightmares when commissioning the play they’ll perform this weekend at Boulder’s Fringe Festival. Carrie Wintersteen describes Our Boy, the two person play the Fargo, North Dakota-based couple will present, as about “parents who just learning that their son is accused of sexual assault.”

Live Like a Refugee on Control Group’s Neverhome Walking Tour

Choreographer Patrick Mueller thought it was time for his Control Group Productions dance theater to pare things down and appeal to a broader base, but that’s just a piece of what Neverhome, an immersive, site-specific performance/walking tour inspired by currently converging themes of gentrification, migration and finding your way, is all about. Carrying your life on your back, after all, means cutting back.

Write Our World Shares Stories of Refugees and Immigrants

Write Our World: Crawford Elementary School highlights the experiences of persecution and triumph that brought immigrant and refugee families from all over the world — including Nepal and Bhutan to Somalia — to Crawford Elementary School in Aurora, where 95 percent of students are minorities and 75 percent are English learners.

Take a Ride With Black Cube Artists at Drive-In: Personal Space

The Black Cube Nomadic Museum is keeping Cortney Lane Stell more than busy in 2017. As director and chief curator of the Denver-based museum without walls, finding new avenues to explore as a curator comes easily to Stell. Case in point: the latest Black Cube project, Drive-In: Personal Space, an exhibit/performance she co-curated with Ruth Bruno of Colorado Creative Industries that will pop up for one night only in a vacant lot in RiNo on August 19.