Boulder artist and University of Colorado Boulder instructor Steven Frost is a disciple of Carol Frances Lung, aka Frau Fiber, whose Sewing Rebellion movement invites people to commemorate sweat-shop laborers and their essential work through sewing projects. Frost, an official "Faux Frau," carries on Lung's mission locally by mentoring free monthly DIY sewing workshops at the Boulder Public Library's BLDG 61 Makerspace, where he encourages participants to upcycle used materials in creating everything from bike caps to Halloween costumes. Visit the Facebook page for a schedule and register in advance, as classes fill up fast.

Clyfford Still Museum archivist Jessie de la Cruz and photographer Sigri Strand put their heads together to create Arthyve, a nonprofit with the goal of helping Colorado artists document their work for posterity in digital and/or physical memory banks. To accomplish this, they've hosted workshops and symposia to get artists started on their own boxes, with plans to expand in the future. It's their way of acknowledging how our state's arts community makes Colorado a better place to live, now and in the future.

arthyve.org

Denver real estate is at a premium, and the squeeze is putting artists in an especially difficult position, as studio space is limited and affordability is even more rare. Welcome to Camp Kalamath. The warehouse — owned by visual artist Tom Bond — is tucked away in an industrial area of Englewood, and the low-slung mid-century modern building doesn't look like much from the outside. But inside Camp Kalamath, the possibilities are endless, with room after room and garage after garage packed with muralists, woodworkers, welders, sign fabricators, industrial designers and even a car-restoration expert. Some of Denver's most-seen public artists have found a home here, with the likes of Jaime Molina, Anthony Garcia Sr. and Victor Escobedo sharing studio walls as well as inspiration. Happy campers, indeed.

Denverite Sommer Browning is many things — a librarian, a poet, a comic artist and sometime standup — but last year, she added gallerist to her résumé by opening up her garage near the Art District on Santa Fe for exhibits and happenings on a small and intimate scale. Georgia Art Space, named after her inspiring daughter, is part of a think-small movement favoring artist-run spaces on the edge of a rapidly commercialized art world, and it's not over yet. After a break, Browning is now in the throes of planning for 2018 events.

Musician, archivist and Colfax enthusiast Jonny Barber (aka the Velvet Elvis) makes no bones about his love for Denver's longest main drag, but he turned it up a notch last year by opening Denver's first and only Colfax Museum, a loving repository of Colfax lore, trivia and historical collectibles. The museum recently relocated from West Colfax to East Colfax, where it now resides inside the Ed Moore Florist shop on the boundary of Denver's Montclair and Park Hill neighborhoods. Regular hours are Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. — and, yes, the museum has T-shirts.

People from around the world come to Denver specifically to visit the Clyfford Still Museum, so if you've got friends and family coming to town, they should see it, too. Still, an acknowledged master of abstract expressionism, had only the slightest association with Colorado before his death. In his will, he dictated that any American city willing to build a museum to house his oeuvre would receive the collection, and Denver stepped up in 2004 when then-mayor John Hickenlooper committed to meeting the requirements of the will. Housed in an austerely elegant concrete pavilion, the Still is home to 95 percent of the artist's output, so if you want to see his classic, often massively sized compositions, this is where you have to do it. But the museum is a great place for in-towners, too, because director Dean Sobel keeps things lively by constantly changing out pieces.

Readers' Choice: Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Works in this town's major galleries typically trade for healthy prices, but Zip 37 regularly shows pieces that sell for just a few hundred dollars — and even less if those pieces are in the gallery's Back Room. An artist cooperative founded more than twenty years ago, Zip 37 numbers such well-known local artists as Zoa Ace, Pat Cronin, Katie Hoffman, Jennifer Melton, Louis Recchia and Jean Smith among its members. Just a couple of years ago, Zip 37 was part of a thriving alternative scene along this block of Navajo Street, but Edge, Pirate and Next left in the face of rising rents. Today, Zip 37 and the Bug Theatre are the last survivors.

Readers' Choice: Affordable Arts Festival

Last holiday season, Tracy Weil of the River North Arts District gave the idea of opening a shop selling artist-made merchandise a hard trial by filling a vacant spot at the Source on Brighton Boulevard. Chock-full of unusual art wares designed and created by RiNo artists and makers, the temporary store made a good impression with handmade holiday cards, artist prints, clothing, jewelry and a wealth of items produced by neighborhood residents. RiNo's had its share of struggles and growing pains, spawning arguments about whether the district still serves the artists who put it on the map as a destination, but RiNo Made attempts to prove those arguments wrong. And it's sticking: A permanent RiNo Made store is now open in the new multi-purpose Zeppelin Station development at 35th and Wazee streets, within walking distance of the Blake Street light-rail station.

Robischon Gallery, the city's flagship contemporary-art venue, opened in 1976 and moved to its current LoDo location close to thirty years ago. The charming red-brick building holds a series of swanky, high-ceilinged exhibition spaces that spread out over more than 9,000 square feet. That's about the size of a small museum, which Robischon could well be, given the quality of its exhibits. Works by dozens of the best Colorado artists, as well as many of the big names in national and international contemporary art, are regularly shown at Robischon. Over the decades, co-owners Jim Robischon and Jennifer Doran have made an outsized contribution to Denver's art scene; long may they continue to do so.

Readers' Choice: Denver Art Museum

Denver's exhibition scene is overwhelmingly contemporary, and the David B. Smith Gallery is the most contemporary of the bunch. At his namesake gallery, Smith presents what used to be called cutting-edge art and today could simply be termed "advanced"; nearly everything at Smith — not just the video projections and interactive installations, but the paintings and drawings — is conceptual. Smith has brought in an intriguing group of artists from around the country, and also tapped a lot of progressive local talent, including Tobias Fike, Donald Fodness, Dylan Gebbia-Richards, Sarah McKenzie, Don Stinson, Joel Swanson and Michael Theodore, among others. No matter the particular show, you can count on seeing something new and improved here.

Readers' Choice: Museum of Contemporary Art Denver