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Inside Garage Galleries and Other DIY Arts Spaces in Denver

By Jake Cox

Tuesday, January 29, 2019 at 6:55 a.m.

Jake Cox The first show at Peralta Projects was in July 2018. 1/34

Jake Cox Esteban Peralta is the owner of the space. 2/34

Jake Cox "The DIY thing is not anything new," Peralta says. "What I'd like to see is more turnover, more fresh voices." 3/34

Jake Cox Roy Smith's work at Peralta Projects. 4/34

Jake Cox Peralta was involved in the art scene in Texas before coming back to Denver. 5/34

Jake Cox "I was born and raised here, but just felt really out of place having been in Texas so long. I wanted to get back to what felt good. Plus, I live in the same neighborhood I grew up in. In the ’70s, this was a totally different neighborhood. I felt like I needed to make it relevant for me again," Peralta says. 6/34

Jake Cox Peralta Projects is located at 747 Elati Street. 7/34

Jake Cox Georgia Art Space is a pop-up art gallery in the La Alma neighborhood. 8/34

Jake Cox Sommer Browning is the owner of the space. 9/34

Jake Cox "I'm a poet, so I ran a poetry series here. Every city I’ve ever lived in, I’ve run one: New York, Tucson, Richmond," Browning says. "I moved into this house three years ago, and I was with my friend, and I was telling him how I wanted to open a gallery one day, and he said, 'You have a garage space, just do it in there.'" 10/34

Jake Cox The next show at Georgia, with Mackenzie Urban, is in May. 11/34

Jake Cox The space, named for Browning's daughter, is located at 952 Mariposa Street. 12/34

Jake Cox "I'm really busy. I have a full-time job, a child; I write, too. I still run the reading series, and I try to do my own art and stuff with this on top of it," she says. 13/34

Jake Cox Liam Grinton has a home ceramic studio in Commerce City. 14/34

Jake Cox The house was built in 1932 and was abandoned for a number of years before Grinton moved in. He's owned the space for about a year. 15/34

Jake Cox The kiln at Grinton's house. 16/34

Jake Cox "With ceramics and needing a place to live and work, I needed a place where I could spread out and store equipment and expand," Grinton says. 17/34

Jake Cox Grinton says he feels good about the art community in Denver. "People are more aware of the art community and more willing to support it," he says. 18/34

Jake Cox Grinton's truck at his house. 19/34

Jake Cox "I think there are a lot of DIY spaces in Denver that are not necessarily the ones you hear about," Grinton says. 20/34

Jake Cox One of Grinton's ceramic pieces. 21/34

Jake Cox Seventh Circle Music Collective is located at 2935 West Seventh Avenue. 22/34

Jake Cox Seventh Circle is a DIY space dedicated to eliminating genre boundaries. 23/34

Jake Cox Inside Seventh Circle. 24/34

Jake Cox Rasai Trammell is a volunteer at Seventh Circle. 25/34

Jake Cox "It feels good to be a part of something that is in so many people's lives and an important part of people's lives," Trammell says. 26/34

Jake Cox Trammell tries to attend two shows per week. 27/34

Jake Cox Lyus Maroncelli has been a volunteer for a year and a half. Maroncelli also performs at the space. 28/34

Jake Cox "I love the space so much, and I wanted to be here more. I wanted to help out because Aaron [Saye], who runs the place, was just looking for more people," Maroncelli says. 29/34

Jake Cox Birdhouse View playing at Seventh Circle. 30/34

Jake Cox Inside Seventh Circle. 31/34

Jake Cox Tiffany Cronick has been volunteering at the space for six years. 32/34

Jake Cox Outside the space. 33/34

Jake Cox "We are on the upswing," Cronick says. "I don’t think we’ve peaked yet. We plan to be here a while." 34/34

Inside Garage Galleries and Other DIY Arts Spaces in Denver

In recent years, Denver artists have been feeling the crunch from rising rents and closing DIY spaces. To survive, they've been coming up with creative strategies for exhibiting work, including turning garages into art galleries and using other offbeat spaces. We recently took a look inside a couple of DIY venues as well as two garage galleries, Georgia Art Space and Peralta Projects.

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