Metro gallery deal in works

By Sean Weaver
The Metropolitan

Metroâs Center for the Visual Arts might move to a larger location that would provide better climate control for paintings and other works of art.

The center houses and displays art created by Metro art students. It is located at 1701 Wazee St. in Denver.

Metroâs Art department is negotiating a lease for some of the space in the building Robischon Gallery owners are planning to buy.

Jim Robischon is poised to purchase the ground level of the building next door to his gallery at 1740 Wazee St.
Robischon would not comment on the negotiations with the college.

Sally Perisho, director and curator of Metroâs arts center, said the new space would provide more room for exhibitions and workshops. Currently the center has 3,200 square feet of exhibition and workshop space.

The Robischon space would supply an additional 3,600 square feet.

Metroâs art center organizes about six  exhibitions each year and several student exhibitions.

Perisho said one-third of the new space would be used to expand workshops for children, which the center has conducted since it opened in 1991. Perisho said workshops are difficult in the current location because the building lacks an adequate heating system and proper lighting. Perisho said the new location would also provide a better climate for traveling museum exhibitions and studentsâ art.

She said the current space has too many windows that allow ultraviolet light into the gallery. Ultraviolet light damage paintings.

The Robischon space has fewer windows than Metroâs gallery. Jane Fudge, assistant curator for modern and contemporary art at the Denver Art Museum, said museums look at several factors when lending artwork for traveling exhibitions.

ãThe great enemies of (art) are light and rapid fluctuation of humidity,ä Fudge said.