Jeanne-Claude and Christo answered several questions from the audience, many from art students at Metro State.

An estimated 1,500 art students and enthusiasts from the Denver community attended the free public lecture by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Thursday, Sept. 18, at the Tempe Hoyne Buell Theatre. The event was hosted by Metro State and co-sponsored by CollegeInvest.

The world-renowned artists donated the lecture, loaned their Prints and Objects exhibition at the Center for Visual Art through Nov. 1, and gave several signed prints to Metro State. They also attended a VIP reception and private dinner held that same night for CVA members, exhibition co-sponsors Wells Fargo and Molson Coors, and other supporters of the CVA’s Purchase and Legacy Initiative, which is a campaign to purchase permanent space for the gallery and to enhance its educational and outreach programming.

With the support generated by Christo and Jeanne-Claude's appearance, the CVA Purchase and Legacy Initiative is now halfway to the $2 million goal.

“Eighteen months ago when I first heard that CVA Director/Curator Jennifer Garner had secured Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their fabulous exhibition, I knew that this was an incredible opportunity to leverage these world-class artists in support of the CVA,” says Carrie Besnette, vice president of Institutional Advancement and executive director of the Metro State Foundation. “Consequently, with the hard work of everyone involved and the lead $425,000 grant from the Boettcher Foundation, we are now almost halfway to raising our $2 million goal.”

“The entire experience has been an incredible coup for Metro State,” adds President Stephen Jordan. “It once again brought us to the attention of the Denver community as a preeminent urban college with the academic resources to enrich the quality of their lives in any number of ways. Kudos to the CVA staff, the Art Department, everyone in Institutional Advancement and all the many student volunteers for making this an event to remember.”

After introductory remarks, Christo and Jeanne-Claude confronted a brief technical glitch with their slide projector. As the 73-year-old artists--who were born on the same day at the same hour--sat in the dark, they handled the situation with aplomb. Jeanne-Claude even joked that if they couldn’t get the slide presentation working soon, Christo would instead be giving a lecture on the problem with modern technology.

An estimated 1,500 people attended the free public lecture.

Once the projector was working, the lecture continued with a slide presentation on their range of works, including the proposed Over the River project, slated for 2012 on the Arkansas River between Canon City and Salida, Colo.

Afterwards, the artists took questions from the audience, including one from a young boy who asked why they choose to make their art temporary. In her response, Jeanne-Claude explained that you love more dearly those things that you know will not last. “For instance, you know that your childhood will not last, right?” she asked the boy. “So you should cherish it.”

VIP reception
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, honorary co-chair of the VIP reception, also spoke of the temporary nature of the artists’ work, but shared a story of how it endures in people’s memory.

(l to r) President Stephen Jordan and Mayor John Hickenlooper addressed the 150 CVA supporters who attended the VIP reception.

Speaking to the more than 150 attendees at the VIP reception, Hickenlooper told of overhearing a waitress at a diner in Rifle, Colo., discuss Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Valley Curtain 12 years after its installation. The waitress remembered it as though it were yesterday, Hickenlooper said. Valley Curtain had to be removed after only 28 hours because of gale-force winds.

“The VIP reception was wonderful,” says Joan Foster, dean of the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “Not only did it showcase the CVA and Art Department, it also put a spotlight on our Music Department, whose students provided the entertainment, and Culinary Management Director Jackson Lamb and his HTE students, who provided the light fare at the reception and the private dinner menu.”

According to Garner, that showcasing of the CVA, both at the reception and at the public lecture, was an amazing opportunity for the College to raise awareness of the gallery’s unique educational mission as an extension of Metro State and of the access it provides the Denver community to one-of-a-kind cultural resources.

The world-renowned artists mingled with the crowd at the reception.

“To have Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their works at the CVA validates us as major player in the wonderful mix of Denver’s art scene,” Garner says.

Student involvement
Not to be lost in all the festivities was the impact the exhibition and the artists have had on Metro State art students.

“When the CVA can bring in an exhibition that students might otherwise only see in art history books,” says Garner, “and if I can bring in the artist as well, it truly becomes a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our students. It gives their education more credibility.”

Art Department Chair Greg Watts echoes Garner’s thoughts. “More than anything, for our students to have artists of the stature of Christo and Jeanne-Claude talk to them about the collaborative nature of how they work and their thought process, it’s a rare opportunity, an inspiration and something they’ll never forget.”

The Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Prints and Objects exhibition runs through Nov. 1 at the Center for Visual Art, 1734 Wazee St.

Editor’s Note: Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Prints and Objects along with several films about the artists continue through Nov. 1 at the CVA. For information, go to http://www.metrostatecva.org/. For information on the Over the River project go to http://www.overtheriverinfo.com/.