Home > Metrospective

35 hours of art
By Geof Wollerman
gwollerm@mscd.edu

Photo by Simona Kroupova • kroupov@mscd.edu The new Frederick C. Hamilton wing of the Denver Art Museum opened to the public on Oct. 7. More than 30,000 attended the 35-hour event.

For 35 uninterrupted hours the new Frederick C. Hamilton wing of the Denver Art Museum was subjected to the scrutiny of more than 30,000 curious Colorado citizens.

Dubbed Hot DAM: Art at All Hours, the Oct. 7-8 weekend event took place at the new Civic Center Cultural Plaza, an area that now includes the Denver Public Library and both wings of the DAM.

The new building’s doors opened Saturday at 10 a.m., but because the museum was issuing timed tickets, some people waited in line in the afternoon for passes that were not good until midnight. But at a pace of 800 people an hour, the museum’s staff and volunteers never stopped admitting the crowd of professional and amateur art buffs until Sunday at 9 p.m.

Despite the abundance of activities and performances museum planners had coordinated around the plaza, it was impossible to ignore the event’s main attraction: the 146,000-square-foot, titanium-clad space that loomed above the crowd.

CBS-News4 newscaster Ed Greene, who was the master of ceremonies for Saturday’s performances, talked about how the museum was able to use the new space to house art that had previously been in storage.

“As wild as it looks on the outside, there’s a real purpose to it on the inside,” Greene said.

Photo by Simona Kroupova • kroupov@mscd.edu Brennan Link, 9, of Denver gazes upon the newly opened wing of the Denver Art Museum.

In many of the building’s new galleries it was hard to tell where the museum ended and where the art began. One particular piece was more interactive than most museum patrons were accustomed to: large sheets of heavy white paper printed with the words “Memorial Day Weekend” were available for the taking. However, most passersby were unwilling to test the museum’s time-honored look-don’t-touch taboo.

By sundown on Saturday more than 6,000 people had entered the new wing. Many looked tired, satisfied and ready for reflection. So when a swath of sunlight lit the slope of the building’s metallic prow, they were more than happy to sit on the Duncan Pavilion patio, with jazz drifting in the background, and bask in the glow of the city’s new cultural icon.

However, if most of the first day was spent taking it all in, then the after dark activities were about letting it all hang out.

From DJs to poets to trees personified, the focus after 12 a.m. was all performance. Viewing the art became secondary to being the art.

Though the occasional baby stroller could still be spotted, by midnight a new group of patrons was starting to filter in. The Yummies – a collection of beatboxers, artists, MCs and breakdancers – made their way through the galleries trying to gather a crowd for their show in the Hamilton Tent that defied definition. Claiming to combine the worlds of art and peanut butter, The Yummies – some of them dressed in furry animal outfits – danced, sang, painted and scratched records until 4 a.m.

“We do art and peanut butter,” said member Mike McDonaugh, who specialized in martial arts. He talked about how the group’s work, through individual expression, tries to promote the good things about life. “We just try to push forward a positive vibe through the artwork,” he said.

Erin Phillip, whose performance art was titled Topiary, draped herself in garlands of plastic leaves. She walked the various galleries and walkways of the new wing, pausing every once in a while to trim her “foliage” with a pair of nail clippers, leaving a small trail of green trimmings in her wake.

In the Duncan Pavilion, a poetry slam grabbed the attention of dozens of onlookers. The poets ranted, spit, swore and moaned. The poems were angry, funny, sexual and focused around the frustrations of love.

After two rounds of impassioned verse the slam came down to two contestants: UCD student Kara Fern and a man who called himself Lucifury. Fern, who had a lilting-but-caustic style, went first with a poem about childhood, which everyone was ecstatic about. But Lucifury grabbed the microphone next and unleashed an invective about Jesus, religion and modern culture that won him the slam, the audience’s shocked applause, and a free membership to the museum.

“I’m feeling good about it,” Lucifury said about being involved with the event. “This feels crazy. I love these guys.”

Fern, who is new to slam poetry, pointed out that Denver is one of its hubs. She said Denver’s team won this year’s National Poetry Slam in Austin.

“It’s really gripped me,” Fern said. “Not necessarily because of the art form itself, but it’s because of the community. All the poets really care about each other.”

After the slam the music of DJ Vitamin D took patrons well into the wee hours of the morning. By 3 a.m. the club crowd was seemingly just getting started. Dreadlocks, short skirts and dyed hair became the norm rather than the exception. Leather-clad dance fiends mingled with coffee-sipping art intellectuals, while others walked around looking dressed up early for Halloween.

Someone had folded one of the large paper sheets into an airplane and floated it down the open stairway of the architecturally off-kilter atrium.

“Sleep,” I overheard someone say as I walked away from the plaza. “Sleep is good.”

Sunday morning dawned overcast and gray and the day was a little more subdued than the previous 24 hours. Tai Chi and a sunrise sculpture tour began the day’s activities, which continued with art demonstrations, and a variety of music and dance.

The DU Lamont School of Music Jazz Trio took the crowd into the evening, as guides offered tours of the new features of the DAM’s collection, focusing on both the art and architecture of the building.

Docent Jennifer Younger said for her the highlight of the final evening’s events were the people.

“Just seeing the pleased response from the people made it worth it,” Younger said. “Their response was energizing.”

The crowds may have ebbed and flowed throughout the day and night, but throughout the weekend one feature remained constant: the not-so-hushed murmur of excitement about Denver’s newest cultural fixture.

Ed Greene summed it best when he said that the museum would go a long way toward bringing Denver out its “cow town” image.

“It makes a huge statement for the city of Denver,” Greene said.