DENVER ART MUSEUM

Denver

News: For 41 years, Collectors Choice has had a reputation for being the one night where Denver’s fashion-conscious ladies and gents haul out the heavy artillery – i.e., designer evening wear that was designed, made or purchased for the occasion – for an evening that always raises significant funds for a designated department at the Denver Art Museum.

This year was no exception, as a very well-turned-out crowd gathered at the museum on Nov. 30 to celebrate the myriad contributions that the Avenir Foundation and Joy and Chris Dinsdale have made to what is now the DAM’s Avenir Institute of Textile Art and Fashion.

Established in 2021, the Avenir Institute of Textile Art and Fashion is the expansion of a global collection that began in 1927 and includes over 6,000 items ranging from archaeological textiles to contemporary fashion.

The Lakewood-based Avenir Foundation, whose recent grants include $10.5 million to the Emma Willard School in Troy in New York to improve teacher salaries and create endowed chairs in literature and science, had been founded and headed by Willard School alumna Alice Dodge Wallace, who died in 2020.

Joy Dinsdale is a member of the DAM’s governing board while her husband, Chris, is co-chairman of the Bank of Colorado, a director of Pinnacle Bank-Wyoming and vice president/director of Pinnacle Bancorp in Omaha, Neb. As president of Dinsdale Brothers, Inc. He oversees family cattle feeding and farming interests in Nebraska, California and Colorado.

Known for her fashion sense, Joy did not disappoint at Collectors Choice. She had commissioned Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad to design, and make in Paris, the stunning black and white gown that she wore for the event that was chaired by Bridget and John Grier and Jen and Alex Hardie and raised over $800,000 for the Avenir Institute.

Arlene and Barry Hirschfeld, both of whom are either current or former members of the DAM board, were the honorary chairmen.

“I guess you can tell that opposites attract,” Chris Dinsdale deadpanned as he and Joy, “my first wife,” stepped to the stage of the museum’s spectacular Sturm Pavilion to accept accolades from the DAM’s chief curator, Angelica Daneo.

“Joy has fully embraced textiles,” Daneo said, adding that she had held leadership roles in celebrating the opening of such textile department exhibitions as Dior: from Paris to the World; Paris to Hollywood: The Fashion and Influence of Veronique and Gregory Peck; Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century; and, Shockwave: Japanese Fashion Design 1980s-90s.

Daneo recalled complimenting Joy’s wardrobe choice at a previous DAM event and that Joy had told her when it comes to clothes, she doesn’t shop – she collects.

The unconfirmed word going around that night is that Joy would eventually donate the gown she was wearing to the Avenir Institute.

“We are inspired not just by the art on our walls,” added Sarah Anschutz, the DAM’s current board chair. “We’re also inspired by textiles, and the Dinsdales have brought the textile arts and fashion to new heights for the DAM.”

The Dinsdales also offered a toast to the late J. Landis “Lanny” Martin, a past chair of the museum board and noted philanthropist. Martin, who died on Sept. 1, is survived by Sharon, his wife of 45 years, and their three daughters.

“Lanny, Lee McIntire (the former chairman and chief executive officer of CH2M Hill) and I grew up in small towns in Nebraska,” Chris Dinsdale said, “and he was a great mentor to the both of us. He had wanted so much to be here tonight, but unfortunately that was not to be.”

In addition to Joy Dinsdale, fashion standouts that night included Alessandra Schulein, in a Lanvin gown accessorized with Cartier earrings; former museum president Cathey Finlon and Analicia Thackray, both in Alexander McQueen; and Carlotta LaNier, one of the Little Rock Nine, in St. John.

About the organization: The Denver Art Museum was founded in 1893 as the Denver Artists’ Club. Today, it is one of the largest art museums between Chicago and the West Coast and is home to global art collections with m than 70,000 works in 12 collections.

Website: denverartmuseum.org 

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