DENVER ART MUSEUM

Denver

News: The merger of Denver Art Museum and its Golden Triangle neighbor, Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, was announced on May 9. While it will take the better part of next year to complete, this widely heralded move was celebrated when the DAM honored Kirkland Museum founders Merle Chambers and Hugh Grant at its 42nd Collectors Choice.

“This is a special and historical Collectors Choice,” noted Christoph Heinrich, the DAM’s Frederick & Jan Mayer director. “Merle Chambers is a true force for good and Hugh Grant is a lifelong advocate for the arts. And the reputation of each museum can’t help but grow with this affiliation.”

He added that in trying to decide on a gift to commemorate their honor, it was decided that instead of another plaque or statue likely to just gather dust on a bookshelf or desk, Chambers and Grant would receive something meaningful and long-lasting.

For Grant, it would be renaming Kirkland’s exhibition gallery the Hugh Grant Gallery. For Chambers, Kirkland’s promenade will henceforth be known as the Merle Chambers Promenade.

“This is somewhat overwhelming,” Chambers said. “The promenade is the spine of Kirkland Museum.” The Kirkland, she added, “Has been part of my life for the past 35 years and I recognized that it needed invigorating. So, I invited Christoph to my house and we got to work.

“I’m not worried about its future; it will be interesting, fun, and even better.”

It was noted that Grant had long believed that visitors of the Kirkland Museum should feel like they were walking into someone’s home and modeled its design after his own visits to Kirkland’s home at 13th and Pearl in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Kirkland (1904-1981) was considered one of the most important Colorado and regional painters of the 20th century and has been called the Father of Modern Colorado Painting and the Dean of Colorado Artists.

Kirkland Museum is home to much of his artwork, an internationally celebrated decorative art collection and works by other Colorado and regional artists.

Sara Anschutz, chair of the DAM board of trustees, agreed. “Christoph and his staff spent an inordinate amount of time to make this happen and all of us cannot wait to see what this collaboration will bring.”

Collectors Choice 42 began with a “welcome hour” where guests that included U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper; former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb; sculptor Ed Dwight and his wife, Barbara; Carlotta LaNier of Little Rock Nine fame; dancer-choreographer Cleo Parker Robinson; Gary Steuer, president/CEO of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation and Tariana Navas-Nieves, deputy director of Denver Arts & Venues enjoyed cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and Vance Kirkland favorites performed by the Cloud 9 Strings Quartet.

Dinner and dancing followed in the museum’s Sturm Pavilion.

Some 400 people attended the black-tie festivities chaired by Kathryn and David Birnbaum and Tina Walls. Honorary chairmen were Cathey and Dick Finlon, Arlene and Barry Hirschfeld and Myra and Robert Rich.

Other guests included Suzanne Farver, a DAM board member who retired as executive director of the Aspen Art Museum to buy a vineyard in Sonoma County, Calif., and make Panther Ridge pinot noir wine; Tom and Michelle Sie Whitten; Christin Crampton Day, executive director of Colorado Business Committee for the Arts; DAM trustee Lisa Robinson with her husband, John, and his parents, Dick and Marcia Robinson; and Barbara Bridges, who was part of the team that produced Tony Award-winning musical “Suffs,” with her husband, Gerry Hammond;

About the organization: Located in Denver’s Civic Center neighborhood, the Denver Art Museum has a collection of 70,000-plus diverse works from across the centuries and the world. It is one of the largest art museums between Chicago and the West Coast.

Website: denverartmuseum.org

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