Denver Art Museum

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. It holds a huge collection of more than 70,000 artworks from many times and places, making it one of the largest art museums between the West Coast and Chicago. Visitors can see many kinds of art, including a special group of American Indian art.

The museum also has a place called The Petrie Institute of Western American Art that looks after artworks from the American West. One of the museum buildings, called the Martin Building, was designed in 1971 by a famous Italian architect named Gio Ponti.

In 2018, the Denver Art Museum started a big project to improve its buildings. This project cost $150 million and helped make the museum’s spaces better for showing art, eating, and welcoming visitors.

History

1893–1923

The Denver Art Museum began with the Denver Artists Club in 1893. In 1917, it became the Denver Art Association and opened its first galleries in 1919. In 1922, it opened galleries in the Chappell House, a building donated to the museum. By 1923, it was known as the Denver Art Museum.

1948–1974

In 1948, the museum bought a new building, which opened as the Schleier Memorial Gallery in 1949. Later, with help from a generous donation offer, the museum built a new South Wing in 1954. In 1971, a tall, modern North Building opened, designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti. This building had many reflective glass tiles and a unique shape.

2006–present

In 2006, two new parts were added: the Duncan Pavilion and the Frederic C. Hamilton Building. The Hamilton Building, with its bold, angular design, became the main entrance and doubled the museum’s size. In 2016, plans began for a big project to update the museum, including the North Building. The Duncan Pavilion was removed in 2019 to make way for new spaces.

Hamilton Building

The Frederic C. Hamilton Building, finished in 2006, holds modern and contemporary art, African art, and Oceanic art. Designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, its shape reminds visitors of the Rocky Mountains and crystals. The building’s unique angles create interesting spaces for displaying art.

Martin Building

In 2018, work began to update the North Building, originally designed by Gio Ponti in 1971. The renovation added new gallery spaces, learning areas, and a restaurant. The building was renamed the Martin Building in honor of a generous donation.

Sie Welcome Center

As part of the museum’s updates, the Sie Welcome Center was built to welcome visitors and connect different parts of the museum. It includes a restaurant and a large event space with city views.

Duncan Pavilion

The Duncan Pavilion, added in 2006, connected the Hamilton Building to the older North Building. It was removed in 2017 to make room for the new Sie Welcome Center. The pavilion helped move people and art between the buildings safely.

Collections

The Denver Art Museum has nine departments that care for different kinds of art. These include African Art, Architecture and Design, Art of the Ancient Americas, Asian Art, Modern and Contemporary Art, Native Arts, Latin American Art, Photography, and Western American Art.

The African Art collection has about 1,000 pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries. It includes sculptures, textiles, jewelry, paintings, and drawings from many regions of Africa, especially west Africa.

The Art of the Ancient Americas collection covers over 4,000 years of art from Mesoamerica, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Southwestern United States. It features ceramics, jade, and stone sculptures.

The Architecture and Design department focuses on Italian design from the 1960s and 1970s, American graphic design, post-World War II furniture, and contemporary western European and Japanese design.

The Asian Art collection includes works from India, China, Japan, and Southwestern Asia, as well as Tibet, Nepal, and Southeast Asia, dating from the fourth millennium B.C. to today.

The European and American Art Before 1900 collection includes works by famous artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Winslow Homer. The Berger Collection features British art spanning over six centuries, including Renaissance portraits.

The Indigenous Arts of North America collection includes works by many contemporary Native American artists.

The Latin American Art collection is the largest in the United States for art made between the 1600s and 1800s, with over 6,000 objects from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Southwestern United States.

The Modern and Contemporary Art collection includes works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Georgia O'Keeffe, as well as pieces from major art movements like abstract expressionism and pop art. It also holds the Herbert Bayer Collection and Archive, with over 8,000 objects by the Austrian-born Bauhaus master who lived in Colorado for 28 years.

The Oceanic Art collection has about 1,000 objects, focusing on 20th century New Guinea art and 19th century Polynesian art, including sculptures and wood carvings.

The Photography department, established in 2008, includes 19th-century works of the American West and modernist photography from Europe and America.

The Textile and Fashion department has over 5,000 pieces from Asia, Europe, and North and South America, ranging from ancient textiles to modern fashion.

The Western American Art collection features art about the American West, its people, and landscapes, with key works by Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington. The Petrie Institute of Western American Art was established with gifts from the Bill and Dorothy Harmsen Family and the Thomas A. Petrie family.

Selected collection highlights

The Denver Art Museum has many special pieces in its collection. One is "A View of Alexander Pope's Villa, Twickenham" by Samuel Scott from 1759. Another is "Harvesting at Windsor" by Benjamin West from 1795. The museum also features works by famous artists like Camille Pissarro and Claude Monet, as well as Charles Marion Russell.

Learning and Engagement

The Denver Art Museum’s Learning & Engagement department focuses on making visits fun and educational. They create learning materials like audio tours, labels, videos, and hands-on art areas. They also offer special programs for families, such as the Just for Fun Family Center, gallery games, a Discovery Library, Kids Corner, and Family Backpacks. The museum also has access programs for visitors with early-stage Alzheimer's or dementia, including Low Sensory Mornings and Tactile Tables.

A major part of the museum’s campus improvement is the new Bartlit Learning and Engagement Center. This center has over 12,000 square-feet of flexible space for programs and workshops. It includes the Singer Pollack Family Wonderscape for student exhibitions and community events, and the Morgridge Creative Hub, which spans more than 5,600 square-feet of interactive space designed by Esrawe + Cadena from Mexico City.

Funding

The Denver Art Museum is supported by a special group that is not part of the city government. Most of its money comes from a small sales tax in the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, which covers seven counties around Denver: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson. This tax helps about 300 different arts, culture, and science groups in the area. A big part of this money goes to the Denver Art Museum and four other big places in Denver: the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Denver Zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The museum also gets gifts and loans from private collections. In recent years, more than 600,000 people visit the museum each year.

Media mentions

The Denver Art Museum was featured on the Smithsonian Channel in 2012 during an episode of Aerial America about Colorado. It appeared again in a How Do They Build That? episode later. In 2022, The Denver Post wrote about a trustee’s involvement with looted art pieces. In early 2024, many workers at the museum announced they wanted to form a union, but the museum’s director did not agree to recognize it.