For 11 years, Carol Dickinson put her heart and soul into making Golden’s best-kept secret, Foothills Art Center, even more of a jewel than it already was.
She was successful too. During her tenure, the 36-year-old, not-for-profit exhibit space housed in an 1872 Victorian towered church twice was named best gallery in Colorado, and Dickinson, a former administrator at the Denver Art Museum, was given the Denver Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
But her lasting legacy came several weeks ago when the Carol and Don Dickinson Sculpture Garden was dedicated at Foothills Art Center. The $300,000 project is a living legacy to Dickinson and her husband, Don, a retired Colorado School of Mines professor who volunteered as the official photographer for events taking place on his wife’s watch.
And in true artistic fashion, the dedication was dramatic, taking place as the sun was setting so that the spectacular granite sculptures by Jesus Moroles were revealed to the audience as the last rays of the sun sparkled upon them. They were flooded by spotlights as night fell.
“This garden is a permanent tribute that will identfy Carol and Don for generations to come,” notes photographer-geologist Jerry Hodgen. “It testifies to their legacy as caring benefactors to the world of art. The dedication of this remarkable sculpture garden and the unveiling of those incredible Moroles sculptures was the event of a lifetime for them.”
The sculpture garden began, Carol Dickinson recalls, as a “modest proposal” that would involve some tidying up and a reconfiguration of existing landscaping that would cost no more than $75,000. Her suggestion was greeted with great enthusiasm by the FAC board, who referred it to a committee chaired by Paul O’Rourke. One thing led to another, and before long it had grown to a $300,000 project with a stellar list of participants.
Moroles, who is known throughout the world, was engaged to be the lead designer and to create the first sculpture. Denver architect Ted Schultz came aboard as lead architect, and Susan Saarinen of Golden agreed to be the landscape architect. Her grandfather, Elial Saarinen, was the center of a progressive design group in Finland and designed the famed Helsinki Railway station. Her father, Eero Saarinen, lists the St. Louis Arch and the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport among his credits.
Those at the dedication also included Nancy Tieken, a former Denver Art Museum curator whose NBT Foundation was the garden’s lead donor; event chair Bev Skinner; board president Al Auger; Nancy Lake Benson; Fay Shwayder with her daughter, Susan DeJong; SCFD executive director Mary Ellen Williams; Liz Labrot and Barbara Kelly; sculptor Robert Mangold; and such family members as Don Dickinson’s nephew, Mike Dickinson of Fort Collins, a past president of the Colorady Dairyman’s Association.
Coincidentally, Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland is named for the maternal side of Don’s family. His grandmother, Velma Vanderburgh Benson Beebe was born in Golden in 1872 (the same year the FAC church was built). She was a poet, published in Contemporary Women Poets in 1936, while her father (Don’s great grandfather, A.S. Benson, was an early Jefferson County commissioner before moving to Fort Collins and representing Larimer County in the state legislature.
A timely reminder
With its annual dinner taking place right before Colorado voters went to the polls, the Sam Cary Bar Association had no trouble choosing a theme. Acts of Inclusiveness: Commemorating the Voting Rights Act of 1965 offered a timely reminder of the struggle African-Americans endured to exercise a right some take for granted.
President-elect Dianne Briscoe chaired the event held at the Marriott Denver Tech Center; U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar delivered the keynote address.
President April Jones and members Catherine Baird, Dawn Bookhardt, Terrance Carroll, Charles Casteel, Carolyn Daniels, Hubert Farbes, Leslie Fields, Sonny Flowers, Skip Gray, Gary Jackson, Ray Jones, Barbara Kelly, Lee Marable, Annita Menogan, Dan Muse, Rico Munn, Darrell Nulan, Buddy Noel, Gerald Padmore, David Powell, Y. E. Scott, Willie Sheperd, Penfield Tate, Wayne Vaden and Jarvis Wyatt served on the host committee. Artist Ernie Barnes supplied the limited-edition prints that were given to the evening’s platinum and gold sponsors.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
