With five buildings for area museums and centers either recently completed or in development, the Denver metropolitan area’s art scene is experiencing an unprecedented boom that will likely have a huge impact on its cultural and economic future.
But it is not alone. As detailed in an April 8 feature in The Post’s Travel section, the burgeoning Santa Fe Railyard development with its growing cluster of top contemporary galleries, is helping reshape and further energize the New Mexico capital’s long-flourishing art scene.
A project in the discussion phases, however, could propel it to a whole other level and generate even more international attention than the city already receives, especially during the summers when artists, critics and collectors descend on SITE Santa Fe for its respected contemporary-art biennial.
Longtime art dealer Charlotte Jackson and other Santa Fe leaders are pushing the idea of a contemporary-art museum designed by Frank
Gehry, the architect responsible for the Guggenheim Bilbao, the most influential building of the past decade.
Santa Fe has several institutions that exhibit contemporary art in one way or another, including SITE, but Jackson points out that none of them has permanent collections.
“We have the Museum of Fine Arts, which is a great institution, and it has a little bit of a contemporary end to it, but it’s not really a full-blown contemporary museum,” she said. “And we’re feeling the need to have that here.”
Whether such an idea is a pipe dream or has a real chance of becoming reality is open to question. But it can’t hurt that Gehry will be on stage when Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim Foundation and its museums, speaks this summer in Santa Fe.
The lecture, titled “The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao: Frank Gehry Designs a Masterpiece,” and subsequent discussion will take place at 7 p.m. July 14 in the Lensic Performing Arts Center. (Tickets are $35 and $50. Call 505-988-1234.)
It is part of ART Santa Fe, a contemporary art fair running July 13-15 at El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe.
As thrilled as Jackson is about what is happening in Santa Fe, she also praised the additions to the Denver scene, especially the Clyfford Still Museum. The Still is projected to open in 2010 adjacent to the Denver Art Museum on Bannock Street.
“I can’t believe what’s happening in your town,” she said.
Noting the relative proximity of Denver and Santa Fe and how they regularly serve as weekend getaways for each other’s residents, Jackson believes the two cities’ art scenes need to begin collaborating.
It’s a terrific idea, whether the Gehry museum comes to fruition or not. It’s possible to envision the art institutions in the two cities forming a common association, which would meet at least once a year, undertake occasional joint projects and perhaps even do some allied marketing.
“I think that this Southwest quadrant is going to be on fire, and a great place for people to come and look at exciting art,” she said, citing in particular the Still Museum and the possible institution designed by Gehry.
“I really see that as a very exciting trip for people from overseas and from all over the world, literally, to come and go to Denver and then come down to New Mexico. It’s an exciting thing to be neighbors.”
Renowned art markets
More than 130,000 people from across the country attend Santa Fe’s three traditional art markets, which are arguably the most important such gatherings in their fields. This year’s installments of the annual events will take place as follows:
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
