A Snowflake Visits Denver

July 2, 2023 1:21 PM

I'll be in Denver for work this month from the 17th-23rd. I've read the many (quite helpful) questions advising about what's great to see in Denver, so I don't need to hear about the obvious stuff, or even the next tier "wanna see Denver like a local" somewhat less obvious stuff. But I'm a snowflake: beer makes me sleepy, pot will get me fired, and other snowflaky, specific stuff.

I'll be working during the day on weekdays but will have evenings free. My wife will fly up to join me on Friday and we'll see a number of the things in those other answers over the weekend. But I have specific interests my wife doesn't share except as a favor to me, so I thought I'd get some of that out of the way before she gets there. I'm a flaneur at heart, drawn to wandering around and seeing stuff serendipitously. My wife is more of a plan-adjacent type.

I'm coming from Houston and am interested in any quirky, outsider, or folk art sites Denver has to offer. What's Denver's answer to the Orange Show, the Project Row Houses, or the Beer Can House?

While we're on the fringe, I'm looking for leads on good poetry readings, maker spaces, swap meets, art collectives... places where everyday creatives hang out and share creations. Where do the amateurs hang out? Art is too important to be left to professionals.

One of my passions is to take abstract pictures of urban decay, where the struggle between forces of nature and the built environment is evident and vivid. Where are some pretty safe places to walk around and capture the dialectic between man's plans and nature's entropy?

Also quite interested in contemplative spiritual sites (no particular flavor) where the atmosphere is welcoming to strangers and silence is valued.

And, finally, good comfortable atmospheric spots to work and get good coffee and fast secure wifi.

Extra Bonus: Any site, like my home church ecclesia, which combines several or all of the above.

This list is long and kind of specific, but my contract will require me to be in Denver at least once a quarter, so I'm storing up ideas for repeat visit favorites and creative communities away from my home creative communities.

posted by cross_impact to Travel & Transportation around Denver, CO (8 answers total)

I was in Denver a few weeks ago and am still processing this incredibly immersive art experience. Meow Wolf Convergence Station. (BTW, there's an entire floor dedicated to urban decay.)
posted by oxisos at 2:39 PM on July 2, 2023 [8 favorites]

Best answer: We were on an explore after touring Hammonds (it was ok) and took my teens to Tacos El Huequito at 48th street… there were some industrial sections in transition in that area as we drove from one place to the other…Hammonds is in a new-ish space, but some of the area in between is industrial and May match your interests. If you get hungry, that place is excellent.
posted by childofTethys at 6:45 PM on July 2, 2023

Also, Meow Wolf Denver is excellent AND if you would like a contemplative moment in the midst of a sometimes overwhelming amount of creativity, they have quiet rooms/spaces, just ask their staff to show you the closest space/room. We’ve been once and will be back.
posted by childofTethys at 6:52 PM on July 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Not to see Elitch gardens is not to see Denver
posted by hortense at 6:52 PM on July 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You have probably heard about the 40-ft-tall blue bear. But just in case you haven't, it's excellent.
posted by 41swans at 10:07 PM on July 2, 2023

Best answer: Quirky art gallery hidden on a high floor in an office building downtown (limited hours & appointment-only): The Dikeou Collection.

The longest-running open mic poetry night in Denver is at The Mercury Cafe.

I suspect you'd appreciate Mutiny Information Cafe, a small bookshop/cafe/performance space. It has a very DIY (in the punk/garage sense) vibe and when I lived there I loved going there for small performances even though I didn't dig the coffee that much.

You might find the history of Denver's no-longer-existent Chinatown and why there is no longer a plaque commemorating it interesting (if upsetting), but the area where it was located is now just a few blocks with shops and apartments, it doesn't feel connected to the history.

I'm not quite sure I know the right answer for you to "Where are some pretty safe places to walk around and capture the dialectic between man's plans and nature's entropy?" but as a lateral response you may wish to contemplate the thing I spent a lot of time contemplating when I lived in Denver: the many, many ways Colorado wanted to kill me (joke... kinda). Altitude and the adjustments and sickness that come with it, increased sunburn & skin cancer risk, massively higher number of lightning strikes than the rest of the country, sudden hailstorms, increased depression & self-harm rate (sometimes attributed to the altitude), extreme heat and cold... definitely aspects of nature that the modern human-built Colorado cities cannot conquer or erase.
posted by rhiannonstone at 10:09 PM on July 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I have not been since before the pandemic, but the area near Museo de las Americas has a lot of little art galleries near it (up and down Sante Fe Drive). Google Maps shows that at least some of them have survived, though finding ones with evening hours will be a challenge.

If Clyfford Still's paintings suit your fancy, his museum is downtown, but again, they don't have evening hours, so you'd have to squeeze it in as a long lunch or something. The Museum of Contemporary Art is open until 7PM Wednesday and Thursday.
posted by Candleman at 11:34 AM on July 3, 2023

Perhaps not exactly what you are asking for but Root Down on Concourse C is a pretty great airport restaurant.
posted by mmascolino at 6:33 AM on July 4, 2023