Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Twenty years. That is how long Denver Arts Week has been running, and this year the city is not being shy about it. Depending on which report you read, there are somewhere between nearly 300 and 436 events packed into the stretch from November 6 to 15. Most of them free or close to it.
And here is the part people miss. Arts Week is not landing on a quiet week. It is colliding with a loaded sports calendar and a concert lineup that includes a band playing its literal last show. So you have choices. A lot of them. Let me walk you through the ones worth your time.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m., Ball Arena.
We start the week at Ball Arena with the Nuggets hosting Toronto. This is your midweek option before the whole calendar gets insane. Nothing fancy about it, just basketball on a Wednesday, which honestly is sometimes exactly what you want. Get it out of the way early because the back half of this week does not slow down.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m., Ball Arena.
The Avs get two home games this week, and this is the first one. Nashville comes to town Thursday night. Then the Avs are right back at it Saturday hosting the Detroit Red Wings. Two hockey games at Ball Arena inside three days, which tells you the parking situation downtown is going to be a scene all week. Plan accordingly if you are driving in.
Friday, Nov. 6, Art District on Santa Fe and beyond.
This is how Arts Week actually kicks off, and the Art District on Santa Fe goes big. More than 100 artists showing work across roughly 30 galleries and spaces, all on one stretch. First Fridays on Santa Fe are already a thing locals know, but during Arts Week they expand. You walk the district, galleries are open late, and the whole corridor turns into one long gallery crawl.
Quick real estate note on this, because I cannot help myself. The Art District on Santa Fe has been one of the more interesting stretches to watch as the arts scene and the neighborhood around it keep shifting. When a corridor builds a real identity like this one has, it tends to show up in the numbers eventually. Worth keeping an eye on if you pay attention to where Denver is heading.
Friday, Nov. 6, Summit Music Hall (Moonroom).
Okay. This is the one. L7, the band, playing what they are calling The Last Hurrah Tour. That word last is doing a lot of work here. If you have any history with this band, this is not a show you skip and catch next time, because there is no next time. It is at the Moonroom inside Summit Music Hall, which is a small room, and small rooms for a band this size means it is going to be sweaty and loud and exactly right.
Friday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m., Mission Ballroom (16 and over).
Same night, totally different energy. Houndmouth at the Mission Ballroom, doors and all that for 8 p.m., and it is a 16-and-over show so you can bring the older kids. Mission Ballroom is one of the better-sounding rooms in the city if you ask me. So Friday night you are picking between a punk farewell in a tiny room and a full band in a big beautiful one. Rough problem to have.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 5 to 10 p.m., 18 museums citywide.
Here is the headliner of the whole week, and it costs you nothing. Eighteen Denver museums go free from 5 to 10 p.m. on Saturday. Not one museum. Eighteen. We are talking the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the Clyfford Still Museum, the Colorado History Museum, MCA Denver and more.
And they run free shuttles between the venues, which is the detail that makes this actually work. You are not paying for parking at five different spots. You park once, hop the shuttle, and museum-hop across the city on a Saturday night for free. Hayley and I have done versions of this before and the trick is to pick three or four and not try to do all eighteen. You will burn out. Pick your heavy hitters, maybe one you have never bothered with, and let the shuttle do the rest.
Nov. 6 to 8, Westwood neighborhood.
Three full days out in Westwood, which is one of the Denver neighborhoods I think gets overlooked in these roundups. The Muertos en Westwood Street Festival runs all weekend, and it is the kind of neighborhood-rooted event that tells you more about a place than any brochure. Westwood has real identity, real community, and this is that on full display. If you have never spent time out there, this weekend is the reason to.
Saturday, Nov. 7, Paramount Theatre.
For a completely different Saturday night, Straight No Chaser at the Paramount. The a cappella guys. This is the polished, bring-your-parents, everybody-leaves-happy kind of show, and the Paramount is the right room for it. If the museum shuffle is not your speed, this is downtown and done up.
Nov. 7, 10, 13 and 15.
Opera Colorado is staging Verdi's Macbeth across four dates this week, Nov. 7, 10, 13 and 15. So if Saturday is already overbooked, you have three more chances later in the run. Macbeth is the one with the witches and the ambition and the body count, Verdi set to music, and it is exactly the kind of thing Arts Week exists to put in front of you.
Buell Theatre, 1350 Curtis St.
Over at the Buell on Curtis, Disney's Beauty and the Beast is running, and this is your family option. Tickets range from $59 to
Sunday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m., Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave.
The Damned close out the weekend Sunday night at the Ogden on Colfax, 16 and over, 7:30 p.m. So the week that opens with L7's farewell basically ends with another legendary punk band on Colfax. That is a pretty great set of bookends if you think about it. The Ogden is a classic Colfax room, and a Sunday punk show is a solid way to refuse to let the weekend end.
Sunday, Nov. 8, City Floral Garden Center, 1440 Kearney St.
And here is my pick for the quiet move of the week. City Floral on Kearney hosts its free Harvest to Holiday open house on Sunday, inside a 115-year-old greenhouse. One hundred and fifteen years old. That building has been sitting in that neighborhood longer than most of the houses around it. It is free, it is the transition from fall into holiday season, and standing inside a century-old greenhouse in November is the kind of small thing that beats a lot of the big things. Side note, this place is a danger zone for anyone who cannot leave a plant shop empty-handed. I am speaking from experience.
One last thing worth saying. Denver Arts Week is backed by Denver Arts & Venues, the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District, the Downtown Denver Partnership and a handful of local media partners. The reason you get 18 free museums and a week stacked with hundreds of low-cost events is that there is real infrastructure behind it. That is not an accident. That is a city deciding the arts are worth funding, and twenty years in, it clearly stuck.
So. One week. Two Avs games, a Nuggets game, a punk band's final show, a greenhouse that predates your grandparents, and eighteen museums you can walk into for free. Pick your lane. You are not going to run out of options.