EXHIBITS
our exhibits
Current
Live from Boulder
Boulder Open Studios
Right On!
Since March
Playzeum
Boulder Experience Gallery
google garage
Coming Soon!
Children’s Discovery Zone
current exhibits
Live from Boulder: A Snapshot of Boulder’s Musical History
Has COVID-19 got you missing live music? Through the upcoming exhibition, titled Live from Boulder: A Snapshot of Boulder’s Musical History, you will have the opportunity to reminisce and take a glimpse back at Boulder’s rich live music scene. The exhibit features some of Boulder’s most iconic live music venues, such as the Macky Auditorium, the Fox Theater, and Folsom Field. Explore the blossoming of the Boulder live music scene and its impact on the community’s past, present, and future generations Macky Auditorium, The Fox Theater, and Folsom Field are just a few places where live music has blossomed in Boulder and impacted our community. October 1 – November 30, 2020
Boulder Open Studios
For the month of October, the Museum of Boulder will host an exhibit of art by Open Studios’ juried Artist Members. Open Studios has operated as a non-profit organization supporting and educating local artists for 26 years. Their mission is to advance and enrich the visual arts and promote the role of artists in the Boulder Community. The organization is best-known for the annual Open Studios Tour, however, Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the Tour in its traditional form this year. To support local artists and provide art and arts experiences for the public in 2020, Open Studios created a Membership Program, with numerous options for everyone. The exhibit at the Museum features one piece of the best work by each of nearly 200 Open Studios Members. The exhibit offers up a rich mix of styles and mediums by artists from around Boulder County. Many artists feature video-recorded virtual tours of their studios on the Open Studios website, openstudios.org, and over one fourth of the artists will book personal appointments in their studios for patrons through this website. In this way, interaction with these local artists encourages conversations, develops understanding between art appreciators and creators, and builds relationships that extend far into the future.
October 2nd – 18th, 2020
Right On! | September 1 – November 4, 2020
Right On! is a public art installation by Angie Eng, featuring a series of skin-tone plaques with the dates of key civil rights cases from 1865, the decade when Eng’s great-great-grandfather came to the United States from China, to 2020. Use your phone’s camera to read the code and follow the link to a one-sentence description of the date’s significance in civil rights history.
The installation is displayed outside the Museum and is free to visit.
The plaques are for sale by the artist as part of a fundraiser to support civil justice and the arts. Each plaque will be sold with 50% proceeds to be donated to the ACLU and Creative Catalyzers, a new cultural leadership organization in Boulder County. Contact creativecatalyzers@gmail.com or visit http://www.creativecatalyzers.org
Since March | July 12-September 27, 2020
So far in 2020, we have experienced a bombardment of breaking news, health risks, and injustice, and the story changes every day. Our new exhibit, Since March, offers a space to pause and reflect on your personal experiences and the experiences of fellow community members, past and present, in the face of a contagion. The exhibit features materials from around the county, including artwork from Boulder Community Health, photographs from residents, ‘day-in-the-life’ videos from middle-schoolers, and a film showing the quiet streets of Boulder during the lockdown. You will also have the opportunity to share your own experience with other museum visitors and with our permanent historical collection.
Playzeum | ongoing
What if forests were made of rainbows, every step made music, and you could design the world however you wanted? Explore a wonderland straight from your imagination at Playzeum!
Play serves a deep and important purpose: It provides a way to explore the world, try out new ideas, and collaborate with others, all in a safe context that is buffered from dire consequences if an experiment doesn’t work out. Again and again, studies have shown that undirected, self-motivated play is a crucial component of a child’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. In Playzeum, we encourage our youngest visitors to discover those themes at an age-appropriate level and nurture skills that will enable them to become Boulder’s change-makers of the future. Just as our history exhibits tell the story of Boulder through a community lens, you and your learner can connect how you’re playing in each section to local professionals who draw upon these skills to do their jobs.
We invite you into a space that nurtures self-guided exploration, imagination, and experimentation.
Boulder Experience Gallery | ongoing
Presenting Boulder’s history to connect visitors to the past, provide a context for the present, and inspire a vision for the future.
The Boulder Experience exhibition is a space for people to engage with the breadth of the innovation that was developed in Boulder and its impact on the world. Visitors are guided through displays, interactives and multimedia experiences that cover the history of Boulder from the earliest days of Native American inhabitants, through key times of cultural, scientific and economic change, continuing to the present day. There are stories ranging from the travels of the Arapaho to the building of the Kepler telescope by Ball Aerospace.
Entry to the exhibition will be free with Museum admission.
google garage – Explore Tech
ongoing, but activities change
A creative space for messing about!
The Google Garage is based on the idea that children learn best when they get to explore, create, experiment, and follow their natural curiosities – just messing about.
Play music by touching colors, build your own robots and train them what to do and build structures straight from your imagination! Best for ages 5+.
Google Garage will reopen mid-September.
Archive 75 | 75 Objects for the 75th Anniversary of the Museum of Boulder | October 10, 2019 – September 14, 2020
For over 150 years, Boulder has undergone an astounding evolution – from pioneer mining town to quiet college town to bastion of liberal social causes and global center for science, technology, and outdoor recreation. Throughout, Boulder has seen conflicts from within and challenges from outside the community. But this small, resilient city continues to evolve through them all – bolstered by a respect for diversity, a love of the land, an appreciation for education, and a desire to grow and take risks as a community.
The Museum of Boulder’s Archive 75 exhibition will feature 75 artifacts and documents evoking the depth and breadth of the Museum of Boulder’s holdings. They will tell 75 stories—harrowing, heartbreaking, pathbreaking, brave—about Boulder’s rich and complicated history. This installation will be featured in the 2,600 square-foot main exhibit gallery on the first floor of the Museum of Boulder from mid October 2019 – June 2020 in celebration of the Museum’s 75th Anniversary.
Where will the Museum pull these artifacts and documents from? The Museum’s Collections Facility in north Boulder houses historic artifacts and archives, which continue to be important resources for research, education and community engagement. Our 7,000 square-foot facility houses more than 45,000 historic artifacts. The Museum’s Archive Collection, housed at Carnegie Branch Library adjacent to the Museum of Boulder, contains over 900,000 historic documents and photographs. The Museum collects items that represent the people, businesses and events that have lived in, or taken place in, the Boulder region. We have items dating back to the first settlers in Boulder and others that represent more contemporary people and events in our community, like the Bolder Boulder Road Race, Ball Aerospace, and Celestial Seasonings. In 2017, we added 1,073 new objects to our historic collection. Objects in the Museum’s collection are used for research, exhibitions, publications, and for loan to other museums and other venues for exhibitions. Some of our objects are on display in The Boulder Experience gallery on the second floor of the Museum. However, due to the large number and fragile nature of many of the items, the majority have never been seen by our community.
Our Living Landscape: Exploring Boulder’s Watershed
January 31-March 30, 2020
Boulder is known for its landscapes that sweep from the peaks of the Continental Divide to the iconic Flatirons, and down to the grassy plains. Everyone lives in a watershed – the land that forms our streams and supports life. Boulder’s watershed is diverse in life, landscapes, geology, and climate. Come explore the Boulder Creek watershed with University of Colorado scientists.
Leaving a Mark
February 1 – March 14
Join us to watch Boulder artist Bryce Widom create a temporary chalk mural! Over the course of this all-ages exhibit, Bryce will come in at scheduled times to work on a large chalk mural. Join this collaborative community exhibit by leaving your mark on other chalkboard surfaces throughout the space. Bryce is well known for his murals at the Mountain Sun breweries.
Bryce will be working on the mural at the following times:
Saturday, Feb 1, 2:30-5:00pm | Sunday, Feb 2, 10am-2pm
Monday, Feb 3, 9am-5pm | Thursday, Feb 6, 9:30am-2pm | Saturday, Feb 8, 2-4:30pm | Sunday, Feb 9, 1-3:30pm
Monday, Feb 10, 9am-5pm | Thursday, Feb 13, 9:30am-2pm | Saturday, Feb 15, 2-4:30pm
Monday, Feb 17, 9am-5pm | Thursday, Feb 20, 5-7pm (Members Only Event)
Monday, Feb 24, 10am-4pm | Wednesday, Feb 26, 11:30am-1:30pm | Thursday, Feb 27, 12:30-2:30pm | Sunday, Mar 1, 1-3pm
Monday, Mar 2, 1-3pm | Thursday, Mar 5, 10am-2:30pm | Saturday, Mar 7, 5-7pm (Chalk & Chug)
Monday, Mar 9, 1-4pm | Wednesday, Mar 11, 10am-1pm | Thursday, Mar 12, 11:30am-1:30pm | Friday, Mar 13, 1-3pm | Saturday, Mar 14, 3-6pm (Closing Event)
exhibits coming soon
Drawing Parallels: Community Art & Artifacts from 2020 | October 30th, 2020 – March 1st, 2021
2020 has been a year of chaos and quiet. In our fall exhibit, Drawing Parallels: Community Art & Artifacts from 2020, we invite you to explore the relationships among simultaneous, sweeping events — from world wars, to movements for civil rights, to pandemics — in Boulder’s past and present. Drawing Parallels cuts through the onslaught of today’s news to discover how people in the past dealt with concurrent historic moments and to present contemporary perspectives on 2020 from local artists, frontline workers, and community members.
Call for Artwork Submissions
The Museum of Boulder welcomes artwork submissions for the upcoming Drawing Parallels: Community Art & Artifacts from 2020, which will showcase community art that encapsulates and evokes the events of 2020.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions may be centered on any relevant events or topics the artist deems significant to this year. Submitted artwork can date from the March closures up until present. Incomplete artwork will not be accepted past the proposal due date.
All submissions will be reviewed for relevance and size limitations by a panel of Museum of Boulder staff and community members. 2D and 3D pieces are welcome, including photography. The Museum is not responsible for any printing costs.
A note on “relevance”: Our call for submissions covers the Boulder area, focusing on city and county residents and workers. In addition, we define the Boulder area broadly as there are many towns and unincorporated areas in the region that fall outside of the purview of the big cities of Golden, Denver, and Fort Collins. If you live or work in the area surrounding Boulder County, we’d encourage you to apply! Likewise, if you live farther afield (outside the region, state, or country) but have a strong connection to the Boulder area, you are also welcome to apply. The panel needs to be able to identify a Boulder connection, whether that is from you as the artist or from your work. Please help us see the Boulder connection in your work when you fill out the submission form if it is not apparent in the submission itself.
If you would like to have your art for sale while it is on display in the exhibit, we request a 40% commission as part of our efforts to raise funds in the wake of the financial impacts of COVID-19 on our non-profit.
Proposals are due by October 1st, 2020.
How To Submit
Click the following link to submit your artwork for review- Submit Here
KGNU is a sponsor of Drawing Parallels.
Voces Vivas: Stories from the Latinx Community in Boulder
El condado de Boulder es hogar de diversas comunidades latinas e hispanas. En el Museo de Boulder estamos preparando una exhibición comunitaria dedicada a la historia hispana y latina del condado. ¡Necesitamos de su ayuda! Si usted vive o trabaja en el condado de Boulder y pertenece a la comunidad latina, hispana, chicana o mexicano-americana, nos interesa trabajar con usted. Usted y su familia tendrán la oportunidad de compartir sus experiencias de vida, aprender sobre las historias de otros miembros de la comunidad, construir una plataforma comunitaria para usted y su familia con el apoyo del equipo de expertos a disposición del Museo de Boulder.
Boulder County is home to diverse Hispanic and Latino communities. This year, the Museum of Boulder is preparing for a community exhibit on Boulder’s LatinX history and culture opening in fall of 2021. We want to hear from you! If you live or work in the Boulder area and identify as LatinX, including Latina/o, Hispanic, Chicana/o, Mexicana/o, we need your help. You will have the opportunity to share your life stories, learn about other LatinX communities, and help create a community platform with the help of the experts at the Museum of Boulder.
Opportunities:
If you are interested in volunteering for this project or partnering with the Museum this year or in 2021, we’d love to hear from you! Please contact amelia@museumofboulder.org for more information.
children discovery museum | OPENING in early 2020
Donations are currently being accepted in memory of Kingsley D. Stoken (September 14, 1969 – April 4, 2019) who was passionate about opening a Children’s Museum space in Boulder. Kinglsey (and his wife Anne) were our Capital Campaign Chairs in 2018. His loss is a tremendous loss to our Boulder community.
Ready, set, play – YES, you can touch that at the Museum of Boulder’s interactive children’s museum. Play is essential to a child’s healthy development and the foundation for all future learning. Boulder’s belief in a healthy work-life balance is a big draw for young families, and as a result, it’s a very kid-friendly town. However, something is missing and has been for a long time – a children’s museum in Boulder that is sure to top the list of most memorable experiences. The Museum of Boulder’s new Children’s Discovery Zone Museum will be a place that gives children the power of discovery and imagination.
From the moment kids enter through its doors (on the Garden Level of the Museum of Boulder), the amount of creativity and fun details will leave adults impressed and little adventurers giddy. The 2,500 square-foot space is designed for ages birth-8, and without a doubt, the design team at the Denver Children’s Museum working with our Task Force of staff and volunteers, has developed an innovative concept that is sure to make children happy while learning through play. Think “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” meets “Where the Wild Things Are”. With mellow lighting and a bevy of activity, parents can follow along while kids explore the tunnels, stairs, secret passageways and nooks. Magical portals with interactive experiences give youngest learners new perspective, engaging senses and sparking imagination.
The outdoor area will feature the only Luckey Climbing structure in Colorado. Luckey Climbers are sculptures that define public spaces and create emblematic play areas. They offer adventures to kids of all ages while challenging them to problem-solve, think spatially, and most of all, be with kids other kids. Made of bent plywood or rotationally molded plastic climbing platforms suspended by steel pipes and cables, Luckey Climbers are visually elegant works of art, part jungle gym, and once alive, they become fountains of children.
The Museum of Boulder’s Children’s Discovery Zone Museum is seeking community funding for the final phase of the project – fabrication and installation – so that this space can open to our youngest community members in early 2020. The fabrication and installation costs are $2,000,000 which the Museum must raise to make this dream come true for our community.
