Winter Exhibitions Commemorate Arvada Center’s 35th Anniversary and the City of Arvada’s Commitment to Art

January 10, 2011

To kick off the Arvada Center’s 35th anniversary, three gallery exhibitions, running from January 13 to April 3, 2011, put meaning, context, and a framework around the City of Arvada’s commitment to provide a direct experience with art.

ARVADA/ARTvada: 35 Years of Art, in the Upper Gallery, features selected works from the City of Arvada’s permanent collection. Through partnerships, programs, group and individual exhibitions, the City of Arvada has purchased and received as donations a fine and varied collection of artwork. This exhibition, which ranges from representational to abstract, features works in ceramics, prints, and paintings in oil, watercolor, and acrylic by artists known locally and recognized nationally.

“The Arvada Center is grateful to the City of Arvada for its continued commitment and overall support of the arts,” said Gene Sobczak, executive director of the Arvada Center.”We are extremely proud of this collection of fine art.”

The Arvada Center’s 10,000 square feet of gallery space is one of Denver metro area’s largest venues, with four series (12 total) of exhibitions presented each year in the Main, Upper, and Theater galleries. Recent exhibitions of prominent note include Jill Greenberg: Monkeys and Bears, a photography display presented in association with Michele Mosko’s Fine Art gallery in Denver and Continental Divide, a ceramics display presented in association with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA).

Visions West: 19th Century Expedition Artists, in the Main Gallery, is an extensive collection from Lakewood resident Graham Curtis and features more than 150 lithographs, engravings, and etchings, many of which are hand colored. Between 1822 to 1883, on-the-spot artists created visual recordings from Western explorations. These collaborations between the artists and publishers contributed to transforming Western myth into reality. Their visions influenced how the American West was portrayed and how it influenced future expansion. This exhibition displays prints from well known artists such as Albert Bierstadt, Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, Thomas Moran, and Alfred Jacob Miller, and features works that range from studies of the quickly vanishing indigenous peoples, to flora and fauna, to landscapes, migrations, and settlements.

Edge of the Plains, in the Theater Gallery, by Denver artist Sharon Feder is a contemporary look at today’s West with the ever-changing architecture of Denver. Her exhibition supports the Arvada Center’s long-standing mission to showcase and acknowledge the area’s regional contemporary artists.

A Colorado native, Feder’s urban imagery speaks to the tensions—economic, social, and spiritual—of our post-industrial world. In subject matter and through the rhythmic compositions of form and color, her paintings document and celebrate the choreography of our existence. The exhibition consists of a dozen paintings from small to large scale, oil on panel.


About the Arvada Center
The Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2011, is one of the nation’s largest multidisciplinary arts centers. With award-winning theater, fine art exhibitions, an outdoor amphitheater, and classes in the arts and humanities, the Arvada Center is recognized as a premier venue for arts, culture, and education in the Denver metro region. We are supported, in part, by the City of Arvada, the citizens of the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), and individual and institutional donors. For events and activities, visit arvadacenter.org or call (720) 898-7200.

###