The Denver Art Museum has the largest and most comprehensive collection of world art between Kansas City and the West Coast, with over 55,000 works of art, including American Indian, pre-Columbian, and Spanish Colonial art. Other collections include Painting & Sculpture, Asian, Architecture, Design & Graphics, Modern & Contemporary, Textile Art, European, American and Western painting, sculpture, decorative art, textiles, and photography.
The Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western Art in Boulder, Colorado, exhibits the private art collection of Ed Trumble, Founder and Chairman of Leanin’ Tree, Incorporated, publisher of fine art greeting cards since 1949. Admission is free.
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center offers a multidisciplinary focus and includes the Taylor Museum, performing arts theatre, and the Bemis School of Art.
Foothills Art Center is a 35-year-old non-profit arts resource for Golden and the Denver Metro area as well as for the state, the Southwest, and for artists across the nation, through competitive exhibitions and invitational opportunities.
Born in 1869, Artus Van Briggle from an early age demonstrated a unique artistic gift. He eventually open a pottery studio in Colorado Springs, using local clays found in the Colorado Springs area. His work earned him many honors. Artus Van Briggle died in 1904, but his wife continued to operate the pottery company. Today, the factory continues to produce many of Van Briggle’s original designs, often in his turquoise Ming matte glaze. The factory offers free tours.
Located at 4801 E. Harmony Road in Fort Collins, the Swetsville Zoo is an outdoor art gallery filled with metal animal sculptures. Bill Swets, creator of the Swetsville Zoo, built them all from car parts, farm machinery and scrap metal. Admission is free, but they do take donations. To read about the closing and moving of the sculptures, refer to the link in the title of this entry.
The Koshare Indian Museum in La Junta is patterned after the Pueblo architecture found throughout the southwest, featuring the world's largest self supporting log roof and housing a collection of Native American art and artifacts.
Simpich Character Doll Museum is located in Colorado Springs. Simpich creates unique dolls, hand-crafted by skilled artisans. They are cast, hand-painted, and clothed at their workshops in Old Colorado City. The extraordinary Simpich Character Doll enterprise operated from this Old Colorado City building for nearly thirty years. Beautiful handmade figures were created here and shipped to points across the globe; and visitors were welcomed to tour the workshop areas where each character was painstakingly crafted. The Simpich Doll Museum features over fifty diorama exhibits from the early 1950s where the dolls were made in a tiny cottage in Manitou Springs through the mid 2000’s where the Simpich Doll operation peaked in artistry and complexity. Many exceptionally rare and one-of-a-kind figures are displayed, as well as creation processes, unusual memorabilia and family heirlooms. Many displays are scheduled to rotate to accommodate appropriate space for the nearly 500 distinct characters in the Simpich family’s collection, which remains the largest and most comprehensive in existence. The tour of the museum is free.
Featuring a selection of contemporary art, the Gallery is located at and operated by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
The University Memorial Center Art Gallery, located in UMC 225, exhibits a variety of visual offerings ranging from student works created on campus to presentations of internationally recognized artists. The UMC Art Gallery seeks to expose the CU and Boulder communities to the role that art plays in understanding the complexity of human experience and culture. The gallery's role is to educate as well as display high quality artwork. The UMC Art Gallery exhibits the work of area and national artists. The gallery presents seven shows per year; three each semester and one in the summer.