Celebrate the partnership between Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Denver Art Museum on Tuesday with free admission, food, tours and a panel discussion.
There will also be art activations led by MSU Denver instructors Matthew Jenkins, Marin Abell and Michael Bernhardt as well as students from the 4D Foundations Class and Art Education program.
MSU Denver Night at the Denver Art Museum
Doors open at 4:30 p.m.
This event will feature free admission, food, games, prizes, tours by MSU Denver student interns and art activations by Art Department faculty members and students. There will also be a panel discussion with MSU and DAM representatives: “Decolonizing/Indigenizing the Art Museums.”
Panel information
MSU Denver has four student interns leading museum tours: Bridget Ebert, Rachel Brennan, Samantha Reinhold and Joy Saliu. Additionally, the panel will consist of Ebert and Brennan, as well as the following MSU Denver faculty members:
- Deanne Pytlinski, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the Art Department
- Cecily Cullen, director of the Center for Visual Art
- Jillian Mollenhauer, Ph.D., professor of Art History (panel moderator)
The panel theme, “Decolonizing/Indigenizing the Art Museums,” will center on the long history of museums’ practices in collecting and displaying art that are frequently rooted in a history of colonialism, cultural genocide and trauma. The DAM and MSU Denver’s Department of Art are committed to exploring ways to counter this problematic history and to making both the museum and the discipline of Art History inclusive, equitable and welcoming spaces.
“It’s important that we work to counter older narratives that marginalized, primitivized or erased certain cultures and traditions and to work with our communities to tell new stories that celebrate the diversity of art and creative endeavors across time and space,” Mollenhauer said. “We hope that this year’s panel discussion will promote new ideas about how we can further the important work that has already been done by both the University and the museum to achieve these goals.”
Free tours
Tours will take place in four galleries: Northwest Coast Hall, the Japanese Gallery, the European Art Before 1800 Gallery and the American Western Art Gallery. However, the whole museum will be open to visitors during the event, and attendees can wander around beyond the tour and art-activation spaces if they want.