Three Denver installations honored during arts convention

Three Denver Arts & Venues projects were honored during the Americans for the Arts annual convention in Denver.

The honors are part of the Public Art Network Year in Review program, the only national program that specifically recognizes the most compelling public art chosen by a panel of public art experts.

“To be recognized by Americans for the Arts Public Art Network for three of our projects is an incredible honor,” Denver Arts & Venues Executive Director Kent Rice says. “It’s evidence of the strength and dedication of our Denver Public Art team, our public art selection panel and the artists, designers and fabricators involved with each project.”

The projects that were honored during the convention were:

• The RAW Project Denver, which engaged more than 30 artists to paint exterior walls of Villa Park and Sun Valley elementary schools — Eagleton, Cowell and Fairview. Community members, teachers and students also participated, and artists went into classrooms to talk about the creative process.
• Sky Song, an interactive installation designed and fabricated by Denver artists Nick Geurts and Ryan Elmendorf. The mirror-polished stainless steel 8-foot structure invites passersby to press any combination of its 33 buttons, which activate lights and tones on the Levitt Pavilion amphitheater building facade.
• Ascent, a musical composition composed by Kevin Padrowski for the Denver City and County Building’s bell tower.

“The best of public art can challenge, delight, educate and illuminat,” Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert Lynch says. “Most of all, public art creates a sense of civic vitality in the cities, towns and communities we inhabit and visit.”