owlmoose | Day of arty things

Today I have been immersed in art, architecture, and city planning. We didn't make it to the art museum in the morning, or rather, we did, but it was closed and wouldn't be opening for two hours. So instead we decided to check out some of Denver's public art, notably the Big Blue Bear (not his real name) who peers into the big windows of the conference center. (The artist, Lawrence Argent, spoke to us on Saturday morning, it was a really fascinating presentation.) Then, after a side trip to an excellent bookstore, I sat in on probably my favorite session of the conference so far, a presentation on problems of city and land-use planning in the Mountain West and in Denver in particular. One of the speakers was Denver's city planning manager, and he was a fantastic speaker -- engaging, funny, informative. That was followed by a talk on the design of the new addition to the Denver Art Museum, which was a good mix of speakers: an architecture librarian who gave a critical overview, one of the architects who worked on the building, and a museum educator who works there now. This would have interested me pretty much any time, but it was especially great today because our dinner was a party in this same museum, and I really enjoyed having some context for the space.

I am kicking myself for forgetting to bring a camera.

Also, I miss my kitties.