Boulder Color comes together in support of city?s art scene

Business Report Correspondent

BOULDER — The fine art gallery owners of downtown Boulder are banding together to establish the city as a fine art destination locally, regionally and nationally, much like Santa Fe, N.M.

The new association, Boulder Color: Fine Art Galleries of Boulder, will work as a community for the community on several levels.

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“We want to recognize, acknowledge and support the visual arts and create opportunities for each gallery to prosper individually and collectively,´ said Dan Dangaran, gallery director at Dearborn Rieder Fine Art Gallery on the Pearl Street Mall. In addition, the association will assist new fine art galleries coming to the Boulder area and donate funds to non-profits furthering children’s artistic talents.

“Boulder Color will sponsor fund-raising, charitable events through a program called Future Color. Future Color will serve the needs of children as well as encourage the development of artistic talent and expression in those who have demonstrated artistic potential.

“Boulder has always been an ?art place,’ but now there is a new kind of energy with high-tech, high-salaried people who have moved into the area. They want to fill their blank walls with art,” Dangaran said.

“Pearl Street is strong,´ said Pam Gonacha, gallery director for Smith-Klein Gallery at 11th and Pearl streets. “Now is a good time to start an association like this. Everybody is energetic and has great ideas,” she said. Gonacha thinks the new association will collectively raise local and regional awareness of Boulder as a hub for art.

Boulder Color will promote the city’s art scene by reinstating a weekly art walk, called First Friday, beginning May 4, and by publishing a guide to the fine art galleries in downtown Boulder. Association members will feature new arts or present special events at their galleries on the first Friday of each month and remain open until about 9 p.m. so visitors can stroll from gallery to gallery.

Susan Knickle, manager of MacLaren Markowitz Gallery at 10th and Pearl streets, said the guide will include a one-page description of the nature and character of each gallery and a map showing its location. About 20,000 gallery guides will be printed and distributed to hotels, airports and other outlets where out-of-state and out-of-town visitors will find them. Copies also will be available at the fine art galleries so Boulder residents and local visitors can gallery hop.

“The goal is to make art accessible to everyone,” she said.

Each gallery in downtown Boulder offers something different. Smith-Klein Gallery, for example, exhibits an eclectic selection of more traditional art in glass, sculpture, paintings and jewelry. “We carry the work of some of the foremost glassblowers in the world,” Gonacha said.

MacLaren Markowitz Gallery has a nice mixture of contemporary paintings, sculpture and jewelry, according to Knickle.

Dangara said Dearborn Rieder exhibits only fine art. “Our media include paintings and sculpture, bronze limited editions, one-of-a-kind stoneware, acrylics on canvas and handmade paper, oils, watercolors and fine art photographs.” The gallery’s motifs are eclectic, comprised of realistic bronze animals, impressionistic watercolors and others.

Paintings inspired by prehistoric French cave art are a major feature of the gallery. Alison Dearborn Rieder, co-owner of the gallery and owner of Artesanias home furnishings, is the artist.

Dangaran said Kent Rieder, co-owner of Dearborn Rieder Fine Art Gallery initiated the first meetings to found the association last January. “He met with the owners of Art & Soul Gallery and Boulder Gallery Artcycle, and they decided to invite all the local galleries with a focus on offering fine art to form an association,” Dangaran said.

At the moment, the group consists of eight members: Art & Soul Gallery, Boulder Gallery Artcycle, Dearborn Rieder Fine Art Gallery, Henington Fine Art, MacLauren Markowitz Gallery, Mary Williams Fine Arts, Smith-Klein Gallery and The Boulder Art Gallery.

Each member contributes financially to support the association, pay for the gallery guide and get the Future Color program going.

According to Dangaran, one member of the association said, “Something great wants to happen here in Boulder. A wave of artistic energy is building. Beauty wants to enliven, heal and support Boulder and the people who come here. Boulder Color is an important part of that wave.”