Over the past two decades, the Arvada Center galleries have emerged as the most important showcase for Colorado artists, taking that mantle from the region’s larger art institutions that have largely focused their (locally funded) resources on major exhibitions featuring outside voices.
And it has done so with relentless gusto, using its massive exhibition spaces to produce a multitude of shows that have defined the careers of individual artists while also creating a historical record of what this state has produced artistically over the last half-century. It is important work that no one else does.
Collin Parson has produced more than 250 exhibitions during his 20 years at the Arvada Center. (Provided by the Arvada Center)The center is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with an exhibition that looks back at the highlights of its programming. The show is a colorful timeline recalling the center’s greatest hits and quirkiest moments. It’s both sentimental and exciting.
The person behind the center’s operation is long-time director and curator (and Colorado art hero) Collin Parson. The big anniversary seemed like a good opportunity to ask him to look back — and forward.
Q: Can you give us some quick background? We know you as both a busy artist making local shows and as a curator.
A: I grew up in a Denver house full of artists. My father, Charles Parson, is a multidisciplinary artist, and my mother, Evalyn, was a modern dancer. They met at the Changing Scene Theatre in downtown Denver, and both parents actively helped develop the local art scene we know today.
I grew up around my father’s peers (Clark Richert, Dale Chisman, Margaret Neumann, Robert Mangold and Dave Yust, to name a few) and followed in my parents’ footsteps. I’ve been an active visual artist for over 20 years, balancing my art practice with my role as a full-time curator and a father.
Each role has its own unique challenges and fulfillments, but at my core, I have to keep making and creating.
Q: Can you briefly explain the mission of the galleries?
A: The Arvada Center galleries are special. A few years ago, we added the tagline “Home of Colorado Artists” to the galleries. Since opening in 1976, we have been an important institution featuring the best artists in the region. As curator, my goal is to create exhibitions for our artists that provide them with the freedom to experiment and get excited about new ideas, and expand the idea of what art is and can be for our patrons.
I’m often guided by my dual identity as an artist and a curator. I ask artists what they are excited to share, collaborating with them to decide the best way to present their artworks. Sometimes this leads to more experimental installations, like Patrick Marold building a circular forest of 40-foot-tall pines in the main gallery, or Sue Oehme stringing up hundreds of rainbow monotypes in the foyer.
With my background in sculpture and installation, these huge, first-time installs excite me, and local artists get to experiment in ways that aren’t always possible in other galleries.
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A: Our three galleries span over 10,000 square feet and we have a 17-acre sculpture field, all free to the public. I love to connect the gallery spaces conceptually — linking the three spaces is a fun curatorial challenge, and it deepens the visitor’s experience to explore a single concept from different angles or through the work of different Colorado artists.
A scene from exhibtions past: Sue Oehme’s installation of hundreds of rainbow monotypes set up in the Arvada Center’s foyer. (Psrovided by the Arvada Center)Sometimes it’s one all-encompassing exhibition like our triennial “Art of the State” exhibition with over 140 artists; sometimes it’s a series of three individual exhibitions linked by theme or material,
Q: How many years have you been there, and how many exhibitions have been produced during that time?
A: I began my career here in 2005 shortly after assisting my father in installing his own exhibition (“Landscape Sonnet,” 2004). The Arvada Center hired me as an art installer, and I worked my way up to exhibition designer, then exhibition manager, and now to the director of galleries and curator. Since 2008, I have curated 150-plus and produced 250-plus exhibitions. I rarely get a chance to look back and reflect; once one show opens, my brain is deep into the next, and the one after that, and the one after that.
Q: Do you ever have tense moments there when you think a show that you planned won’t happen?
A: I don’t have the option of a planned show not happening. There is no “it’s not going to work,” only “how will we make it work?” I plan far in advance and pride myself on consistent, clear communication with the artists involved to work through any issues that come up. Our art scene is wildly supportive, and I’ve built relationships with countless artist experts I can call if I need help figuring out how to solve a surprise issue in an installation or if I suddenly need to fill empty space.
Q: What is the biggest challenge of your job? It can’t be all pretty pictures all the time.
A: I’m glad it’s not always pretty pictures. Art makes us slow down — it makes us contemplate our place, our environment, our culture, and the time we occupy. With that in mind, the biggest challenge is the constant churn and burn of exhibitions. We’re a small team (only two of us full-time, me and exhibition manager Olive Jarvis) with a huge space, which means we constantly have to look forward. We aren’t planning one new exhibition every three years — we are planning 12. In one day, you can have meetings on the present, the near-future, and the far-future.
Q: Can you talk about some of the exhibits you think have been particularly important in the gallery’s history?
The Arvada Center has been producing art exhibitions since 1976. (Provided by The Arvada Center)A: The early exhibition “Imagination Celebration” in 1978 was a moment to say “this is who we are,” and it established our identity as a large, cutting-edge regional arts center that looks forward and not backwards. “Imagination Celebration” featured a massive inflatable sculpture installation on the side of the new building. I’m bringing a sister piece of this exterior installation into the galleries this fall by the artist Richard Miles.
“Colorado Abstraction” (1999), curated by former director and curator Kathy Andrews, featured some of the most important regional artists working in that field, and we followed that up with “Colorado Abstract +10” in 2019, tracing the evolution of the state’s artists working in abstraction over three decades.
Notable exhibitions in my tenure include some of our large retrospectives by Colorado’s most impactful artists, including Dave Yust (2008), Robert Mangold (2012), Virginia Maitland (2018), Roland Bernier (2021), Floyd Tunson (2022), Emilio Lobato (2023) and Melissa Furness (2025).
Artist Patrick Marold created a circular forest of 40-foot-tall pine trees at the Arvada Center galleries in 2021. (Provided by the Arvada Center)Q: Now tell us a few of your personal favorites.
A: In 2014, the Arvada Center supported an idea I had to fill the undeveloped field just south of our building with sculpture. In one day’s time, we installed 17 artworks. On your way to work, it was an empty field; on the way home, a field of sculpture.
“Sculpture in the Field” currently features 35 sculptures by 25 Colorado sculptors. The idea seemed natural to me — much of my younger days were spent developing a family art retreat in southern Colorado, a 115-acre expanse dotted with my dad’s sculptures and DIY cabin builds nestled throughout arroyos and piñon pines. There were no paths, leaving artworks in the landscape for people to stumble across unexpectedly.
A few of the others that I’m rather proud of are “inSITu” (2018), an exhibition that featured artists’ studio chairs placed in front of their pieces, and “In Sight On Site” (2018), a mural exhibition in which artists transformed blank wall panels into large-scale artworks on-site over the course of a month. And lastly, “I Regret to Inform You” (2024) revealed the stories behind rejected public art proposals from many of the most successful artists in our state working in public art.
Q: I’m a fan of the new exhibit marking the center’s anniversary. There are so many dates and exhibitions that are singled out along the timeline.
A: My team and I worked very hard to create the 50th anniversary timeline exhibition. Curatorial assistants Maddie Sturm and Mateo Castillo researched our archive to compile a list of all past exhibitions. (For some reason, 1979 had no records. Sorry, 1979.) I worked very closely with our graphic designer, Hannah Powers.
Some of my favorites are John David Rigsby (1977), an exhibition we’ll be revisiting this fall as part of the 50th celebration. We included highlights like Carlos Frésquez’s “Zoot Suit en los Rockies” as part of 1985’s “Imagenes: A Survey of Contemporary Chicano Artists from Colorado,” and Luis Jimenez’s “Mustang,” as part of 2005’s “Pressing the Limits” exhibition.
Hannah came to me saying that we needed to edit down the timeline content, so I promptly added 50 “Did You Know” call-outs (sorry, Hannah). Lastly, our videographer, Collin Sanders, produced a video featuring past curators and staff to share their stories.
Q: What does the future of the Arvada Center galleries look like to you?
The Arvada Center’s “Sculpture in the Field” features 35 works, 25 of them by Colorado artists. (Provided by The Arvada Center)A: We continue to celebrate, support, and exhibit the artists of our time and place. These are the people who define our culture, and I hope the Arvada Center continues to be that place. We live in a strange time with many unknowns, and I want the Arvada Center to be somewhere everyone feels like they belong.
I’d also love to see the sculpture field fully developed into a welcoming sculpture garden, with paths and wayfinding.
Q: What is one question you wish we had asked?
A: My dual identities as an artist and a curator are constantly feeding off of each other. Some of my more inventive exhibition ideas center on the artist’s experience rather than the artwork. “I Regret to Inform You” focused on the impact of rejection in the art world, and “Family Ties” explores the creative connections and influences across generations. As a working artist, my creative practice informs and strengthens my curatorial approach, and I’m grateful that the Arvada Center recognizes the value of having an artist serve as curator.
IF YOU GO
“50: A Half-Century of Art” continues through Dec. 31 at the Arvada Center galleries. It’s free. Info: 720-898-7200 or arvadacenter.org.
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