Arts at DU
New canvases, new audiences
As a community of learners, we're passionate about the arts, and we're lucky to host the work of many talented creators. Whether you're interested in stagecraft, the visual arts, music or the performing arts, you'll have the opportunity to enjoy the work of luminaries from our local community and beyond.
We serve as a cultural hub for our entire city as we host hundreds of performances and exhibitions and thousands of visitors each year. Students and visitors like relish the opportunity to explore our beautiful gallery spaces and take in the excitement at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts, where world-renowned musicians, dance companies and performing artists share their craft for our students and the public.
Featured Exhibits
Both our anthropology museum and contemporary art gallery host special exhibits by local creators, students, faculty and renowned artists from around the world. We invite the community to join us in appreciating the work of these scholars and artists and in helping advance the conversation around the subjects that inspire them.
Our anthropology museum has featured exhibits such as "The He(ARTery) of Pregnancy and Baby Loss," a collection of work from the Scraps of the Heart project funded by DU's Public Good Award. Conceived by Professor Erin Willer from our Divisions of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the exhibit focused on the pain and subsequent healing process experienced by mothers who have lost young children.
We also hosted "The Chain of Perception in Black America," an exhibit by Ronnie Boykin Junior, an artist from Chicago. The production, presented by our Museum of Anthropology, took the form of a photo series illustrating the personal turmoil experienced by black Americans living with sustained prejudice in the national media.
Check back often to learn about other featured exhibits on the DU campus.
On Arts
Balinese Music on Campus
The Lamont School of Music’s Expanding Horizons Initiative brought a night of Balinese music and dance performances to campus. In preparation, students took part in a unit on the music and culture of Bali.
Catching Shadows
The DU archives are home to a rare set of photographs by Edward Curtis, the 19th-century artist and ethnographer known as the “Shadow Catcher.” Native Americans gave him the moniker after he photographed them.
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Hosting everything from nationally touring plays to guest speakers to musical performers of all types, the Newman Center helps maintain our status as a cultural hub of Denver.
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From jazz and classical to bluegrass and pop, our campus is never lacking opportunities to enjoy live music.
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From student plays to traveling productions, DU’s theater scene has remarkable breadth and depth.
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Students in our Emergent Digital Practices program put on a performance that effortlessly combines art, science and design.
Explorations
Drummers Teach Students
Students from Denver’s South High School received a rare opportunity when drummers from the Japanese group Kodo — in partnership with DU — performed and spent an hour teaching students from the school’s drumline.
Women of Postwar Art
Director of our museum-studies program Gwen Chanzit and two DU alumnae curated “Women of Abstract Expressionism,” the first museum exhibit to focus on female artists in the postwar art movement.