Responding to extinction Denver Botanic Gardens hosting ‘Extinction, Artists Respond’ Gene Davis, DDN Staff Writer Monday, June 1, 2009
Regan Rosburg’s “Catharsis” is part of the “Extinction: Artists Respond” exhibit that’s going on now at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Extinction is on the mind of the very much alive Denver Botanic Gardens this summer.

The Botanic Gardens is featuring several extinction-related activities and exhibitions, with “Extinction: Artists Respond” being the highlight. The exhibit, which was juried by Ivar Zeile of Plus Gallery and Simon Zalkind of the Mizel Arts Center’s Singer Gallery, is a creatively assembled selection of works that focuses on extinction in a broader sense. Seventeen artists were chosen for the exhibit, which goes beyond looking at plants to include people, industry and a beloved but dying car model within its scope.

“We are working very hard to engage people within the art community and artists themselves to make sure that they are at the gardens and understand who we are and what we are trying to do,” said Lisa M.W. Eldred, director of exhibitions at the gardens. “We also want to provide a voice for (the artists) to comment on something like extinction.” 

The Denver Botanic Gardens has a research and conservation department that works to protect plant life. According to Zalkind, it was important for the gardens to let people know that they are taking steps to avoid the extinction of different plant species. The gardens brought in the large “Jurassic Gardens: Evolution and Extinction” exhibit to help bring awareness, and then opened other exhibits and activities — including “Extinction: Artists Respond” — to dive further into the extinction theme. 

“I think art being a visual language, often it speaks quite strongly in ways that words can’t,” said Eldred. “In that way we can address a large cross section of our visitors and it might prompt them to do their own research to find out who we are and what we do here at the gardens.”

Where: Denver Botanic Gardens

When: Through July 26

Information: 720-865-3500, BotanicGardens.org

Add a new comment... Spammers: links do not work and our site gets monitored for spam daily and your comments will be removed -- please do not spam our site!

Your Name:

Your Email:

Title:

Comments:

Please copy the characters from this image into the box below. All characters are either numbers 1-9 (not zero) or letters (upper and lowercase). If you cannot read this image, you can click it to try a different image (most browsers). Otherwise, submit the page anyway and try again.

Image Text: