2012 Tourism Stars Announced by Visit Denver

2012 Tourism Stars:

Denver Art Museum for Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective and Becoming Van Gogh

In 2012, the Denver Art Museum (DAM) raised the national and international recognition of Denver as a major cultural center by hosting two unique blockbuster shows, both of which generated outstanding press and visitors from all over the world. Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective was a sweeping examination of the designer’s 40 years of creativity, featuring a stunning selection of 200 haute couture garments along with numerous photographs, drawings, and films that illustrated the development of Saint Laurent’s style. The exhibition was held in Paris and Madrid, before coming to Denver. The DAM was the only United States venue for the exhibition, which attracted a huge local, regional, national, and international audience, and also sold more than 1,000 hotel packages. The museum followed this up with the world-exclusive Becoming Van Gogh, an in-depth exploration of Vincent Van Gogh’s unconventional path to becoming one of the world’s most recognizable artists. The exhibition displayed more than 70 paintings and drawings by Van Gogh, along with works by artists to whom he responded such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Camille Pissarro. The show was wildly successful, selling out an unprecedented period where the museum was open for 40 hours straight for the final weekend. Together, these shows generated press around the world establishing Denver as a major center for the arts.

Denver Zoo for Toyota Elephant Passage

The largest project in the history of Denver Zoo opened to international acclaim, not only for its beauty, but for its sustainability. The $50 million, 10-acre exhibit contains six large animal habitats with more than 100 animal transfer gates managed from a control center, connecting two miles of trails for animals to explore. It can hold up to 12 Asian elephants, including eight male bull elephants, making it one of the largest of its type in the world. Toyota Elephant Passage is the first large animal exhibit complex in the country to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification at the Platinum level, the highest green construction certification available. Record-breaking crowds helped boost Denver Zoo (consistently the top paid attraction in Denver) to break the 2 million visitor mark for the first time, setting an all-time attendance record in 2012.

History Colorado Center

Imagine pairing History Colorado’s creative vision for storytelling through immersive, hands-on, high-tech exhibits and programs with a stunning and green-built 200,000-square-foot cultural facility designed by Denver firm Tryba Architects with a goal to create a modern-day museum experience that connects its visitors from what “was” to what’s “next.” That is the new $110 million, experiential History Colorado Center.

Visitors get a sense of Colorado’s diverse geography when they walk into the History Colorado Center’s four-story-high, sunlit Anschutz Hamilton Hall, where kids and grown-ups alike explore a 40-by-60 foot terrazzo tile floor map by pushing around a Jules Verne-inspired storytelling “time machine” on top of it. Inside its spacious galleries, immersive experiences abound that tackle a variety of topics, some serious and some fun, and all designed to spark a greater interest in both Colorado and history. Visitors of every age explore places like Keota, a dryland farming town from the 1920s; “drive” across the eastern plains in a real Model-T Ford; “yearbook” themselves with early 20th-century styles to post to Facebook; try memorizing a dynamite pattern in a Silverton hard rock mine before pushing the plunger; trade goods at Bent’s Old Fort with Chief Yellow Wolf and Kit Carson; learn how to soar off Steamboat Spring’s Howelson Hill in a ski jump simulator; and discover the heart, art and whimsy of the city of Denver, starting with “A for Adrenaline” and ending with “Z for Zombies.” During their visit, museum-goers may also catch a live performance, museum theater program or speaker, or even attend a workshop in the Stephen H. Hart Research Library. 

 

Since its April 28, 2012 debut, this signature cultural attraction and Smithsonian Affiliate has provided urban enhancement to downtown Denver’s Golden Triangle Museum District, brought food and retail to the area through its Rendezvous Café and museum store, and has attracted new and larger audiences while inspiring statewide tourism. Whether holding a special event, exhibiting Smithsonian or History Colorado artifacts, opening a new core exhibit or bringing in a major traveling show, visitors can expect that something new and exciting is always happening at the History Colorado Center.