SAQA Visioning Conference, Denver 2011

My conference days were made even more entertaining by the fact of being in downtown Denver for a change.  Although not the most glamorous or fascinating city in the world, some of the older architecture remains, as well as flash new buildings.  I enjoyed wandering around in the urban environment.

Thursday was rainy and quite chilly.  The conference was held in the Brown Palace hotel, the lowest building in the center of this photo.

The Tremont Street entry has this elaborate carved sandstone frieze above the doors.

 I worked as a volunteer at the conference all morning, then headed south several blocks to the Denver Art Museum where I spent all afternoon soaking up the images in the museum galleries.

One of  Claes Oldenburg's terrific sculptures adds humor to the site.

The weather turned springy later in the weekend.  Trinity Methodist Church is a landmark across 18th street from the Brown Palace.

More of those graceful stone carvings adorn the church facade.

Friday evening we got up to Golden, Colorado for a tour of several galleries.  This rock formation looms over the main street of the town.

  Much of Denver is hard-edge modernism, which feels cold and uninviting to me...

 ...but does offer some pretty amazing photo opportunities.

I am beginning to get home sick for my little green island.