Talk about the kindness of strangers. You’ve got to hand it to the folks in the Riverfront Park neighborhood who went to Judy Anderson at PlatteForum — the Central Platte Valley non-profit gallery that pairs at-risk youth and working artists — with an offer she couldn’t refuse, not no way…

This is it. Absolutely, completely it. Local brainstormer and design guru Jaime Kopke is heading off to grad school, and after this month, her hands-on Denver Community Museum (for which ordinary people and artists alike were challenged to submit artifacts on a theme for a public show) will be a…

Claire Walter and Laura Daily are lifers when it comes to reporting, a dangerous prospect these days. So was laid-off Atlanta journalist Jennifer Maciejewski, who struck marketing gold when she started a blog called Atlanta on the Cheap and soon realized that the concept had had overgrown its sweet Georgia…

Swallow Hill’s Shady Grove Picnic Series at Four Mile Historic Park is surely one of those hidden gems of summer: It’s laid-back and easy, cheap for families and full of great music and musicians, most of them also hidden gems and many of them locals. The music begins at 6:30…

One of the longest running musicals on Broadway, Rent succeeded because it was a true rock opera, based on one of the most beloved classical operas of all time, Puccini’s La Bohème. Fast-forwarded in time to the struggling, AIDS-haunted arts community camped out on New York’s Lower East Side during…

Betsy White and her husband, Bob, are the entrepreneurial brains behind Bad Art for Bad People, a kind of lowbrow road show that chooses to show hipster art in alternative venues. And so far, things have been good for Bad Art. There’s clearly a call for celebrating underground culture in…

Ever since Glendale decided to buff up its image by building the first rugby stadium in the nation, the rough-and-tumble sport has gotten new respect in these parts — so much so that the 2009 Churchill Cup, North America’s premier match-up, will take place here this month, with preliminary matches…

Denver has a real Beat/underground past, and no one preserves that lore better than poet/actor/artist/character Ed Ward, whose roots in the town’s cultural scene go very, very deep. That makes him a great spokesman for the three-day series of events tied to the June 5 opening of Mile High and…

In addition to putting on an off-the-wall performing arts carnival each summer, the Boulder Fringe Festival also hosts a resident performing group — and now that group’s C.R.A.B. (Constantly Risking Absurdity, Baby!) salon has morphed into Crabaret, a monthly show that premieres tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the b.side lounge,…

There’s little out there that’s sexier than salsa dancing, except maybe the delightfully lurid tango, which shares some Latin roots. And Denver, like any multi-ethnic city worth its #10 Scoville-rated habanero juice, is lucky enough to have a tight little salsa community that kicks up its heels to the clavé…

The story of how world-class violinist MinTze Wu, who’s delicately wielded her instrument to play classical and folk fiddle music from her native Taiwan to the wild shores of Newfoundland, ended up living in Lyons a couple of years ago must be a whopper. But more important is what she’s…

Flip Orley first saw hypnotism as a tool for a lovesick tween who wanted to invite a girl to a dance. The impressionable lad found a disreputable tome on how to pick up girls with hypnosis that was, he notes, “not well written or very accurate.” But you know how…

Some hundred works from the artist’s own collection will go on display at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center when The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, a touring exhibition, opens with a reception May 29 from 5 to 8 p.m. And when CSFAC spokesman Charlie Snyder says this will be…