Expecting the Unexpected at DAM’s Untitled Series
A DJ is spinning the latest beats. Trippy images are being projected on the wall. Hipsters are milling about, sipping cocktails and looking effortlessly cool. An indie rock band is playing in the next room. There’s a performance artist in the freight elevator. No, you haven’t stumbled into a here-today-gone-tomorrow underground art gallery/music venue. You’re at the Denver Art Museum, the crown jewel of the Mile High City’s esteemed and burgeoning art world.
During most of the month, DAM functions as the world-class art museum it appears to be on the inside and out. But on the final Friday night of every month, things get a little bit looser – and a little bit weirder – thanks to the museum’s groundbreaking Untitled events.
“After the new addition to the museum opened, we started thinking about how we could create an experience at the Denver Art Museum that would be relevant and meaningful to a young adult audience,” says Sonnet Hanson, who plans Untitled each month. “So we started looking at the types of experiences one might expect to have in a museum in a different way. In that sense, it’s rule breaking. Because you don’t expect to walk into a gallery and see a life drawing model and you get to sit down and make a sketch. Or you don’t expect to draw a word out of a fishbowl, stick the word on your stomach and start creating sentences with other people. You don’t expect to see movies being projected on the ceiling. The newcomer should expect the unexpected.”
Each month’s Untitled event has a unique theme that connects back to DAM’s collection in ways that are thoughtful, whimsical and illuminating. “There’s usually what we call a ‘Detour’ that’s sort of ‘untouring’ the tour experience,” Hanson says. “We invite experts from outside the realm of art history to lead tours of our collection through the lens of their profession. For [the first Untitled event] Vertigo we had a neurologist lead a tour. So he wasn’t talking about the works or art as works of art, but literally what you’re experiencing in your brain as you’re looking at the work of art. We’ve had a Jungian psychologist lead people through interpretations of paintings if someone’s dream was that painting. It was fascinating – it let people off the hook from talking about the work of art as a work of art. There was no intimidation factor.”
Music also plays a big role in Untitled. Local rockers like the Hot IQs have played and DJs are always spinning in the museum’s lobby. An unconventional orchestra called Unstaged even showed up one night. “They’re all about taking down the barriers between performers and the audience,” Hanson says. “So they invited people to sit in that rarified space that is the orchestra pit. So you’ve got people sitting next to the first violin and that bow is going right by their nose – it was really cool. And they composed a circular piece, where they looped their instruments and invited people to come up and conduct the loops – they’d bring up the clarinet or bring down the cellos. It was magical.”
Indeed, audience participation is encouraged at Untitled – if not required. At February’s event, “Anomaly,” visitors were encouraged to create their own anomaly by decorating rubber ducks in whatever manner they choose. Unlike an average trip to the museum, you’re not just viewing art – you’re becoming part of it as well.
“The vibe is a great one,” Hanson says. “We’ve been seeing different kinds of people, different ages, people with small children. The majority of our audience is in our target age group – 18 to 35 years old, but that doesn’t mean it’s not relevant to a lot of different people. When you walk in the door, it feels like there’s a good flow of people, and it’s animated by all these sounds and activities. It feels instantly like there’s something different going on.”
Admission to Untitled is included in general admission to DAM. Students presenting valid IDs receive 2-for-1 Museum admission when tickets are purchased on-site. For more information on the next Untitled event, head to untitled.denverartmuseum.org.