.jpg)
Inside Arvada
Inside Arvada is the City of Arvada’s official podcast where we bring you conversations with the people who make Arvada a thriving community. Hear stories about the past, present and future of Arvada through the lens of the City team members who help make it all happen. Explore the complex topics impacting our community and dig in to conversations about parks and sustainability, development, transportation, water resources and more.
Inside Arvada
New Public Art Is Taking Shape Across Arvada
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Sarah Kolb from the Arvada Arts and Culture Commission joins us to discuss some exciting public art projects coming soon across Arvada. We also break down how the Arts and Culture Commission selects artists, how residents can weigh in, and where to find a map of city-owned murals and sculptures.
Included in this episode:
- The Olde Town street murals are returning this fall after they had to be removed for street maintenance in the spring
- As part of one of the street mural installations, there's a community paint day planned for Sept. 12 during the Olde Town Shindig
- A new underpass mural coming to the Ralston Creek Trail near Long Lake Regional Park and 66th Ave. just south of the Arvada-Blunn Reservoir
- Arvada West High School traffic box art pilot project along Ralston Road
- A call for entry is open now through Oct. 4 for a new sculpture along Carr Drive near the Arvada Aquatics Center
- The Arts and Culture Commission's goal of bringing public art within 10 minutes of every Arvada resident
- A new interactive public art map available online and plans for a printed map
- Ways to participate by attending an Arts and Culture Commission monthly meeting or applying through CaFÉ
- The 150-250 short stories initiative using the city’s short story dispenser and local history prompt
News and events:
- Movies Around Town continues Friday, Aug. 21 with a free showing of "Little Shop of Horrors" at West Woods Park
- Vote in the People's Choice Movie Poll now to decide which film will be shown Oct. 9 at Clear Creek Valley Park
- New traffic signals are being installed at 64th and Easley, followed by 63rd and McIntyre. Both projects will require single lane closures, and possibly temporary full road closures near the work zones to ensure safe installation.
- W 72nd Ave restoration work is starting soon, with 4 to 5 months of construction to restore the section of corridor from Kipling to Oak that was not completed with a widening when the underpass portion of the project was canceled earlier this year.
- CDOT's bridge repairs at Kipling and Garrison are underway with overnight work, single lane and shoulder closures.
Visit us at arvadaco.gov/podcast or email us at podcast@arvada.org.
Welcome And Meet Sarah Kolb
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Inside Arvada Podcast, the official podcast of the City of Arvada. I'm Sean Starb, one of your hosts. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. Excited about this one. We have Sarah Kolb from the Arvada Arts and Culture Commission. Sarah is the director of marketing and communications for the Arvada Center. She started there in 2015 and she served on the city's Arts and Culture Commission for the past four years. She also hosts her own podcast called However Impossible. It's a podcast book club about Sherlock Holmes. And as always, I'm joined by my co-host Katie Patterson. Hi, Katie.
KatieHi, Sean, and hi Sarah. Thanks for being here. Thank you both for having me. Sean, I think you said it wrong. It's However Improbable. Yeah, I said impossible. Yeah. So correction already. Well, thanks for being here. So today we wanted to have you on because there's a lot of public art projects going on around the city. But before we jump into that, just tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do on the commission, and as our partner at the Arvada Center. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm an Arvada resident and get to be involved in the arts and culture community in the city in a number of different ways, both working at the Arvada Center and serving on the Arts and Culture Commission. Obviously, the Arvada Center does theater and music and education programming. And then it's been really amazing in the last couple of years to get to learn a lot more about how the city manages public art and the collection of art and how do we get murals and things across the city. So learning a lot more about those processes and working with artists, I feel really lucky to get to be really involved and enmeshed and learn a lot about how people connect with art across the community in all kinds of ways.
Old Town Street Murals Return
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of projects that the commission is working on that folks will notice here in the next six or so months. And so we're going to touch on those one by one, starting with street murals in Old Town that had to be removed in the spring for some street maintenance that to do some paving work there. But we're going to replace those murals. One along Grandview there, and then two um along Old Wads, kind of one uh north of 57th and one south of 57th. So where are we at in replacing those street murals in Old Town? And um, you know, what can folks kind of expect from them once they are complete?
SPEAKER_02Yes. So we're in a really exciting part of uh call for entry process to do public art. The Arts and Culture Commission, working with the Visitor Center and the Business District in Old Town, has chosen semifinalists for these three murals. So artists have applied and sent in portfolios to have the chance to get to do these really big, exciting, colorful murals that are going to be in a very used, visible space, right, in Old Town where lots of people are all the time. We're getting close to looking through proposals from our semifinalists. So artists are invited to develop a full proposal, really site-specific. They get a stipend, so covering the cost of their time and labor and that kind of thing. And so some folks from the commission and city staff and folks from the visitor center and from the bid will sit down and make some final decisions about what art is going to be coming to Old Town to replace those street murals. So the anticipation is very exciting because it's really cool to see what different artists with different backgrounds and styles are bringing and proposing is going to look really great in a space that lots of people are familiar with and visit every day.
SPEAKER_00Not only is it a very visible project, because a lot of folks go into Old Town, but it's a very collaborative project. Like you mentioned, been working with the Old Town Bid as well as the visitor center on this. And also we're inviting the community to be part of the installation of one of those murals, right? We're tagging on to Old Town Shindig on what Saturday, September 12th. That event's back in Old Town this year, doing a community paint day. So folks can come by and stop by during the Shindig and help install that mural.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So as part of the proposal for the largest of the street murals, which is going to be down along Grandview, the artists are asked to have some kind of interactive portion, which then people will be able to show up and participate in some way and help paint it. So it's really going to be a community-involved piece of art, which I think is really special, particularly for a community-focused space like Old Town. Um, and if folks remember, last year we worked on a mural that we call the Garrison Street Mural that runs along Ralston Creek. We did something very similar where we had a community pain day and people came and really participated in families and people in the neighborhood, um, which was really special. So I think that's something that we want to try to do a couple of times, you know, for other art projects, because it just makes it feel very interactive and I think connects people to the art in a really special way.
KatieAnd potentially to their neighbors and just all kinds of like building belonging and placing. Getting to know each other and feel proud of something that is in your
Community Paint Day At Shindig
Katiecommunity. So another one coming up is an underpass mural along Rawls and Creek Trail out by Long Lake Regional Park, where the trail goes under 66th Avenue. It's like right after it changes from 64th Parkway to 66th Avenue. Very confusing road, that road, but near the Arvada Blunt Reservoir. So tell us a little bit about that mural project.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So this is the fourth underpass mural that we've done in the last couple of years. The one near Garrison Street near that I just mentioned, there's one on near Quaker Street near Westwoods, and then there's one Laden Rock. So this is the fourth. And we're in the also kind of in a similar stage of the process where we're going to see sort of final proposals and be making some decisions about the final piece for that, which again is really exciting. I think that'll be done probably by the end of October or so. Uh scheduling murals is a little bit interesting because you have to have good weather to be able to paint outside. So we're hoping to get a lot of these big projects done by the fall before things get really cold and snowy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, just kind of stopping by some of the recent ones that you mentioned while they're being installed. It's just fascinating to see how those artists are able to take like their vision and kind of their sketch and actually apply it to like a canvas as unique as an underpass. It's just so unique. So I'm sure those folks who use the trail out there on the west end of town will eventually here soon see that being transformed.
SPEAKER_02And um, it's just uh I mean, cool experience to just riding your bike or, you know, walk along a trail and all of a sudden you get instead of plain concrete, you get to see some sort of thing that I really love about the underpass mural kind of idea that we've done a fair number of recently is I think it it integrates public art with something else that makes Orvada really special, which is the trail systems and parks and rec. And so many people use them and walk and do things with their families and ride bikes, and then doing that and being outside and then also getting to experience public art at the same time, I think is really special.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
New Underpass Mural By Long Lake
SPEAKER_00Um, so the next one we wanted to mention is a unique project that we're calling like a collaboration with students from Arvada West High School. They uh created some designs for the uh traffic boxes here along Ralston Road, I think from like about Old Wadsworth stretching west to about uh I think Sim Street. So there's about five of them. And um, tell us about that project. I think the commission kind of gave the students um some ideas and they kind of took it and ran with it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this, yeah, like you mentioned, it's a collaborative project with art students and graphic design students at Arvada West High School. And it came about it sort of inspired by a similar project that was done in Westminster. Someone on the commission works with Westminster Public Schools and saw them do something with their students. And then we felt it was a really natural thing to bring to our school systems right here. Um, students were asked to create original concepts around five themes, really thinking about the identity of Arvada and 150 years of Colorado and then those kinds of things. So there's one that's Colorado wildlife, wildflowers, outdoor recreation, Arvada history, and iconic buildings. It's the water tower, so it's really pretty. And then Colorado's 50th anniversary in America's 250th anniversary. So there are five different designs around those five themes, and they're beautifully printed, sort of wrapped around these boxes. And what I really love about this is I think it's a really wonderful way to let student artists and designers have their art really out in the world in a very professional way, um, which gives them that experience. It's obviously something to brag about and and part of a portfolio if they're going on to do those things in college or whatever. Um, really fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think by the time this comes out, hopefully those should be installed. I think right around now is when they should be installed. So very exciting.
KatieOh, cool. It's happening now. Yeah, present. Um, yeah, I love the youth engagement aspect too. And just like it's a little way to build someone's um experience early. Um and they're really beautiful. They did a really, really good job.
SPEAKER_02And they're all different and clever and these lovely patterns and things. I'm excited to see what's the first one.
KatiePeople that work at City Hall were right here by that. So that's indeed. Um that'll be cool to see.
Student Designs For Traffic Boxes
KatieUm, so then on the other side of the spectrum, there's a new sculpture project. And sculpture projects, and then you can kind of speak to us better than I can, are less frequent than the murals, a little harder to do. But it's gonna be along car drive, not car street, um, near the Arvada Aquatic Center, kind of between the pool and water elementary school there. So tell us about that sculpture.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So it the idea is it's gonna be a visual landmark, sculpture celebrating water, movement, and community, enhancing the identity of that neighborhood and that part of the city. And this is this the commission's first big sculpture call for entry. So we have spent a lot of time looking at how other cities run sculpture programs, looking at other call for entries, kind of developing best practices around this. There's a lot of legwork of developing the logistics of doing this kind of thing that is not as pretty as the art itself, but is really important. And the call for entry is open in August, and it's gonna be open until I think the first week of October is when it closes. And the runway for this is a lot longer than something like a mural because sculptures just take a long time to fabricate. Uh, you really have to give someone a lot of time and energy to be able to cast something out of bronze or whatever it might be. Um, they also just cost a lot more money. They're more the bigger commitments across the board. Um, so I think it's something that we'll certainly think of opportunities to do, but we want to be pretty selective about where and when sculptures are going because they're a commitment all around, but I also think really incredible pieces of art and sort of identity building characters for neighborhoods and things. We will have three finalists who develop concepts and then the community will really weigh in and help us select a final design. And we hope that that will be fall next year sometime that that will be finished.
KatieSo, this is my plug for our Vada's version of a Blue Cher. Maybe it could be water related. Like we could, you know, like someone could make this work. That's we need our own.
SPEAKER_00I went to the Rockies uh game. They did a drone show after the game, and one of the like items of that the drones made was Blue Cupers. Oh, there we go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was like, all right, that was there. It's just becoming part of like the zeitgeard. We we're not rolling any ideas out. Love to see them all.
SPEAKER_00Um you've touched on a little bit like the call for entry and that you're in the middle of you know, some artist selection processes.
New Water Themed Sculpture Call
SPEAKER_00And so how does that all work? How does the commission select an artist? How does the commission select a project? Give us the inside details on how this all works.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I a lot of the public art that we have worked on and done in the last couple of years are ideas or suggestions that have come from the community. So from neighborhood groups or community members who or or businesses, because oftentimes the business will say, I've got a great wall. I don't know how to go about finding an artist to paint a mural, help me out. But also people just pitching in and saying, hey, this underpass that I walk through every day would be a great place for a mural. Could would you be interested in considering doing that kind of thing? And it's the job of the commission to take those ideas and consider where else we have art in the city and where we've done things recently. Our goal really is to have public art within 10 minutes of every resident in Arvada. So there's a lot of public art concentrated around Old Town and the Arvada Center and along Ralston Creek, kind of central to things. So one of the goals we really have for the next couple of years is to be able to bring art more out east and out west and out north and kind of extend the reach of where those things are located as to the best that we can. Um, so that all of those things go into consideration when we're thinking about what projects make sense and where we want to prioritize our time. Um, so certainly sometimes we say, that's a great idea, but not right now, because we've just done a bunch of murals in this neighborhood. And it just seems like we want to be able to spread the love a little bit. And so once we kind of have uh uh narrow down a location, there's also a process to determine is the wall or the underpassing question, is it city property? Do we have to get a permit for it? A lot of back-end logistics that city staff work on to make sure that you can go ahead and put paint on it and it's gonna be all right. And then we do what's called a call for entry, which is a written information with a scope of work and the budget and that kind of thing that goes out on a number of platforms where artists look for those sort of things. There's a platform called Cafe, C-A-F-E, which is a major hub for posting calls for entry. And so that's one place we do it. But I know it goes up on city social media pages and the website and all kinds of things like that. And then we will have that open for a period of time. We'll select submissions and have a pool of potential artists who usually submit their portfolios. And then we go through and consider is the artist's style or experience or the scope of work going to fit with the space that we're talking about. And then, like I was talking about before, we'll usually narrow it down to three or four finalists. We ask them to do a proposal. And then that final jury where you're looking at their idea of here is a model of the wall and the mural that they're hoping to create. We uh tried our best to involve business owners and community members, people who live in the neighborhoods. You know, we did a mural at Majestic View last year. So a lot of staff at Majestic View were also involved in in picking that out because it just made a lot of sense. And then from there you make a final decision and get to tell someone yes, you get to get to go to town and do a mural. And that's always exciting. Yeah, that's cool. Right.
SPEAKER_00I'm glad you mentioned the Majestic View one because that one we didn't touch on yet, and that one turned out really well. And yeah, glad that you involve like the stakeholders too that are near these projects to have a lot of people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think the idea is you want people to feel excited and connected and proud to public art that's happening in their space now that it's just there and they're not don't have any reason for it to be
How Public Art Gets Selected
SPEAKER_02there. Yeah.
KatieSo then the last thing we wanted to touch on is the 150-250 short stories initiative. Um, this is something the city is doing to celebrate the state's 150 and the country's 250th anniversary, birthdays. What is it? How do folks get involved?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So the city owns this wonderful device called a short story dispenser, which maybe you have seen in businesses or city buildings or other places around the town. And it travels to different locations all around the city. It's a freestanding device, sort of looks like a, I don't know, like a dispenser that has these buttons on it. And you hit a button and select the length of story you want to read, and it spits out some free fiction for you to read wherever you happen to be. The idea is that it's surprising you with an art experience when you're waiting in line at the DFV or you're waiting for coffee or whatever. One of the cool things about this, so it's a database of fiction stories that inside of the dispenser that comes with the software with the thing, but you have the ability to submit your own. And we had been trying to think of how to do a contest or some kind of submission process for a while. And the anniversary of the state seemed like a great reason to test this out. So we're asking community members to share short stories that then get added to the library of stories that the dispenser has. And there will be a button on the dispenser, it's probably already there, I think, that says something like read local history. And so rather than a sort of random fiction story, it's going to share the story of people from our community. The prompt, the idea is really what does Arvada's history mean to you? But I think what we're interested in hearing is, you know, people's memories of living here or growing up here, people's hopes for the future, people's sense of, you know, memoir or or of identity around Arvada and what that means and sort of where we're hoping the next 150 years will take us. If you have have those ideas, even memories and things to share, I think we would love for them to be part of the short story machine. The submissions can be done through the website. There are also flyers and a bunch of places all over town. And we're accepting them through the end of the year. They've been up and running since June.
KatieThat's such a cool idea. I feel like our VATA has so much fun history that Sean and I can pull on for our trivia. It's fun to highlight a lot of the history. I'm learning it as I go a lot of the time. But there's so many people in this community that have like really strong roots here. And we a lot of our city team members that have come on have some of those roots. So I really hope folks take advantage of that and share some of that knowledge and also have them captured and documented in a way that totally still exists beyond us. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and we have a webpage for that, orvataco.gov slash stories. If you want the quick link there, we'll link in our show notes as well. So you can go on that webpage and then submit your story there.gov will land you to our public art page, and we have pages for each of these projects that we've already talked about. So if you can't exactly visualize all the ones that we're talking about, you can go on and you can check out kind of where the locations are for all these public art projects.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00We ask folks to address misconceptions or common questions. I don't know if you have any of those. If not, we can move on. Or I don't know if I do. Okay, let's move on. Let's go straight to Instagram. Uh we asked folks from, you know, what do they want to know about public art ahead of this episode?
The Interactive Public Art Map
SPEAKER_00First one's from Lisa Anderson. Essentially, one is there a list of public art items or pieces on the website? Would love to see pictures and locations to visit. And boy, do we have an answer for that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm really glad that someone asked this question because we have a really great answer, something that we've been working hard on. Um, there is an interactive digital public art map on the website that shows you where all of the public art in the city is located at Arvataco.gov slash art, like you just mentioned, that's where it's located. And there's a tab for all of the murals in our collection. So if you're doing like a mural walking tour, you can just track them all down and find them. And there's photos, there's information, sort of artist statements or information about the context and how they were developed and what they mean. Um, and then there's also a tab for the more permanent collection, which includes a lot of the like sculptures at the Urbata Center and and things that we did a whole project several years ago called the landmark exhibition, which was sculptures kind of installed all along Ralston Creek Trail just after COVID. And the city accepted many of those sculptures as permanent installations. So lots of them are there. So that's a great like you know, biking tour to track all of them down and see them and learn about them. And it's so it's a really cool tool that I think people should check out. And we're working on having a physical printed map with some information too, so that's something physical than people can pick up and carry around if that's something you would rather have than a digital map. That's in progress.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, such a cool tool. Um, like you said, it's a it's a GIS interactive map. So you can click on each piece, you can read about it, and then some of them even have external links to like the artist's page to learn more about the artist. So it's an important note is it's not inclusive of all the public art. Like, well, it's inclusive of all the city-owned art. Yeah. There might be like a mural that like a business commissioner paid for and it's not included on that map.
SPEAKER_02Yes, indeed. Yeah, it's it's just public art kind of managed by the city. I think our hope in the future is maybe to expand that to encompass privately created art, but maybe in public spaces. But we wanted to start with something manageable. And it's been a really good pilot, and I think is getting a lot of use so far. So we'll see where that goes.
How To Get Involved As Residents
SPEAKER_00All right. Another question we had was how does one get involved in public art in Uvata? And then we had a similar one, like as an artist, how do you get involved? And so if you could share maybe a little bit about how to get involved in the commission, and I know you have public meetings as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, the the first one that I will plug is of course to join the Arts and Culture Commission. Um, we're a really dedicated group of volunteers who are passionate about all arts and culture in the community. And I think applications for commissions are open in December, right? Is that how that works? Um, we meet once a month, and those meetings are also always open to the public. You know, we love to have people come bring ideas or public comment or share their reasons why they think public art is important or places we might want to bring some art. So also just drop by and and and share ideas with us. And I think like for the general public, not necessarily for artists, but really for everybody, just engaging with the public art that exists in our community. So going to check out the murals and the art that exists with the map or going to community events like Winterfest, which always has an art component and experiencing that and enjoying it and sharing why you enjoy it, I think helps everybody understand why those things are important and meaningful. And if you're an artist who's interested in applying for one of our calls for entry, really the best place to pay attention is that tool called Cafe that I mentioned, um, where calls for entry get posted. It's, I mean, a tool where calls for entry for all kinds of places, including your Vata Center and all kinds of other galleries and museums around the world. Post information. So that's definitely a place to check out. We do our best, I think, to get that kind of thing on social media and get the word out and make sure people know. So also following the city on Instagram and that kind of thing is a good place to find that stuff too.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I'm glad you mentioned that those uh arts and culture commission meetings are public because all of our boards and commission meetings are public. So it's a great opportunity to, if you ever want to talk to the commission members, you can go ahead and drop by those meetings and they're on you know our um meetings calendar on our website.
KatieOr just check it out before you apply. Like yes, totally understand a little what you're getting yourself into. Yeah. Yeah, it's really fun and fulfilling.
Ralston Creek Mural Plans And Ideas
KatieSo all right.
SPEAKER_00Final question from Lady Prism is do you plan to add more murals along the Ralston Creek Trail? We've done a lot recently, but do we have any more in the works?
SPEAKER_02Well, we talked about the the one coming to West Arvada near Long Lake. So that one's in progress. That'll be done probably by October, like we said. Um, I don't know if we have anything specific in the queue for Ralston Creek right now, but we're all always looking for ideas and suggestions. Like I was talking about, our goal is really to bring some kind of art experience within 10 minutes of everyone in Arvada. And the reason why a lot of the murals that we've done have ended up along Ralston Creek, it seems that they're a little bit concentrated there, is so many of those underpasses in those streets are city property. And so just the logistics of getting permission to be able to do murals on them is a lot easier and is sort of low-hanging fruit fruit in a lot of ways. Certainly there are many, many wonderful potential overpasses that might be operated by the state or the county or other things where that those logistics are a little bit harder. And so I think it just is easier for us to prioritize when we're doing projects more quickly, things that are already connected to the city. And it just makes that faster and easier. We always want and are looking for ideas for places to bring public art. So if you have suggestions along Ralston Creek Trail or even better, away from Ralston Creek Trail, you can share them with us and we would love to talk about them.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I think the one in Line Rock was a direct result of a community member reaching out saying, Hey, this would be a great place for a mural. And like a year later, there's a mural there. So all right.
Public Art Trivia With The Hosts
SPEAKER_00Uh, let's do some trivia.
KatieAll right. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Last time we did uh lightning round, we switched up the segment to include some trivia. And so this is all public art related. Um some multiple choice options. If you know the answer, let the other person guess. There's a chance you might know what it is. Uh according to the aforementioned pulpit art map, there are 26 city-owned murals in Arvada, many of them along trails and underpasses covering utility boxes, but there's only one that's atop a buried water storage tank. What park is this mural at? Is it at Westwoods, Thundercloud, Alice Suite Thomas, or Serenity Ridge?
KatieI have no idea. I mean, I guess Thundercloud. I think it's the first one, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_00It's Thundercloud. Yeah.
KatieSo that's I knew it wasn't the last two. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Thundercloud is uh Wadsworth and 72nd Avenue. They're kind of behind like the church there up on a hill. And so it's part of the landmark environmental art exhibit that the city and the culture commission did in 2021. There's a local artist by the name of Mark Bueno who installed um uh a work there. He did a huge like uh compass rose around the tennis courts that are on top of the water track. Um you gotta check out the art map to kind of see like the aerial of what it looks like. There's also all these like neat geometric figures around um the tennis courts for kids just to kind of play on and have some fun with. And so of all the projects I kind of looked at on that map, that one kind of stood out as being maybe the most unique. So all right, question number two. Uh perhaps the city's most well-known piece of public art is uh arguably call uh a brightly colored Casaurus named Squiggles, who I'm sure you're familiar with, Sarah, right outside the Arvada Center there. It's a great spot for kids to come play on, kind of as like a pseudo-playground. I'm getting at the question is how long is Squiggles? 100 feet, 250 feet, 343 feet, or 443 feet?
KatieWhat? That's so long.
SPEAKER_00I'm going G.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I don't know. Oh, 250. I think C.
SPEAKER_00That's right. 343 feet. So uh I do see her every day. Yeah, squiggles was created by uh Bill Gian Jean in 1997. It's considered the unofficial mascot of the Arvada Center. Uh we also have some uh stickers recently with squiggles on it. So come and grab one of those at the next uh event or festival that you're at. So if you haven't checked out squiggles, go go check it out.
SPEAKER_02Even if you're an adult, yeah. All right to climb on squiggles.
SPEAKER_00All right, question number three, last one. Um, there is an industrial-looking sculpture out at Gold Strike Park that might be mistaken for like a piece of infrastructure if you didn't know that. Any idea what the name of that piece is? Is it structural underbelly? Mining for gold, art imitates life, or industrial revolution?
KatieI know the answer to this one. I'm going mining for gold because it's gold strike park.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's it's structural underbelly. It was uh installed by Charles Parson in 2004 and is part of like a larger series with other similar-looking industrial pieces of art.
SPEAKER_02This um I Chuck Parson, who is a really incredible sculptor and painter and figure in the Denver art community, his son Colin Parson is the director of galleries at the Urbata Center. So this is cheating because Colin and I are a hostage.
SPEAKER_00So I believe uh the city is about to begin construction on redoing Gold Strike Park there. We're gonna leave the uh news there. And so cool. We're also gonna add like it sounds like a cool mural as part of the whole um new park there.
SPEAKER_02So pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Two out of three is not bad.
KatieThat's pretty better than I did.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Sarah, so much. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02Thank you both so much for having me. It's great.
Feedback Plus Events And Closures
SPEAKER_00All right, before we wrap up, wanted to mention that we love hearing feedback from our listeners. You can reach out by emailing us at podcast at arvata.org or texting us using the link at the top of the show notes. We love to hear feedback about what you enjoy, what you'd like to see differently, episode ideas, and more. Our movies around town series continues Friday, August 21st with a free showing of the film Little Shop of Horrors at Westwood Park. Get there early for free live music featuring James Hurtado before the movie starts around dusk. And speaking of our movies around town, you can now vote in our People's Choice movie poll to decide which film will be shown on our final movies event on October 9th at Clear Creek Valley Park. You can go to ArvataCo.gov slash movies to vote in that poll and also find out more details about our upcoming events. Uh, we also have some ADA improvements underway at the West Arvada Dog Park, and those are expected to be done by the end of September. As part of that project, the West portion of the dog park will be temporarily closed, but we'll keep the east side open. And you can learn more about impacts of that project on the city's website at arvataco.gov slash dog park.
KatieAnd carrying on with the construction theme, I have three more construction projects. Um, four, really. Uh, there's two new traffic signals being installed out west. One's at 64th and Easley. And then the second installation is planned for 63rd and McIntyre, same contractor. They'll be kind of doing them in tandem, moving back and forth between the two is the plan. There will be single lane closures and possibly a temporary full road closure near the work zones to ensure safe installation. And so we'll put links in the show notes to both of those project pages for more information. And um, the West's 72nd restoration work is starting up soon, um, as soon as the end of August for the next four to five months of construction to restore the section of the corridor from Kipling to Oak that wasn't completed with the widening when the underpass portion was canceled earlier this year. And so the team will work to restore the corridor, and that'll include the oak intersection, some sidewalk improvements in repaving, among other things. Um, and they will also be continuing efforts for the future of that section of the corridor to design the road widening project. And so stay up to date on that project at arvataco.gov slash w72nd 72ND. And there's a project email list you can sign up for for that project as well if you'd like updates. And then CDOT, the Colorado Department of Transportation, is doing bridge repairs at Kipling and Garrison along I-70. Um, and so underway right now is overnight work with some single lane closures and shoulder closures. But there will be a full closure of I-70, a weekend closure sometime in September. And during that closure at Kipling, traffic is going to be diverted on the Kipling Interchange and through the on and off ramps for I-70 before getting back onto I-70. And so that'll be um a relatively big impact if you use that Kipling Interchange. And so there's a project page that we'll link to from CDOT that we'll link in the show
Next Episode Tease And Fun Fact
Katienotes. Thank you again to our guest today, Sarah Kolb. Be sure to listen to our next episode with our city attorney, Rachel Morris, and she's gonna talk with us about all things public comment around land use cases. Today's podcast was recorded and edited by Arvada Creative Services.
SPEAKER_00And today's fun fact is that the city's public art collection includes 32 permanent pieces, so those are sculptures, as well as 26 murals.
KatieWhoa.