The Center on Colfax Celebrates 45 Years

On Saturday, the Center on Colfax celebrated its 45th anniversary with a gala held at the Asterisk Denver.

The event’s theme was “The Art of Community,” and the evening featured works of local artists paying homage to LGBTQ icons.

“For the last 45 years, we have had so many people, artists, and things come together to make what our programming is today, so we decided to focus on the community aspect,” Events Director John White says. “Obviously, we are still in the middle of a pandemic, so people are trying to celebrate any way that they can, so we wanted to celebrate that piece of it.”

In addition to a live string orchestra and aerial artists hanging from the ceiling serving champagne, different installations were set up throughout the venue of artists who have worked with The Center for many years, like Lonnie Hanzon.

“Lonnie has always done the creations of the art installations at our Pride festivals, and he still has a lot of these art pieces and pieces of sculptures at his studio, so we have been cleaning them and refurbishing them to recreate important things from the last five Pride festivals,” White says. “He made this gigantic wedding cake when marriage equality happened, there was an exhibit on Stonewall, and there is one that focused on the Pulse shooting because our Pride festival took place five days after that.”

The virtual fundraising event benefitted The Center’s core programs, which serve a wide variety of LGBTQ people from the Denver community. Programs include Rainbow Alley, Denver’s only drop-in center for LGBTQ youth and young adults ages 11–21; SAGE of the Rockies, which offers social, recreational, and educational activities for older LGBTQ adults and allies; and the Transgender Services Program, which provides weekly social and support programs for transgender and nonbinary individuals.

Awards were also handed out to individuals who have made an impact on The Center over the last 45 years.

“Basically, we took each program that we offer at The Center and picked a recipient from each of those departments,” White says. “Our Pride In Business Award was given to Triangle Denver because they have partnered so well with The Center and Denver Pride, while our Visionary Award was given to Alexis Chavez, who is the head of the VA hospital in Aurora and kind of a pioneer in the trans community, as far as medical.”

White, who has been an employee with The Center for three years, initially started as a volunteer eight years ago. He says he is amazed by the organization’s growth and impact.

“The Center is an amazing thing that started with five individuals,” he says. “They are the ones who kind of laid the groundwork to where we are today. It went from being an organization working out of someone’s house, often one bedroom, where volunteers would come in, get on the phones, and go to different things protesting for our rights and freedoms, and fast forward many, many years later, here we are in our own building on our own property serving populations through all our different programs. It evolves every five/six years because there is always a need in the community, and we want to act as the conduit that can help bridge all the gaps between all the other LGBTQ nonprofits. We want to be able to provide a space that everyone can contribute, share ideas, hold meetings, have support groups, that type of thing.”

For more information about The Center and volunteer opportunities, visit their official website. Highlights from the gala will be archived on The Center’s YouTube channel, and more photos from the evening can be seen below.

Photos courtesy of Nicky Fleming