The Power of the RiNo

Since early 2006, RiNo has become known for its prestigiously professional art galleries as well as its brilliantly scheduled “Third Thursday Art Walk” promenades of Denver’s most well-respected creatives and critics. If Santa Fe’s art walk is a breezy summer beer stroll, RiNo’s pageant of people is a seasoned, wine-sipping strut where monthly displays of famous international artists blend seamlessly with Denver’s artistic establishment. Here, attendees are welcomed, but collectors are catered to. Some notable galleries in the district are Plinth Gallery which will host “The Slipcast Object,” a juried exhibition of contemporary slipcast ceramic work, through the month of April, and Hinterland Art Space organized by Denver notables Sabin Aell and Randy Rushton, who routinely exhibit a wide array of art, music, design, conceptual and performance pieces, and have been known to host both artist and community discussions, both formal and impromptu. A full listing of galleries and studios can be found at RiverNorthArt.com.

If gallery-going isn’t your ideal evening out, RiNo’s also blossomed to include some freshly minted entertainment ideas like The Source which describes itself as “collective of food artisans and retailers offering visitors everything from freshly baked bread, craft cocktails and street tacos, to contemporary flower arrangements.” The 15+ vendors and culinary outlets are housed under a single 1880s ex-brick foundry roof making the experience akin to an in- door street fair with less-than-casual dining prices. The merchants are as carefully curated as the neigh- boring gallery exhibitions and are an excellent way for one-stop-shoppers to get a taste of what makes Denverites tick: craft beer, sincere specialty shops, football photography, and fantastic food. Just up the street, Industry, a similarly minded collective slated to open its doors in May, promises to be Denver’s next hub for business, creativity, recreation, modern living, and dining as well as the business and creativity anchor of northern downtown. The unique blend of shopping, barista bars, dining options, and events are, like The Source, contained within one en- closed space, but here, it’s an art-deco ex-warehouse that’s been revamped and tricked out to revitalize the surrounding community in a new and youthful way — even Hickenlooper’s signed on to give the grand opening speech.

Although the RiNo district is proud of its fresh- faced approach to civic development, commerce, and culture there’s a tiny museum tucked away that honors the Denver of old: the Forney Museum of Historic Transportation. Potentially the area’s most charmingly charismatic addition, it’s named after its founder, initial operator, and most ardent advocate, the late Jack Forney, whose love of anything with gears is evidenced here by a museum that’s a veritable homage to the forgotten treasures of transit.

Modestly priced for a boutique museum, it features fresh exhibitions monthly as well as a standing collection of vintage automobiles, motorcycles, tractors, and fire engines. The extensive collection of pristine, un-played-with Matchbox Cars is itself a testament to the American love-affair with travel — an auto-chronology lesson in miniature. The museum features a restored Union Pacific steam locomotive and a Denver and Rio Grande Line Dining car from the golden age of railway glamour. The standing collection is home to Amelia Earhart’s 1923 Kissel ‘Gold Bug’ automobile as well as a beautiful — if uncomfortable-looking — ultra- vintage 1817 Draisienne Bicycle. Since it was travel, trade, immigration, and tourism that originally forged RiNo, this little-museum-that-could is a particularly well-placed gem.

All considered, RiNo evenings are potentially costly outings and its neighborhood grids can be difficult to decipher. Still, RiNo might just be the most recent refinement of our city’s still- maturing ideas of style, palette, imagination, and playground.