Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art is an art museum in Denver, Colorado, United States. The museum houses three principal collections and includes the original studio and art school building of artist Vance Kirkland (1904–1981). Kirkland Museum relocated to a new building at 1201 Bannock Street in Denver's Golden Triangle Creative District and opened to the public on March 10, 2018.
Vance Kirkland's studio and art school building (1910–1911), which is preserved as part of the larger Kirkland Museum, is the oldest commercial art building in Denver and the second oldest in Colorado (after the Van Briggle Memorial Pottery in Colorado Springs of 1908). The building was designed in a distinctive Arts & Crafts style by architects Maurice Biscoe (1871–1953) and Henry Hewitt (1875–1926). It was commissioned by Henry Read (1851–1935), one of 13 founders of the Denver Artists' Club, which later became the Denver Art Association (1917) and then the Denver Art Museum (1923). This building, originally located at 1311 Pearl Street, served as Read's Students' School of Art. Kirkland recounted that Read and other members used their homes and the Pearl Street building for meetings of the Denver Artists’ Club from 1911 until 1922 when this organization was deeded Chappell House (1300 Logan, razed 1970).
In January 1929, Kirkland became the Founding Director of the current School of Art at the University of Denver. In 1932 he resigned from the University of Denver when they would not grant credit for art courses toward graduation, and leased Read's Pearl Street property. He ran the Kirkland School of Art until 1946, with classes accredited by the University of Colorado (1933–1946), when he returned as Director of the Art School at the University of Denver, retiring in 1969. Kirkland had, by that time, purchased the 1311 Pearl Street building and used it as his personal painting studio until his death in 1981.
After his death, Kirkland willed his estate to longtime family friend Hugh A. Grant. In 1998, under the direction of Grant, construction began on an adjoining facility, adding 8,830 square feet to the original studio. Completed in 2000, the addition allowed for expanded exhibition space and visitor amenities, while maintaining the integrity of the original studio. Kirkland Museum opened to the public in April 2003 under Grant, the founding director and curator. On May 2, 2016, the museum temporarily closed to visitors to prepare to relocate to 12th Avenue and Bannock Street.
Vance Kirkland's studio and art school building is the heart of the Kirkland Museum experience. On Sunday, November 6, 2016, in partnership with Mammoth Moving & Rigging Inc. and Shaw Construction, the three-room Kirkland studio building was moved through the neighborhood via eight sets of remote-controlled articulating wheels to its new home eight blocks west at 12th and Bannock, where it is part of the new Kirkland Museum. Because of Vance Kirkland's studio & art school building, Kirkland Museum is listed as a member of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, along with the homes and studios of Jackson Pollock/Lee Krasner, Charles Russell, Georgia O'Keeffe, Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Burchfield, N. C. Wyeth, Grant Wood and others.
A new 38,500-square-foot building, designed by Jim Olson of Seattle-based Olson Kundig and funded by Merle Chambers Fund was built to house Kirkland Museum at 1201 Bannock Street in Denver's Golden Triangle Creative District. The new museum opened to the public on March 10, 2018.
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