Nearly two years stuck in our homes have made us wishful for the adventure and entertainment. Fortunately, while we’ve been hiding out, classic attractions, from mountaintops to rooftops, have been transforming themselves, making the old new again, in anticipation of our return.
Here’s a list of ways to explore Colorado that our team at Corken + Company feels everyone needs to check out.
Aspens Snowmass Finally Glows Up
Aspen is known as the playground of the rich, while neighboring Snowmass is where families go for a “bargain” ski holiday. But capital investments of $600 million over the past six years have given a Botox-like injection—including chic lodges, elevated dining, and a new entertainment complex—to a beautiful village that just needed a little lift.
The old Westin Snowmass Resort and Wildwood Snowmass hotel into two new luxury properties: Viewline Resort Snowmass and Wildwood Snowmass. Both resorts, perched midmountain, offer upscale dogs to midcentury design and history. Other amenities include a spa, fine dining, and a kids club! Also the breezeway connecting the hotels means you’re never too far from whatever vibe you like best.
Artful Update at Denver Art Museum
When the Denver Art Museum reopened its Lanny and Sharon Martin Building this past October, the museum made clear its ambition to be a preeminent culture hub. Here are some of the new exhibitions and those refreshed, coming from all over the world.
ReVisión: Art in the Americas
The DAM’s world-class collection of Latin American art made the decision to display this exhibit (open through July 17) on the Martin Building’s first floor a no-brainer. As the Frederick and Jan Mayer curator of Latin American art, Jorge Rivas Pérez says the difficult part was selecting artifacts that reflect the diverse, contested, and overlapping histories of a region that stretches from the Bering Strait to the Southern Cone. The exhibit begins with objects highlighting pre-Columbian connections to the land, weaving together history and contemporary issues related to colonialism and exploitation, as well as belonging and displacement.
Gio Ponti: Designer Of A Thousand Talents
Designed by famed Italian architect Gio Ponti, the 210,000-square-foot Martin Building opened in 1971. But to call him a mere architect would belie the breadth of his creativity, says Denver Art Museum (DAM) curator of architecture and design Darrin Alfred. Beyond the building itself, on view will be objects from the museum’s architecture and design collection, including a desk, an armchair, flatware, and ceramic dinner plates designed by Ponti.
Escape To: The ’20s By Visiting Oxford Hotel
Oxford Hotel: Although the Oxford Hotel first welcomed guests in 1891, it transformed its decor from Gilded Age glam to an art deco extravagance. This transformation was worthy of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel in the 1930s. For the second year in a row, patrons can swing into the Jazz Age with a 1920s-themed package (starting at $5,000 for two people). This is the Bee’s Knees, which offers one night in the presidential suite; dinner for two at the Oxford-attached Urban Farmer steakhouse; private mixology classes focusing on Prohibition-era cocktails; two luxury spa treatments; and a $2,000 shopping spree at the Vintage Label at LoDo’s Dairy Block.
Below are a couple of show options to pair with your night at Oxford.
Tootsie
March 29 to April 10, The Buell Theatre
Denverites love a good ’80s melodrama. This story about out-of-work actor Michael Dorsey reinventing himself as Dorothy Michaels to snag a role in a musical. The show will have us all asking: Where can I find a red sequined dress in my size?
Pretty Woman: The Musical
August 2 to 14, the Buell Theatre
Get lost again in the enchanted land of broken dreams—i.e., the 1990s—as sex worker Vivian charms titan of business Edward. The original score, written in part by Bryan Adams doesn’t upstage all the cheesy romance you came to see.
We hope this list is helpful as we all begin to get out of the house more this year!
Find more ways to explore Colorado in 2022 at:
https://www.5280.com/2021/12/42-ways-to-explore-colorado-in-2022/
