The Secret Life of Clothes
November 5, 2021 – November 27, 2022
With over 8 billion people on Earth, one of the common threads that humans share is wearing clothes as a basic necessity for protection and also a means of self-expression. But when we think about clothing, it’s usually in connection to fashion and how and where the person is wearing their clothing, more often than not, outside of the home and irrespective of the origins of the very fabric the item is made of. While clothing began as a basic necessity to individuals who had a very intimate connection to the laborious process of its creation, care and storage, in more modern days, it has evolved into a highly accessible, but easily detached from and disposed of, means of societal expression.
The Secret Life of Clothes tells the everyday story of the “lifecycle” of clothes – the overlooked journey of clothing as a progression from fiber to finished garment, sale to storage, and finally to mending, disposal or reuse. This exhibit examines the purpose and need for different clothes, as well as the lifecycle processes over different time periods in Colorado: 1860 through modern day. Visitors will experience a variety of fashions, as well as the tools, materials, and context of how those clothes were made, worn, cared for, mended, and stored.
The exhibit also explores the future of clothing, considering the economic, cultural, and environmental impacts of the massive growth of the fast-fashion clothing industry and how, in response, new innovations are leading the way towards a more sustainable clothing lifecycle for future generations.
The Secret Life of Clothes opens on Friday, November 5, 2021, and runs through Sunday, November 27, 2022.
Littleton: Spirit of Community
This permanent exhibit depicts, through artifacts and text, the "Littleton Story" from its early beginnings to the present.
Eye of the Camera - Space to Wonder
Exhibit open to public: January 21, 2022 - March 12, 2022
Please Note: Due to the impact of rising COVID infection rates on our community, we have cancelled the Opening Reception for this event. We will monitor local infection rates and determine if we can hold an event later in the run of the show.
The City of Littleton Fine Arts Board proudly presents the Eye of the Camera juried art exhibition, featuring Colorado artists working in photography. This year’s theme is Space to Wonder. The show will be on display from January 21 to March 12, 2022.
There is no science to explain what causes us to admire those things that strike us as amazing. But wonder is a shared human emotion, some would say the hallmark of human experience.
Some feel wonder wanes with age and is unattainable as we become information-retaining adults. But if we are given the space to wonder, does this change? And what does that encompass, “space to wonder”? Is it a literal or a physical space, a mental space? Is it permission to admit ignorance and awe? Does it have a sense of urgency or is it irrespective of time and physical location? This year’s 41-piece exhibition brings us Space to Wonder.
The exhibit will be open to the public in the Fine Art gallery at the Littleton Museum from Friday, January 21, 2022 - Saturday, March 12, 2022.
The juror prize announcement will take place online on Thursday, January 20, 2022. Please Note: Due to rising COVID numbers, we have cancelled the Opening Reception for this event. We will monitor local infection rates and determine if we can hold an event later in the run of the show.
Participating Artists:
Juried by Rupert Jenkins
Rupert Jenkins has thirty years’ experience working as a writer, curator, and gallery director in San Francisco and Denver (1985–2015). Between 1985–2005 he curated numerous exhibitions of photography and related media by emerging and mid-career artists at three San Francisco organizations: The Eye Gallery, San Francisco Camerawork (both non-profit), and the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, the city’s municipal gallery programming at four sites.
Jenkins was editor of the San Francisco Camerawork Journal for six years. From 1994–95 he was book editor, essayist, and exhibition consultant for Nagasaki Journey: The Photographs of Yosuke Yamahata, a project commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki (Pomegranate ArtBooks/Friends of Photography, 1995).
After moving to Denver in 2005, he worked as editor/curator at the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, University of Denver. Among his projects there were Warhol in Colorado (co-curator with Dan Jacobs/catalog writer and editor, 2011).
Subsequently he directed the Colorado Photographic Arts Center for six years (Chair 2009–2010; director/curator 2011–2015). CPAC, a small nonprofit organization in Denver, was founded in 1963. Its five-plus decade history, and its 600-print collection of fine art photography, inspired him to begin researching the post-WWII history of creative photography in Colorado in 2016.
As a freelance editor, his most recent projects include Rauschenberg: Reflections and Ruminations (exhibition catalog, Museum of Outdoor Arts, Littleton, 2020) and three books on Native American art for UCLA scholar Nancy Marie Mithlo: Making History (University of New Mexico Press, 2020), Knowing Native Arts (University of Nebraska Press, 2020), and Visualizing Genocide (University of Arizona Press, forthcoming).
Patterns of Consumption
Exhibit open to public: April 1 - June 25, 2022
Featuring the art of Kalliopi Monoyios
Plastic touches every aspect of our lives. It’s everywhere, from clothing, housewares, toys, medical devices, vehicles, and infrastructure. Yet the word “plastic” is equated with cheapness, both in quality of construction and value. How has a material that in only seventy years replaced all traditional materials in every application earned the reputation for being worthless? Shouldn’t we revere such a valuable material?
By treating plastic with devotion, like the precious resource it is, Kalliopi Monoyios points a finger at consumerism as the root of our pollution problems, while honoring a material that makes modern life efficient and comfortable. Monoyios collects, washes, folds, and sews used food wrappers and other plastics into new sculptural works using similarly undervalued art forms like quilting, weaving, and embroidery. The body of work in this exhibit expands on Monoyios’s themes of surprising and quirky uses of plastic, all with the goal of inviting people to think deeper about their own relationships with the material.
The exhibit will be open to the public in the Fine Art gallery at the Littleton Museum from Friday, April 1 - Saturday, June 25, 2022.
