CU Art Museum News - July News

The CU Art Museum will remain closed to the public through the summer sessions and fall semester while the university continues to monitor the impacts of COVID-19. We will serve faculty and courses in a limited capacity. Please check back regarding our plans for spring semester, and enjoy our online resources. 

The Familiarity of a Sunrise
Associate Registrar and Collections Manager Alisha Geiwitz reflects on a favorite work in the museum’s collection

It is a bizarre time to start a new job, during a pandemic. I have worked in collections management for many years and I love the process of getting-to-know a collection, handling the works, looking closely at every detail. With safer-at-home orders in place digital immersion is an effective, alternative learning strategy. While perusing through the collections database, I came across a painting I have long known and admired, a painting that is familiar, and for me familiarity brings comfort, particularly during a difficult time.

Charles Partridge Adam’s painting, Sunrise on the Mountains at the Head of Moraine Park, Near Estes Park is a painting I cherish. Gazing at it again, in a different time and place, I am reminded of the comfort this image brings. An early summer morning, the hushed orange aura of sunlight on the mountain peaks, the cool, dewy air, a babbling stream; serenity. Adams was one of the most prolific painters of the Colorado landscape; his works capture the pure essence of the Rocky Mountain region.

Please feel free to download the image here. It makes an impressive virtual background!

Alisha joined the CU Art Museum team in early May. Learn more about her and the rest of our staff here.

Image credit: Charles Partridge Adams, American (1858 – 1942), Sunrise on the Mountains at the Head of Moraine Park, Near Estes Park, Colorado, c. 1920, oil paint on canvas, 48 x 68 ¼ x 3 inches framed, Gift of Philip, Albert, and Charles P. Adams Jr., sons of the late Charles Partridge Adams, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder, 86.1825, Photo: Jeff Wells, © CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder

Virtual Activities

During our COVID-19 closure this summer we’ll be sharing artworks from our collection weekly so that you can do some close-looking exercises from wherever you are. Invite a friend and do it together (virtually or physically distanced) to spark conversation or do it by yourself for some relaxation.