Boulder’s Leanin’ Tree Museum will close this summer after 40 years
boulder» The Leanin’ Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden will close its doors in August, after a more than 40-year presence at the company’s Gunbarrel facility.
The museum features the private art collection — nearly all of it Western- and American Indian-themed — of Ed Trumble, the owner of the Leanin’ Tree Greeting Cards company.
Most of the collection will be placed on auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., early next year, according to a news release.
“He’s 92, and he decided that everything will be sold with him here or not here,” gift shop manager Danielle Vorthmann said. “He’s excited to see how his collection will do and who will be interested in it.”
Trumble was not available for comment, but Vorthmann said the collection includes more than 300 paintings and about 200 bronze sculptures.
She said that at least one painting in the museum, by artist Fritz Scholder, was on loan to the Denver Art Museum recently.
Vorthmann said Trumble has collected art for decades but the museum dates to 1974, when he bought land in what was then farmland in Gunbarrel to build a facility that houses the company’s manufacturing operation.
Leanin’ Tree was founded in 1949 and briefly operated in Fort Collins before Trumble moved it to Boulder.
The closure of the museum won’t impact the greeting card company, which plans to use the space for its factory.