MONET EXHIBIT TO LEAVE ECONOMIC IMPRESSION
Rare exhibit expected to be economic hit for Mile High City The world produced only so many da Vincis, Picassos and van Goghs — artists whose work is so indelible they have single-name recognition decades, even centuries, after their deaths.
French impressionist Claude Monet falls in that category. That’s why the Denver Art Museum’s announcement last month that it will be the only venue in the U.S. to host the largest showing of the artist’s work since the 1990s is a major coup. The exhibition is expected to draw crowds from well beyond Denver and beyond Colorado when it opens Oct. 20, 2019.
“He’s one of the few that is a household name,” professor Kirk Ambrose, chair of the
art and art history department at the University of Colorado, said of the painter. “I think it’s going to be a huge draw.”
Special cultural attractions can mean big benefits, both in terms of increased cachet for the host institution and the money visitors pump into the local economy. “Blockbuster exhibitions” that appeal to a wide swath of people have contributed to Denver’s economic success and cultural growth in recent years, said Jayne Buck, vice president of tourism for Visit Denver.
The Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens stands out. The glass artist’s work was on display there from June through November 2014. Total visits at the gardens that year surpassed 1.4 million, the first time that number eclipsed six figures, staff members say. Nearly 900,000 of those visits came during the Chihuly exhibit. Membership spiked that year, and attendance has risen every year since, according to the gardens.
Out-of-town visitors are especially valuable. Visit Denver research shows that people who come to Denver for purposes other than visiting family stay an average of three nights. They spend about $171 per day, per
person. Short of asking every visitor at the airport or state line, it’s impossible to say exactly what draws each person, but Visit Denver did find that 36 percent of visitors to the DAM’S Edgar Degas exhibition this year came from outside the Denver area.
“For some reason, French impressionists are gangbusters,” Buck said.
Visit Denver partners — strategically and financially — with the DAM and other institutions to market large-scale events in other places, Buck said. It’s had particular success in Dallas, Houston, Chicago and San Francisco.
The “Dead Seas Scrolls” exhibit now on display at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science received a marketing boost from Visit Denver. The 2,000-year-old pieces of parchment, which include verses from the Old Testament of the Bible, are expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors before the exhibit closes Labor Day weekend, museum officials say. Tickets could sell out before Sept. 3.
The natural history museum has practice with big-draw exhibits. In 2006 it hosted “Body Worlds 2,” the not-for-the-weak-stomached exploration of human anatomy. That exhibit drew 5,000 visitors a day, said Jodi Schoemer, the museum’s director or exhibits. It also taught the staff lessons about how to manage demand.
Schoemer said the museum intentionally sold fewer tickets to the Dead Seas Scrolls because it wanted to make sure each visitor could get up close with the artifacts and pieces, something that didn’t always happen during packed days at Body Worlds.
Hosting successful blockbuster exhibitions in the past has allowed the museum to more easily attract other ones in recent years.
“People that own these amazing objects around the world are more willing to lend them to us because they know they will be appreciated by a large number of people in a vibrant community that supports cultural institutions,” Schoemer said.
The DAM hasn’t announced an on-sale date or single ticket prices for the Monet show, so it’s difficult to estimate a direct economic impact. Annual attendance ranges from about 600,000 to 800,000 people, with 25 percent to 33 percent of those visitors coming from outside metro Denver over the last five years, museum officials say.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Endowment for the Arts released a study this year that showed arts and culture contributed $13.67 billion to the Colorado economy in 2015.
Hotels, bars and restaurants obviously expect to benefit from blockbuster attractions. But some in Denver’s local art scene say they expect Monet to help them too.
“I think we’ll definitely see an increase in more adventurous visitors, people who want to see the bigger picture,” said Jim Robischon, who, with his wife, Jennifer Doran, co-owns the Robischon Gallery at 1740 Wazee St. “With certain (DAM) shows, we’ve gotten a big bump. Women of Abstract Expressionism, that show brought in a lot of people.”
Of course, when operating a gallery, getting people in the door is just part of the story.
“Do any of these bumps turn into sales? That’s really hard to say,” Robischon said. “But we’re very supportive of the museum. All the shows they do are great.”