Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art
| Established | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Location | 12th Avenue and Bannock Street Denver, Colorado |
| Coordinates | 39°44′06″N 104°59′24″W / 39.735°N 104.99°WCoordinates: 39°44′06″N 104°59′24″W / 39.735°N 104.99°W |
| Type | Art museum |
| Website | www.kirklandmuseum.org |
Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art is an art museum in Denver, Colorado. The museum houses three principal collections and includes the original studio and art school building of artist Vance Kirkland (1904–1981). The museum is temporarily closed to visitors to relocate to a new building at 12th Avenue and Bannock Street, opening early 2018. The 1911 Arts & Crafts style studio building is listed as a member of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, along with the homes and studios of Jackson Pollock/Lee Krasner, Charles Russell, Georgia O'Keeffe, Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Burchfield, N. C. Wyeth, Grant Wood and others.
Vance Kirkland’s studio and art school building (1910–1911), which is preserved as part of the larger Kirkland Museum, is the oldest commercial art building in Denver and the second oldest in Colorado (after the Van Briggle Memorial Pottery in Colorado Springs of 1908). The building was designed in a distinctive Arts & Crafts style by architects Maurice Biscoe (1871–1953) and Henry Hewitt (1875–1926). It was commissioned by Henry Read (1851–1935), one of 13 founders of the Denver Artists' Club, which later became the Denver Art Association (1917) and then the Denver Art Museum (1923). This building, originally located at 1311 Pearl Street, served as Read's Students' School of Art. Kirkland recounted that Read and other members used their homes and the Pearl Street building for meetings of the Denver Artists’ Club from 1911 until 1922 when this organization was deeded Chappell House (1300 Logan, razed 1970).
In January 1929, Vance Kirkland became the Founding Director of the current School of Art at the University of Denver. In 1932 he resigned from the University of Denver when they would not grant credit for art courses toward graduation, and leased Read's Pearl Street property. He ran the Kirkland School of Art until 1946, with classes accredited by the University of Colorado (1933–1946), when he returned as Director of the Art School at the University of Denver, retiring in 1969. Kirkland had, by that time, purchased the 1311 Pearl Street building and used it as his personal painting studio until his death in 1981.
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