The LoDo Mural
The LoDo Mural Project is a new exhibit produced by the Women of the West Museum for a site in Lower Downtown ('LoDo')
Denver. Installed along a construction barricade at 16 Market Street, the exhibit celebrates the many and diverse
contributions of women to the history of Colorado. Some of these women are well known (like Margaret "Molly" Brown) while
others have remained anonymous.
The project features eleven paintings, original works of art by Denver artists Tony Ortega and Sylvia Montero. Each panel
is painted on a 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood and each superimposes the image of a single woman over a group activity.
The individual portraits reveal eleven women who have contributed to the history of Colorado. We know their names and
their accomplishments. The images of group activities are based on historic photographs and they remind us that women
have always participated in all aspects of Colorado's history. Each panel commemorates a different part of the state's
past and present. For example, one panel superimposes the outline of Mary Rippon (the first woman on the faculty of the
University of Colorado) over the image of a young woman teaching in a remote one-room schoolhouse. The point is made:
women have always been integral to the education of Colorado's young people.
We invite you to visit the actual mural in Denver's Lower Downtown district. If this is not possible, we invite you to
learn more about the women featured in this project here in our gallery. |