Spotlight: Museum of Outdoor Art – Beyond the Western Horizon

On March 19th, we attended the opening ceremony of Beyond the Western Horizon, curated for the Museum of Outdoor Art’s Madden Gallery to celebrate Colorado’s 150th anniversary and the 250th anniversary of the United States. The art exhibition (displayed in the museum’s indoor gallery) features over 50 artworks from 20 artists. Admission is included with the regular museum ticket. We sat down with museum co-founder and curator Cynthia Madden Leitner to ask about the exhibition, which runs through July 31st.

Photos by Heather Longway Photography

Jamie Lammers: I’m curious about the curation of the show.
Cynthia Madden Leitner: A lot of times, the theme will dictate the curation. What is Americana? What artists most exemplify the West? And what is the West? A lot of people think of the West as a place. It conjures up these iconic images, but to us, the West really resides in the heart of being an American. That whole Western attitude of not just freedom, but of experimentation and invention using new ideas, the frontier spirit, the sense of adventure, the newness, sometimes being a renegade or a rebel.

Jamie: What has stuck out to you about what people have taken in the most?
Cynthia: I love hearing the artists, how they critiqued other artists’ work, who they were drawn to, and some of the nuances of each piece. There’s one artist, David Uhl. He did two barrel-racer paintings for this show, and when you really look at it, trying to conceive an action shot of a horse with a rider on the back going around a barrel, that kind of athleticism and how you show it… I don’t know too many artists that could do that. That’s just one example. There are several examples going into the different artists’ works that makes it a high-quality, incredible show.

Jamie: What’s changed during your time at the museum?
Cynthia: The museum has changed organically over its 45-year history. I’ve had several different jobs, worn several different hats. Everybody that works at the museum, it’s the same. It’s a small staff. We have a cadre of artists and educators, people we work with outside. We’ve shifted in and out over those years, so I feel like I’ve had the advantage of having several different kinds of jobs.

Jamie: Has there been a consistent threadline you’ve hoped people connect with at the museum?
Cynthia: Art is a part of everyday life. If you look at life that way, you’d be surprised how much art you see in everything. Everyone is creative. Everyone has art sense. We have hundreds of examples of that through our education programs, so I believe that implicitly.

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