CIVIC MONUMENTS IN DENVER AND BEYOND: Meaning, Memory, and Legacy

5:30pm Reception | 6:30pm Presentation

Join the ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter for an evening with Thayer Tolles, Marica F. Vilcek Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Over her three decades at The Met, Thayer has advanced the study of American sculpture through major publications, installations, and exhibitions, including her work on Augustus Saint-Gaudens, whose refined approach to the figure transformed the development of American civic art in the late nineteenth century.

In her lecture, Thayer will explore how figural and allegorical monuments shaped the visual character of American cities in the decades surrounding the City Beautiful movement, when sculpture, architecture, and urban planning were conceived as mutually reinforcing arts. She will consider how sculptors collaborated with architects, and how their works were integrated into plazas, parks, and boulevards to enrich the experience of public space. Within this larger national story, Denver’s civic monuments reveal the city’s engagement with the same ideals that elevated figural sculpture as a vital element of city building.

Drawing on monuments from New York and beyond, with examples from Denver’s own public landscape, Thayer will highlight the artistry, craftsmanship, and evolving reception of these monuments, illustrating how they continue to shape the identity and visual coherence of the city today.