The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is my favorite museum in Denver.

Every time I go, which is usually a few times a year, I see something new and I leave feeling inspired. This time was no different. Also, for the first time in a long while I brought my kids along for the trip.

We took in the many galleries and numerous exhibits for more than three hours, and we still didn’t see it all. My kids were rock stars by the way. They didn’t touch any art. They didn’t run around in the galleries. And they kept their voice down to respect those around them. Today’s trip was a successful “proof of concept” to confirm that they would able to go to other museums at their current ages.

We all enjoyed so much of the beautiful works of art on display, but my personal favorite had to be the European and American Art Before 1900 collection that featured several paintings by Claude Monet, as well as other great painters of that time including Berthe Morisot, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Willard Leroy Metcalf, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Childe Hassam.

The kids’ highlight of the day was what the interactive area that we saved for last: the Creative Hub. I enjoyed this part of the visit too! There was a giant wheel to spin and pick a “challenge” to create some art. Each envelope was filled with various materials to make art with such as collage squares, colored cellophane, and even fabric squares. The table also had shared scissors, glue sticks, and markers to bring the mixed media together into a work of art.

Whenever I go to the DAM, I always leave feeling inspired to create more art on my own. Surprisingly, the other exhibit that all of us enjoyed was the By Design: Stories and Ideas Behind Objects exhibit that had various ceramics, furniture, and otherwise common household or commercial items that all have unique design aspects to them. As an engineer by trade, I thought this was an interesting exhibit to see both the art in these pieces as well as the utility they offered.

Here are some of the things we made at the Creative Hub: