Emmanuel Gallery celebrates 150 years of community and art in the heart of Denver

Audio By Carbonatix Since its construction in 1876, the stone chapel on what’s now the Auraria campus has seen many changes in one of Denver’s original neighborhoods. Now the Emmanuel Art Gallery is celebrating the building’s sesquicentennial with a special exhibition, “Come Together: 150 Years of the Emmanuel,” designed to celebrate its enduring legacy as a gathering place for the community, even as that . “It’s a key aspect to think about the special anniversary to mark these amazing 50 years of having a university art gallery in a spectacular architectural building,” says Sarah Watson, gallery director and curator of the Emmanuel. “And the long history of how the building served evolving communities over that 150 years.” Bishop John F. Spalding built the 24-by-66-foot stone structure that combined Romanesque and Gothic styles in one of the oldest parts of then-28-year-old Denver; the neighborhood had begun as Auraria, founded by miners and merchants in 1858. Approximately 70 members would gather at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church for worship. When that congregation moved south in 1893, the building was briefly known as St. Andrew’s Church. A decade later, Congregation Shearith Israel acquired the building and transformed it into a synagogue for Eastern European immigrants, establishing a Talmud Torah there and teaching Hebrew to local children. After World War I, though, Denver’s Jewish community began to disperse, and the synagogue ultimately closed its doors in 1958. That year, artists Wolfgang and Susan Pogzeba rented what had become known as the Emmanuel, eventually purchasing it in 1963. With a major urban renewal project looming on Denver’s Westside in the late 1960s, the State Historical Society, along with the Pogzebas, fought for the Emmanuel’s protection from potential destruction. “Mr. Pogzeba has maintained the historical integrity of the building and also provided an economically feasible method for maintaining a Denver landmark,” wrote Robert Fink in a 1969 nomination form to the National Park Service. “Unfortunately, the Urban Renewal project in the area of the chapel now threatens the building’s future.” On January 10, 1968, the structure became Denver’s first official landmark, thanks to an ordinance passed by Denver City Council. The following year, the Emmanuel was added to the National Register of Historic Places; it continued to be used as a private art studio. But then the state decided that the Auraria neighborhood was the ideal place to build a higher education center. Hundreds of residents were displaced from the historic area, their homes razed. Today, only the Tivoli Student Union (once a brewery), St. Cajetans and the Emmanuel remain in their original locations on the Auraria Higher Education Center; the Ninth Street Historic Park is populated with homes moved to that spot from what was once a bustling immigrant and Latino community. In 1973, AHEC bought the Emmanuel from the Pogzebas for $100,000, transforming it into a cultural center. Today it’s managed by the University of Colorado Denver’s College of Arts & Media. Students, faculty and artists from Colorado and beyond have showcased their work at the non-profit space for the past 53 years. “This building has been a place where people congregate in so many different forms for the last 150 years,” says Andrew Palamara, gallery coordinator and exhibit curator. “The gallery continues to be that for not only students, staff and faculty of this campus, but the arts community and the public. That has been our guiding light through this whole project.” Palamara gained an appreciation for art through album covers. After studying graphic design at Belmont University, he worked in art hubs such as Dallas and Cincinnati before heading to Denver to lead the Emmanuel and Next Stage galleries. Working with Watson and former director Jeff Lambson, he’s spent much of the past two years creating “Come Together” through archival documents, contemporary art and new pieces. The exhibit features 20 artists, most from Colorado, chosen to represent the gallery’s history. One is former CU Denver and MSU Denver professor Carlos Frésquez, who held his first professional show at the space in 1976. Fréquez’s piece in the current show, “El Corrido Cosmica,” uses collaging techniques that incorporate a multitude of shades and imagery designed to recognize AHEC’s displacement of 235 families. “I think it’s important to see actual art in person instead of any media,” he says. “I think you just need to go to an art center, museum or gallery and actually see it in person, because art defines humanity.” August Balderrama, a current CU Denver fine arts student, gained a love for art while doing crafts with his mother in Idaho. The practice became an “escapist venture” that led him to Denver to study art. While taking a screen-printing class last fall with professor Melissa Furness, Balderrama decided to use a sheep as an icon for his experience with “sheeple” in a less accepting city than Denver. “People that were being very vulnerable just wanted to be respected, and I think that there is nothing wrong with that,” he says. “So, I felt like a lot of the work I was making was taking back this iconography as something that I find empowering instead of something demeaning.” Balderrama’s final piece, “Resistance,” was selected by Palamara for the show; it includes different buildings, signs and a graffiti-covered trash can. Other artists in “150 Years” include Max Kauffman, Bill Adams, JayCee Beyale, Isabella Briganti, Laura Shill & John Lake, Adam Geluda Gildar, David Griggs and Sammy Seung-min Lee, and more. “It’s a chance to see the work of 20 artists,” concludes Watson. “It’s a chance to learn some history in a really cool building, and people should support their public university gallery.” There will be an opening reception for “Come Together: 150 Years of the Emmanuel” from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thurs., June 18, at Emmanuel Art Gallery, 1205 10th St. The exhibition runs through Sept. 19; learn more at emmanuelgallery.org.