- We're starting off today's episode with a treasure hunt.
- All right, sounds exciting.
- Who doesn't love a treasure hunt?
So as part of Art Drop day, Denver artists hide a
piece of art somewhere, give clues on social media
so people can find them.
- The event is hosted by Denver Arts and Venues
and features everything from sculpture to jewelry
and paintings and so much more.
- Alexis Kikoen takes a closer look at how one organization
dropped art to raise awareness for their mission.
- [Alexis] Imagine this, you're walking down
the street on your way to work, or the store,
or maybe just out for a stroll.
- [Woman] Well I live in Arvada and I come
downtown to get my hair done.
- [Alexis] You see a piece of art.
It seems a little out of place.
- [Woman] Thinking, what is it just doing?
Gonna get dirty and rained on.
- [Alexis] But then you see that there's a note attached.
- [Woman] This let's them know that it's theirs to keep.
- I really feel like I hit the lotto.
- [Alexis] It's all part World Art Drop Day,
the first Tuesday in September.
- [Yuni Groff] I kind of described it to people
as like a scavenger hunt but basically Art is
hidden throughout the city.
Some organizations will post clues and you can
go get a free piece of art.
- [Erin Bonich] And as soon as they find it we encourage
them to take a selfie and post that they found it
and where they found it, so.
We are on Facebook and we're uploading our clue
and our photo so that someone knows where to go
find the art and then we're gonna tag
Denver Arts and Venues Art Drop.
- [Alexis] Project HARTwork is just one of many
organizations that participate.
- Project HARTwork is an international network of
artists and supporters, we're working together to
try and raise awareness for human trafficking.
And we did a little more digging into the topic
of human trafficking and found out how prevalent
it is here in Denver so we thought we would
use art to try and start conversations about
human trafficking with different communities
who may be under-informed.
- [Alexis] They drop the art to help raise
awareness for their mission hoping the finders
will visit their website included on the note.
- I think my art particularly goes with this theme
because I paint very expressionist which
has a lot of freedom with it.
Human trafficking is a form of slavery and
being able to paint is the ultimate freedom.
- Thinking about the fact that human trafficking is
still a very real and very serious problem
even here in Colorado, I think it's pretty urgent
to get people thinking about it
and do something about it.
(upbeat music)
- [Alexis] Art Drop Day was started in Utah
with the goal of connecting strangers
through creativity and giving.
- [Mary Foertsch] It's a part of the community.
It gets people excited about art.
And art is to be shared and so this is the ultimate.
- It's just kind of exciting that someone might just
be walking down their normal route and see
something cool sticking out and just
make their day that much better.
- It's a good platform for our artists to get out
and share their art with the world as well so
we figure it's win win for everybody.
- [Alexis] Especially for those lucky enough
to pick up what was dropped.
- [Woman] At first I was like, this can't be real.
And then I thought to myself, wow what a lucky day.
I feel like my whole day is just gonna go brilliantly
so, very excited.
- [Alexis] For Arts District, I'm Alexis Kikoen.
- Whoa!
Okay, so during Art Drop Day five hundred pieces of art
were hidden and found in Denver.
Would you ever hide one of your paintings?
I mean it would have to be like one of your
much smaller works.
- You know I might.
It would be a really interesting challenge to do.
I kinda wonder where I'd even put it,
what kind of clues I would give.
But, I should give it a whirl.
Maybe you could help me out.
- Sure!
- You can find out more about Art Drop Day on
Denver Arts and Venues website.