Celebrating 150 Years of Art and Community in Denver

The stone building that now houses the Emmanuel Art Gallery has stood on Denver’s Auraria campus since 1876, witnessing the city’s growth and change. In 2024 it marks a century and a half of serving as a cultural hub, and the gallery has opened a new show called “Come Together: 150 Years of the Emmanuel” to honor that legacy. The structure began life as a Romanesque‑Gothic chapel built by Bishop John F. Spalding for the local Episcopal congregation. When that group moved in 1893, the building became St. Andrew’s Church for a short time before being sold to Congregation Shearith Israel in 1904. The synagogue offered Hebrew lessons and a Talmud Torah, but the Jewish community in Denver dispersed after World War I, leading to the synagogue’s closure in 1958. Artists Wolfgang and Susan Pogzeba rented the former church in 1963, buying it a few years later. They fought to protect the building from demolition during Denver’s Westside renewal plans, and in 1968 it was declared the city’s first official landmark. The next year it joined the National Register of Historic Places and was used as a private studio.In 1973 the Auraria Higher Education Center (AHEC) bought the property for $100, 000 and turned it into a cultural center. Today the University of Colorado Denver’s College of Arts & Media manages the gallery, which has hosted student and professional exhibitions for more than five decades. The new exhibition brings together twenty artists, most from Colorado, whose works reflect the building’s history and the broader community it serves. Former professor Carlos Fréquez contributes a collage titled “El Corrido Cosmica, ” which addresses the displacement of 235 families during AHEC’s development. Student artist August Balderrama presents “Resistance, ” a piece that reclaims the sheep as an empowering symbol and critiques social conformity. Other contributors include Max Kauffman, Bill Adams, JayCee Beyale, Isabella Briganti, Laura Shill & John Lake, Adam Geluda Gildar, David Griggs and Sammy Seung‑min Lee. Together they create a dialogue between past and present, inviting visitors to experience art in person and reflect on the neighborhood’s evolving story. The gallery’s directors emphasize that the building remains a gathering place for students, faculty, artists and the public. They hope the exhibit will draw attention to the value of preserving historic spaces while fostering new creative expression.