Research and Reports

Provenance Research

Museums are repositories of cultural stories and the history of creativity. The Denver Art Museum is committed to ethical collecting practices, and adheres to the collecting and acquisitions guidelines from the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Provenance research is part of the museum’s overall mission to collect, preserve and present artworks and exemplary educational programming to communities across metro Denver and the Rocky Mountain West.

Frederick R. Mayer Library

The Frederick R. Mayer Library is a specialized research library supporting the collections and research of the Denver Art Museum. The library is resource for staff, interns, and volunteers of the museum. The library is also available to art researchers by appointment.

For further information and to schedule an appointment, please email the library at library@denverartmuseum.org.

Reports

Art Museums and Healthy Aging: A Creative Aging Tool Kit

Discover how art museums can contribute to the healthy aging and well-being of older adults (55+) in their local community. Explore a dynamic framework that details how to co-create professionally run arts programs that focus on social engagement and personal growth, and how to measure impact in innovative and human-centered ways.

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Art Museums and Well-Being: A Review of Literature

Intended to deepen understanding of the often amorphous concept “well-being,” this review of literature explains what is associated with fostering well-being and uses research-based findings to articulate the ways in which an art museum’s presence and activities can increase opportunities for personal and societal well-being.

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Perfect Fit: Art Museums and New Perspectives on Active Older Adults

Explore new ways of thinking about aging while reviewing the current trends in arts participation among older adults. This literature review examines research about the physical, cognitive, personal and social development in the later years, and provides examples of innovative and successful methods of engagement for an active older adult audience.

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Down the Rabbit Hole: Adventures in Creativity and Collaboration

Discover more about a two year project exploring how the art museum can work in collaboration with the local creative community to transform visitor experiences. The report focuses on the DAM’s Creative in Residence program and chronicles the development and implementation of this program. It highlights our key findings on how working in collaboration with creatives can help us activate the museum’s collections and spaces and how the art museum can begin to embed participatory engagement into its practice. This project was generously funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. © Denver Art Museum 2017.

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Tapping into Creativity & Becoming Part of Something Bigger

Find out more about an 18-month project focusing on the art museum as a creativity platform. The report chronicles the DAM’s journey with creativity, explains our evaluation process and what we learned from visitors, and presents a road map for continued exploration of how to maximize the capacity of an art museum to foster creativity. This project was generously funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. © Denver Art Museum 2014.

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Kids & Their Grownups: New Insights on Developing Dynamic Museum Experiences for the Whole Family

Read about the development of 15 installed family experiences that focus on play and building connections to art objects. This two-year project, generously funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, focused on families with young children. The report details the DAM's findings, including what we learned about successfully programming for the whole family. Find resources for family activity development, evaluation techniques, and reflections on meeting the needs of kids and their grownups during their museum visits. © Denver Art Museum 2013.

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Creativity, Community, and a Dash of the Unexpected: Adventures in Engaging Young Adult Audiences

We hope you will find some food for thought here if you are interested in developing programs for young adults and increasing engagement with your community, collections, and museum. Read about what we did, how we approached program development and engagement with young adult audiences and the thinking behind our choices. This project was generously funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. © Denver Art Museum 2011.

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Creativity Resource: The Story of Putting Together an Online Teacher Resource

Our Creativity Resource website uses the creativity of artists to inspire teachers and their students. Read how we put together this online resource for teachers. © Denver Art Museum 2009.

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New Angles on Interpretation

Interpretive materials in the Hamilton Building encourage visitors to interact with art in new and different ways. Learn about the materials we developed for adults with support from the Getty Grant Program, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and individual donors. © Denver Art Museum 2007.

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Visitor Panel Study of Poetry Writing Activities

Find out what we learned from visitor studies of poetry writing activities in the 2003 exhibition Frederic Remington: The Color of Night in this 30-page report. © Denver Art Museum 2004.

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Keepers of Culture: Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act

Learn how to prepare and evaluate NAGPRA repatriation claims in this 237-page guide by Roger Echo-Hawk, based on work assisted by grants from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service. © Denver Art Museum 2002.

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Families & Art Museums

Explore the DAM’s unique approach to family programming. This report was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. © Denver Art Museum 2003.

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Enriching Visitor Experiences

Read about the reinstallation of the DAM’s European and American collection in this 21-page report, which was funded by the Getty Grant Program. © Denver Art Museum 2001.

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Visitor Panels: Improving Interpretive Materials through Audience Input

Read about visitor panels for our Asian, pre-Columbian, and Spanish Colonial galleries. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and the City and County of Denver. © Denver Art Museum 1993.

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Denver Art Museum Interpretive Project

Learn about the DAM's interpretive experiments in this 160-page report funded by the Getty Grant Program and the National Endowment for the Arts. © Denver Art Museum 1990.

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Download Appendix (PDF)