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The ACLU announced today it had filed a lawsuit in hopes of compelling the Secret Service to release security perimeter plans for Democratic National Convention in August. At a press conference this morning, ACLU of Colorado Director Mark Silverstein, pictured, said that the Secret Service’s delay in announcing how close citizens will be able to get to the Pepsi Center has prevented the city from issuing parade permits to protest groups, some of whom submitted applications twelve months ago. The ongoing lack of details on allowable demonstration areas is also hindering civil rights advocates by providing less and less time to challenge efforts to keep protesters isolated in cage-like “free speech zones,” as was the case at the 2004 DNC in Boston.

“No one will tell us what these restrictions are,” said Silverstein. “There’s a very real risk that there won’t be enough time for the judicial review before the convention begins.”

Silverstein says the postponement in revealing the security perimeter amounts to a violation of the First Amendment rights of the thirteen activist groups named in the suit, which ranged from local outfits like Recreate 68 and the Escuela Tlatelolco to national organizations such as United for Peace and Justice.

“The public has a right to demonstrate their beliefs to the delegates,” Silverstein added.

The federal court lawsuit requests an expedited hearing schedule for the security perimeter that would give all parties sufficient time to challenge unfair restrictions. While the city has yet to issue parade permits, it used a lottery to award park permits for protest groups wishing to hold events. – Jared Jacang Maher

Peter Kozma, a Hungarian artist who lives in Switzerland, has been in town during the last week hunting up locations for a series of proposed light projections on Denver buildings that would coincide with the Democratic National Convention in August. The project is being sponsored by Denver’s Invisible Museum, a conceptual take on an actual institution that has sponsored lectures, studio visits, publications and even exhibits -- thus making itself periodically visible.

Kozma has built an international reputation over the last decade with elaborate light projections that transform urban spaces into hallucinogenic experiences; this past winter, he did so in Budapest with a presentation called “mcity” (pictured).

On April 8 (tomorrow), Kozma will speak about his work in a lecture scheduled for 6-8 p.m. at Schlessman Hall in the North Building of the Denver Art Museum. (Tickets are $8 for Design Council member, $10 for non-members, call 720-913-0046 for information and reservations.) The lecture is sponsored by the Design Council, the support group for the department of architecture, design and graphics. A conceptual artist may seem an odd fit for Design Council, but Kozma was originally trained as an architect, and his work is for, on and about architecture.

Then on Thursday, April 10, Kozma will attend a fundraiser for the Invisible Museum -- which will need to raise a lot of money to pull the project off -- from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at Walker Fine Art (300 West 11th Avenue, #A, 303-355-8955, www.walkerfineart.com). Tickets are $35; for information and reservations call 303-295-0903.

Kozma’s work and ideas are cool, but yet again, an artist from out of town is getting a Mile High boost, while those who live here are left out of the convention. The same thing is happening with the planned “Dialog: City” being jointly sponsored by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and the DNC Host Committee. -- Michael Paglia