New York Times on History Colorado Center: Does Colorado even have that much history?

By Patricia Calhoun Mon., Apr. 30 2012 at 11:03 AM

Categories: Architecture, Art

This weekend the New York Times published a review of the new History Colorado Center, which started in a very New York-centric way:

An East Coast visitor's first reaction, provincially enough, has to be skepticism: does Colorado even have that much history?

Enough history to justify a $110 million museum -- the History Colorado Center -- which is opening on Saturday, with plans for 40,000 square feet of exhibitions costing an additional $33 million, state-of-the-art technological displays, a research center and archival storage for over 15 million items, including more than 750,000 photographs and 200,000 artifacts?
The state is under 140 years old, and even if you include the ancient cliff dwellings preserved in Mesa Verde National Park, there is little documented history before the incursion of outsiders in the 18th century.

But from that doubtful intro, Edward Rothstein delivers a fairly positive piece, although he quibbles with how the exhibits are presented, and the lack of context surrounding certain issues, such as the Sand Creek Massacre. And he also notes the lack of artifacts displayed, considering Colorado's vast collection.

The conclusion?

But in the meantime, put aside provincialism. Colorado clearly has enough history to justify such a center. And enough history to make a visitor wish that the exploration were more complete and less ready to offer revision without real reinterpretation.

Read the entire piece here. And the rest is history....

Also read:
- "Ten shows the History Colorado Center should have opened with" and "The new History Colorado Center is an architectural triumph."

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