Photos by Ryan Brackin

On Saturday, Westword celebrated its ninth class of MasterMinds -- artistic adventurers who are changing the landscape of Denver. Here's our last winner:

The Nix brothers got their start as filmmakers in high school in 1999, when Evan, the older brother, got a VHS camcorder for Christmas. They were living in Las Vegas then, but in 2006 they moved to Denver, where their father had attended the University of Denver and the family had vacationed. "It's the kind of place we were always looking at, always wanted to move back to," says Evan. "We've been making films here for the last six years."

See also:
- Meet the 2013 Westword MasterMinds
- Nix Bros. celebrate Denver in hilarious hipster parody
- Dive into T.J. Miller's "Denver" video!

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On Saturday, Westword celebrated its ninth class of MasterMinds -- artistic adventurers who are changing the landscape of Denver. Here's our fourth winner:

I'm not a hat person, but the first time I saw Susan Dillon's handmade toppers, I had to throw my hat into the ring. Under the moniker of Kitty Mae Millinery, she makes hats that aren't just something to cover your head: Each piece is a sculptural work of art, and in the process of creating them, Dillon has revived a fine-craft tradition that's nearly disappeared -- swept in the dumper by modern times. Amazingly, she is self-taught as a milliner, and her passion for keeping the art alive is deep. She recently even entered a one-of-a-kind hat in an international contest to design a special chapeau for Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. The results are so stunning that few browsers can walk into her Kitty Mae storefront at 3559 Larimer Street without wanting to start trying things on; her fanciful creations are pretty much irresistible that way.

See also:
- Meet the 2013 Westword MasterMinds
- Best of Denver 2012: Best Handmade Hats
- Dress up your head at Kitty Mae Millinery. It just might stick.

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All photos by Biance Bourgeois.

On Saturday, Westword celebrated its ninth class of MasterMinds -- artistic adventurers who are changing the landscape of Denver. Here's our third winner:

Rebecca Peebles and Danette Montoya were two baristas with art degrees, living the artist's life, both seeking places to show their work and disappointed by the prospect of coffeehouse shows. But that was before they jumped together into a gallery of their own, just like that. MMJ dispenser GroundSwell was preparing to open a storefront at 3121 East Colfax Avenue, and Peebles and Montoya took a chance by asking if they could use a small space in the front of the shop as a gallery. "They literally just put it in our laps," Montoya remembers. "We didn't even know what was going to unfold, and it turned out to be something much bigger than what we were thinking of originally."

See also:
- Meet the 2013 Westword MasterMinds
- Photos: "Food Face" at Groundswell, 5/12/12
- Artist Sara Guindon on her new show, Barkley Towers

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On Saturday, Westword celebrated its ninth class of MasterMinds -- artistic adventurers who are changing the landscape of Denver. Here's our second winner:

Long ago, poet Julie Carr and her partner, Tim Roberts, decided what they wanted to do, and it all fell together in Denver after that. "Way back when we first met and we were dreaming up our future lives, we decided we wanted to start a small press, which we did, and we also thought we'd like to start a bookstore," Carr recalls. "But there's a practical story behind it. Tim has a book-production company, and he needed some office space, so he sneakily, without telling me, found an office space that was also a storefront." Located near the Mercury Cafe, at 613 22nd Street, that storefront is now home to both their imprint, Counterpath Press, and Counterpath Books, with its few shelves of select titles from fellow independent literary presses. And a whole lot more.

See also:
- Meet the 2013 Westword MasterMinds
- Poet Hoa Nguyen on Counterpath Press, tarot readings, and the poet as an oracle
- Counterpath's Tim Roberts on the importance of small press publishing

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Marci J

On Saturday, Westword celebrated its ninth class of MasterMinds -- artistic adventurers who are changing the landscape of Denver. Here's a look at our first winner:

Self-proclaimed "farmer/midwife/DJ/producer/emcee/touring musician" Ietef Vita was born Michael Walker in Five Points in 1986, part of a family of artists and activists with "a lot of people in my village," he explains, including Brother Jeff and the late storyteller Opalanga Pugh. But that wasn't enough to keep him out of trouble. "I grew up gang-banging and pretty much changed my life after my first trip to Africa," he recalls. "I was about fourteen years old. I began to understand the ideas about different kinds of work for myself."

See also:
- Meet the 2013 Westword MasterMinds
- From tough times, DJ Cavem Moetavation built conscious lines
- Fresh Colorado hip-hop from DJ Cavem, H*Wood, Black P and A Tribe Called Mex

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Lauri Lynnxe Murphy.

Crowdfunding is no longer an interesting anomaly: It's become a part of life in the new economy, and often a reliable way for artists and creatives of all kinds raise money to fund special projects. The latest artist in town to kick off such an effort is Lauri Lynnxe Murphy, an original Westword MasterMind who embarked last year on a fascinating sculptural collaboration with honeybees while in grad school in Ohio.

See also:
- Help Susan Dillon of Kitty Mae Millinery kickstart her own run for the roses
- Will Sid King's Crazy Horse Bar light up Denver again?
- Comedian/restaurateur Will White on his paleo-diet truck, Kickstarter and standup

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Fashion Denver

In February, Westword will unveil its ninth class of MasterMinds -- five local creatives who go above and beyond to contribute to the arts community. But as we look ahead, it's always gratifying to see where our past MasterMinds have gone. And after eight years a member of the very first class, Brandi Shigley is still a poster girl for the case. A handbag designer, entrepreneur, musician, fashion maven, consultant and coach, she's enthusiastic and forever positive, and everything she does boils down to one bold credo: Do What You Love, Love What You Do.

See also:
- MasterMinds: Calling all creative geniuses!
- Fashion Denver's Brandi Shigley is taking her own advice to do what she loves 24/7
- Brandi Shigley of B.Sue on her love of music and fashion and the change from b.sous to B. Sue

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Sabin Aell and Randy Rushton of Hinterland, 2012 winner.

Nine years ago, Westword introduced the MasterMind awards. Recognizing that the local arts scene needed a little fertilizer to really get going, and growing, we created a program that every year honors five cultural visionaries -- artists and organizations alike, in the very broad areas of multimedia, performing arts, literary arts, visual arts and fashion/design -- working to change the cultural landscape of metro Denver. And we decided to not just honor them, but to give them each substantial cash awards to use as they see fit...with no strings attached.

Now we're getting ready to choose our ninth class of MasterMinds, which will be introduced at Artopia on Saturday, February 23.

See also:
- MasterMind Awards honor our eighth class of artistic entrepreneurs
- Slide Show: Artopia 2012
- Meet the MasterMinds at Create Denver Week

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Mark Manger

Catherine O'Neill Thorn, MasterMind.

For Now Showing, our fall arts guide inserted in the September 27 issue of Westword, we asked dozens of luminaries on the local arts scene -- including winners of the Westword MasterMind awards -- to take a survey about the state of the arts. We published many of the responses in Now Showing, but answers keep coming in, so we're sharing them on Show and Tell.

Getting straight to the art today: Catherine O'Neill Thorn, a 2008 MasterMind who founded Art From Ashes, an incredible organization whose mission is "empowering youth through creative expression & personal transformation" -- and uses poetry to accomplish this.

See also:- Now Showing: Our fall arts guide
- Meet the 2008 MasterMinds
- Jill Hadley Hooper gets straight to the art
- Adam Gildar gets straight to the art

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Adam Gildar.

For Now Showing, our fall arts guide inserted in the September 27 issue of Westword, we asked dozens of luminaries on the local arts scene -- including winners of the Westword MasterMind awards -- to take a survey about the state of the arts. We published many of the responses in Now Showing, but answers keep coming in, so we're sharing them on Show and Tell.

Getting straight to the art today: Adam Gildar, a 2011 MasterMind who's the owner of Gildar Gallery, where Powers of Ten, a show of works by Pattie Lee Becker, is on display through October 20.

See also:
- Now Showing: Our fall arts guide
- MasterMind: Illiterate/Adam Gildar
- Jill Hadley Hooper gets straight to the art

More »