Category: City Park

Come see “Amache Rose,” a film by Billy Kanaly

Join us for this special viewing!
Tuesday February 4 at 5:30 pm
Carla Madison Recreation Center
2401 E. Colfax Avenue
Free Parking behind the Center
In 1942, the United States Government established the concentration camp Camp Amache in the high desert of southeastern Colorado near the town of Granada. Japanese American citizens were confined there because of the paranoia and fear generated by Japan’s aggression during  World War II. These citizens were incarcerated at the camp until 1945. Today, the action is seen as one of the great tragedies of misjudgment in U.S. history.
Site of Camp Amache concentration camp
Credit: Denver Botanic Gardens Films
Housed in stark barracks, having been stripped of most of their belongings, the internees endured their imprisonment with courage, resiliency and by practicing the tradition of Wabi Sabi, the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfections. The internees planted trees and gardens in the hostile high, dry, windy environment around them. They used discarded concrete for rock gardens. They used native cactus and rabbitbrush shrubs in their garden designs.
The Amache rose
Credit: Denver Botanic Gardens Films
The ”Amache Rose” film by Billy Kanaly tells the poignant story of a wild rose discovered at Amache that was not native to the area. It could never have grown there. An Amache prisoner on work release must have found the rose in another region and brought it back to Amache to be planted there. 80 years later, the rose has endured. Denver Botanic Gardens is caring for clippings of the rose in their greenhouse.
Billy Kanaly
Credit: Denver Botanic Gardens Films
“Amache Rose,” directed by Billy Kanaly is the first film produced by the new film department of Denver Botanic Gardens (DBG), Denver Botanic Films. It has been featured at film festivals across the country, including the Denver Film Festival.  Billy Kanaly is heading up Denver Botanic Gardens Films and its mission to connect people to plants through film.  A former performer for the Irish Dance Troupe Riverdance, Kanaly brings a range of creative perspectives to his role. He is committed to telling the abundance of unique stories that plants have to tell, not only how they grow but who grows them and why. The film “Amache Rose” is the unique story underlying the important connections between people and plants, how nature illuminates the human experience, and how humans rely on plants and nature to make sense of and complete their world.
Mike Bone, Curator of Steppe Collections at Denver Botanic Gardens inspects a rose at Amache
Credit: Denver Botanic Gardens Films

Please join us for this amazing, free in-person program. Billy Kanaly will show his film and talk about its production and how the Amache experience affected him. Survivors of Amache are among those interviewed in the documentary. Dr. Bonnie Clark, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Denver, whose work at Amache is a focus of the film, is also featured.

A City Park Friends and Neighbors Board meeting will follow the presentation and the public is invited to join in. As always, we look forward to hearing your insights and any questions you may have about City Park.
Amache Concentration Camp
Credit: Japanese American Museum (2015.100.172a)

Duck Lake is Quacking with Activity

Duck Lake is Quacking with Activity!

Let’s start with the new mural on the west wall of the Denver Zoo’s storage complex that borders Duck Lake. This area was City Park land set aside for the Denver Zoo’s gasification project, a plan to use animal waste and human trash to generate clean energy to power the zoo. The project was abandoned in 2015 due to concerns about costs and environmental issues but mainly technical failures. The system didn’t work.

Instead of reverting the area back to City Park natural uses for the public to enjoy, the Zoo retained the area for storage purposes. In 2017, the Denver Zoo sought to commission an artist or team of artists to create an original work of art on “the Zoo’s property.” Funds for the project came from the City of Denver’s Art Ordinance. Denver’s art ordinance, established in 1991, requires that 1% of the budget for capital improvement projects over $1 million be set aside for art.

A panel was selected. Based on the presentations, John Pugh, an Oregon-based artist renowned for his trompe-l’oeil murals that create the illusion of three-dimensional scenes, was selected for the commission. Pugh has completed “over 250 public and private commissions across the United States and internationally,” according to Rudi Cerri, Denver Arts & Venues Public Art Program Manager.   On his website, Art of John Pugh, https://artofjohnpugh.com/, Pugh describes his artistic mission:With a clear intention to create public art attractions, I strive to design each project to avoid becoming a commonplace mural. Often, this illusion includes creating an iconic, dynamic anomaly. The passerby is much more apt to engage with an uncommon architectural event while they unconsciously survey the urban landscape.

As an artist, I must create a “sense of place.” I research the area and its community, formulating concepts based on historical, environmental, and cultural viewpoints. If the mural can serve to educate about the culture and heritage of a place, it will deepen roots and create a pride of place.

Ultimately, the goal of any mural is to conjure fresh feelings and perceptions, evoking a sense of connectivity with the mural, within us, and with the world around us.

Denver’s City Park – a perfect gift for the holidays!

Denver’s City Park by Bette D. Peters would make a wonderful gift for your friends and family members who love City Park and would like to know more about its colorful history. UCD Professor, Dr. Tom Noel, known as Dr. Colorado states that Denver’s City Park “is still the single most important reference book for park enthusiasts who study and promote the history and heritage of the park. It is, in fact, the only book ever written about City Park, the ‘Crown Jewel’ of our treasured park system.”

The book is full of the stories that have contributed to the unique character of the park. There’s the story of the bear, “Billy Bryant” who lived in City Park until becoming the star resident of the Denver Municipal Zoo. There are stories about Cookie and Candy, elephants who resided at the Elephant House, the brick bungalow at the northeast corner of Ferril Lake, before also moving to the Zoo. There are descriptions of the popular Lover’s Lane lined with cottonwood trees at 23rd Avenue and York St. and the jail cells below the Pavilion, attesting to the sometimes wilder antics in the early days of City Park. Besides stories, the book contains a treasure trove of historic photographs.

Denver’s City Park is available for $20 at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science Gift Shop, 2001 Colorado Blvd and at the Park Hill Community Bookstore, 4620 E. 23rd Avenue. You can also use the Donate button on CPFAN’s website, www.cpfan.org to make a $20 donation and we will contact you about delivering the book right to your door. For any questions or comments about Denver’s City Park, please send any questions or comments to info@cpfan.org.

City Park Friends and Neighbors will have updates about City Park projects (like Duck Lake and its new mural) in our January, 2025 newsletter. We wish happy holidays to all our friends and members. Thank you for sharing our passion for City Park, the People’s Park of Denver!

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