Join us for our First First Friday in the Art District on Santa Fe! This is our Grand Opening event.

Come check out our new space as we welcome in the community.

We will have original prints for sale, along with light drinks and snacks for free.

Please RSVP for the event on our Eventbrite here.

Please consider supporting our move! More details and donation information here.

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: 

PlatteForum's Address: 910 Galapago Street, Denver CO 80204

Street Parking: There is lots of street parking around the neighborhood. Keep in mind, street parking fills up on First Fridays.

Lot Parking: There are a few paid lots around the neighborhood. West High School usually offers a paid parking lot during First Fridays. This lot is directly adjacent to PlatteForum. 

Public Transportation / Biking: PlatteForum is a 7 minute walk from the Kalamath Street & 10th Avenue bus stop, and a 15-minute walk from the 10th & Osage light rail station. Bike racks available on site on the west side of the building.   

Accessibility: PlatteForum has reserved one accessible parking space on the east side of the building (marked with a cone). There is also a ramp with a handrail from the east side of the building to PlatteForum's door on the 2nd level. Once inside, you can move throughout PlatteForum's spaces and to the restroom without steps. One restroom is ADA accessible. Please let us know if you have any accessibility requests or questions.    

PlatteForum Office Phone number: 303-893-0791

PlatteForum Operations Director number: 719-641-7760.

Opening Reception: May 15 | Exhibition Dates: May 15 - June 12

Gallery Hours: Thursday - Friday 3-6pm (Please note: Gallery hours on May 22 are from 3pm-5:30pm; there will be no gallery hours on June 5)

Join us for the opening reception of Drew Austin’s new work, created in collaboration with the ArtLab Interns over the course of Drew’s 10-week residency at PlatteForum.

About the exhibition:

“The queer experience is all about alchemy. Turning the most painful things into the most beautiful: prison into poetry, funerals into parades, and plagues into revolutions.” -Leo Herrera

Centering a process-based approach, this body of work unfolds as an exploration of self through the act of making. Rooted in overlapping languages of interiority, queer aesthetics, domestic ritual, memory, and intuitive material response, the work privileges inquiry over conclusion. Meaning emerges not through singular objects, but through layering, repetition, and proximity. 

Using repeating motifs derived from fleeting shadows, the works function as records of response rather than declarations of certainty. Repetition becomes a means of understanding—forms shifting across surfaces and scales in ways that mirror the construction of identity itself: assembled through intuition, performance, concealment, longing, and return.

The works oscillate between two material and emotional registers. Some pieces exist in a quieter frequency: darkened surfaces, softened edges, moments of pause that evoke lamplight, solitude, reflection, the intimate grounding of domestic space, or the flutter of possibility in public queer space. Others move outward with a heightened visibility, embracing ornament, saturation, permeability, and excess. Together, these registers remain in constant conversation, not as opposites, but as parallel conditions housed within the same body. The tension between subtlety and spectacle, concealment and revelation, becomes a structural language within the work itself.

Collected objects, reused materials, gifted remnants, and recurring forms accumulate into an evolving archive of lived experience–holding memory, touch, time, and previous lives within them. The physical labor of making functions as a form of processing—a way of tracing the movement between memory and presence, desire and acceptance, fragmentation and wholeness. Within this framework, home emerges not as fixed location, but as an accumulative condition built from ritual, sensation, familiarity, and chosen grounding; a material record of someone learning to more fully inhabit their own interior world through the act of making.

The community garden on view, created by the ArtLab interns, centers collaboration and collective ownership. A shared vision of flourishing plants fills the corner of the gallery and boldly confronts the outside world, asking viewers to greet the installation from the exterior of the gallery, viewable from multiple directions and throughout different times of the day. The plants hold their own agency, collecting color from installed lights, refracting light on surrounding surfaces, and reflecting the viewer upon closer inspection. 

Register here (optional)

Join us for a special closing reception of our Youth-Led Art Exhibition at our Annex Gallery at Taxi. We will hear from a couple of PlatteForum’s ArtLab youth interns as they discuss their exhibition and the pressing social issues their generation is grappling with. The talk will start around 5:45pm, with approximately 45 minutes for discussion and some time at the end for questions. Light snacks and drinks will be provided. Ample parking is available in the adjacent lot.

United in Advocacy: Unheard Voices from a Generation Seeking Agency

Opening Reception: March 13th, 2026 6:00pm-8:00pm

Exhibition Dates: March 13 - April 10, 2026

Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays, March 19-April 3, 3-6pm. Or by appointment: info@platteforum.org

PlatteForum’s Youth-Led Art Exhibition is a two-month journey of creative exploration and youth leadership. Together as a group, ArtLab interns have dreamed up, planned, and executed a group exhibition of original works in PlatteForum’s Annex gallery. The work is connected by social justice themes chosen by youth; sharing important messages from their perspectives.

Join us for the opening reception to celebrate our ArtLab interns. Light food and drinks provided. There is ample parking in an adjacent lot and an ADA accessible ramp into the building. Remarks around 7pm.

Register here (optional)

This project was made possible by the Equity in Arts Learning Grant supported by Colorado Creative Industries, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, and Denver Arts and Venues.

Join us for a virtual information session about our Artist Residency program and the application process for 2026-2027. We will discuss how to have a strong application, the key elements and unique parts of our residency, and answer any additional questions from attendees.

Please note: the 2026-2027 Artist Residency Application is open from 1/15/2025 - 3/15/2026. Find the CaFE application here.

Information to join the session: Google Meet joining info

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/vqt-cnhj-kgb

Or dial: ‪(US) +1 205-844-5287‬ PIN: ‪407 675 246‬#