Anne Evans (arts patron)

Anne Evans (born in 1871 in London) was the daughter of the second territorial governor of Colorado, John Evans. She worked towards Colorado's cultural and artistic development. She devoted her life to the founding and support of some of Colorado's largest cultural institutions, including the Denver Art Museum, the Central City Opera, and the Denver Public Library. Her family home in Denver, Colorado is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Denver Landmark. Today, it is a Museum operated by History Colorado. Her summer home near Evergreen, designed by Burnham Hoyt is also on the National Register of Historic Places, and is privately owned.

Anne Evans became interested in the arts from an early age.^[1] In 1893, at the age of 22, she and her mother became two of the earliest members of the Denver Artists' Club, which later became the Denver Art Museum. Evans became a professional member of the Denver Artists' Club in 1895, and began serving on its governing council in 1896, both while she continued her own artistic studies at the Art Students League of New York. In her service to the Denver Artists Club, Anne Evans pushed for an exhibition space at the new Carnegie Library in Denver in 1910. She also encouraged members of the Denver Artists' Association (name changed in 1917) to expand their collection. Notably, she organized the first showing of Native American Art in 1925, and she donated a significant portion of her own private collection of Native American Puebloan art, and Spanish Colonial art. The Denver Art Museum was one of the first art museums in the country to show Native American work. Evans assisted in appointing the first curators to this collection, Edgar C. McMechen and Eric Douglas.^[2]

Evans served on several committees throughout her life, notably the Denver Public Library Commission and Mayor Robert W. Speer's Municipal Arts Commission. She was appointed to the Denver Public Library Commission in 1907, and began a four-year term as its president in 1910. During her time as president, Anne Evans spearheaded the creation of branch libraries. Four new libraries were built under her watch: the Warren Branch, the Woodbury Branch, the Decker Branch, and the Dickinson Branch. Evans' key project on the Municipal Arts Commission was the creation of Civic Center Park. Mayor Robert W. Speer was inspired by the City Beautiful movement and charged the Arts Commission with the creation of beautiful public spaces, including Civic Center, which is today a National Historic Landmark.^[3]

Among Evans' was involved in the restoration of the Central City Opera House and the establishment of the Central City Opera Festival in 1932. Evans, along with her friend Ida Kruse McFarlane, secured the funds to save the Opera House from demolition. It reopened with a production of "Camille" starring Lillian Gish in 1932.^[4]

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