Should the museum work harder to define and promote a distinctive identity?
Ask members of the Denver public what the museum’s strengths are or what sets it apart from other institutions, and it’s likely that many respondents could not answer. One compelling profile might be packaging the institution as this country’s top showcase of the art of the Americas. An argument can be made that no other institution can present a more complete picture of the totality of North, Central and South American art, from the carved wood totems of the Northwest Coast Indians to Mayan vases to Frederic Remington paintings. What should the museum do with its architecture, design and graphics department? One year after arriving at the museum, Sharp oversaw the creation of this new collecting area, luring one of his colleagues from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to build its holdings from virtually nothing to 4,000 objects — everything from an architectural model for Robert Venturi’s 1985-91 wing of the National Gallery in London to an elaborate, 18th-century console table. The ide
