Each week, we talk with our colleagues at The Colorado Sun about the stories they’re following. This time, The Sun Environment And Health Writer Michael Booth joined us to discuss the state’s new firefighting helicopter and Denver Art Museum’s efforts to take cultural awareness and historical context into account when curating its exhibits.
Gov. Jared Polis has signed a bill allocating $26 million to buy a new firefighting helicopter.
The Firehawk is a modified version of the military Black Hawk helicopter. It can siphon, carry, and drop up to 1,000 gallons of water.
Most of the state's wildfires are handled by rented aircraft shared across the region. Booth said the states that share those resources are highly cooperative with their fire containment efforts.
“But if there's more equipment available, and more under the control of Colorado, we're going to be able to attack the fires here perhaps before they get to that emergency status,” he told KUNC.
In another story, Denver Art Museum is rethinking how it curates its exhibits with a focus on cultural awareness. Booth said the movement is a trend across the state and country among art museums.
The museum is reexamining some of its collections, according to Booth, especially since old Western art tends to come from the perspective of what art historians call the “colonial gaze.”
“You see this sort of pristine or highly-refined version of Indigenous culture or of cowboy culture, and it doesn't really reflect the lived reality, the grittiness,” Booth said, “So the idea is to bring in more exhibitions, to go through the attic and literally go through the basement and find other works of art that may reflect something different.”
The museum is also seeking more contemporary artwork from Indigenous people to showcase in the future.
