21 Museums to Explore in Denver County

The American Museum of Western Art, located in the historic Navarre Building, is the permanent home of the Anschutz Collection. the museum's holdings include examples of early American expeditionary painting, Hudson River School and Rocky Mountain School landscapes, 19th-century American narrative painting, early American modernism, Expressionism, Cubism and Abstraction, American Regionalism, “New Deal Art”, and Abstract Expressionism.

A local and regional history, arts & cultural center with exhibits & programs for all ages. Main exhibit features nearly 100 historic photos, artifacts from Aurora's military history & a one-of-a-kind fully-restored 1913 trolley that used to run along Colfax Ave.

A huge museum dedicated to educating, promoting, and preserving the cultural role African Americans played in the Old West. Examine artifacts, listen to stories, and learn how African Americans lived, worked, and aided in the expansion of America’s western region.

The Children's Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus is located in downtown Denver at 2121 Children’s Museum Drive. The Museum focuses on early childhood education, serving children newborn through age eight and their caregivers through interactive exhibits and educational programming. The 46,902 square foot building is located on a 9-acre campus and has 20 exhibits and approximately 450,000 visitors annually.

The Clyfford Still Museum is an art museum in Denver, Colorado. The Museum's collection includes 3,125 works by abstract expressionist Clyfford Still (1904-1980), which represents 93 percent of the artist's lifetime output and complete archives. It also offers nine beautiful galleries of Still’s art, historic photos, objects and letters from the Clyfford Still Archives, interactive features, a pair of tranquil outdoor terraces, views into storage and conservation areas.

This is one of the largest art museums between Chicago and the West Coast. it is dedicated to helping visitors explore art and creativity through hands-on activities, extensive art collections, and world-class exhibitions. The Museum’s iconic Martin Building (formerly known as the North Building) was designed by famed Italian architect Gio Ponti in 1971.

The Denver Firefighters Museum is a museum in downtown Denver. it consists of an 11,000-square-foot (1,000 m2) facility housing four galleries that explore the history of firefighting in Denver. it include interpretive exhibits and educational programs. The mission is teach everyone how to live safer lives around fire prevention. Housed in the original Station One, which was dedicated on January 2nd, 1882.

The Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys is a private, non-profit museum that is located in Lakewood, Colorado.Permanent exhibits include antique and modern dolls, fully furnished miniature houses, miniature planes and cars. The collection of the museum includes more than 20,000 objects dating from 1680 onwards.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help museum visitors learn about the natural history of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. The 716,000-square-foot building houses more than one million objects in its collections including natural history and anthropological materials.

Dinosaur Ridge is an outdoor/indoor museum near Morrison featuring fossils from the Cretaceous and Jurassic Periods, first studied and named during the Bone Wars of 1877. The exhibits are located along a closed section of West Alameda Ave. The route climbs about 200 feet from the museum/shop to the high point along the ridge backbone. The walk is about 2 miles round-trip taking 2-hours. A shuttle bus tour is available for an additional cost.

The Forney Museum of Transportation is a one-of-a-kind collection of more than 600 artifacts relating to historical transportation.Discover steam locomotives, vintage planes, even sleighs and bicycles. Learn about the inventors behind different forms of transportation, and see iconic pieces from America’s past.

The History Colorado Center is a museum in Denver, Colorado, USA dedicated to the history of the state of Colorado. It tells the stories of colorful Coloradans with fun, family-friendly activities and hands-on exhibits in Denver’s Golden Triangle Museum District.

An art museum in Colorado, that houses three principal collections and includes the original studio and art school building of artist Vance Kirkland. The museum houses three primary collections: an international decorative arts collection, a regional collection with a focus on Colorado art, and a retrospective of the work of Kirkland. At the museum's original location at 1311 Pearl Street 3,500 decorative art pieces and 400 paintings and sculptures were on view.

This antique-filled Victorian house was the home of Molly Brown, not only a famous survivor of the Titanic, but so much more. It presents exhibits interpreting her life and that of Victorian Denver as well as historic preservation. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It is designated as a Denver Landmark.

The Morrison Natural History Museum is a natural history museum located in Morrison, Colorado. The exhibits include several dinosaur fossils that were found nearby. Hands-on exhibits are designed to appeal to both children and adults, scientists and non-scientists.Notable displays include skulls of Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Tylosaurus, remains of skeletons of Stegosaurus and Pteranodon, and infant dinosaur tracks. Live reptiles and amphibians are also on display.

This is the premier Latin American art museum in the Rocky Mountain region. It is dedicated to educate our community through collecting, preserving, interpreting and exhibiting the diverse arts and cultures of the Americas from ancient to contemporary, through innovative exhibitions and programs.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver) explores the art and culture of our time through rotating exhibitions and public educational programs in two locations: the Fries Building at 1485 Delgany Street and at the Holiday Theater in Denver's Northside neighborhood.As Denver's first institution devoted entirely to contemporary art, MCA DENVER is housed in a new environmentally sustainable facility designed by David Adjaye.

Museum of Outdoor Arts (MOA) is a non-profit museum and gallery based in Englewood, Colorado which is dedicated to bringing the vitality of the arts into the everyday life of the people of Colorado. A museum without walls, MOA's collection of outdoor sculpture reaches out to both the casual passerby and the serious art critic.

The Plains Conservation Center is an outdoor education facility and state-designated natural area in Aurora, Colorado.This is a nature preserve and educational center with replicas of a homestead village and tipi camp that showcase pioneer and plains Native Americans life in the late 1800's. It encompasses over 1,100 acres of short grass prairie with breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains.

This museum offers a unique and up-close look at the nation’s financial system in action. Visitors can learn more about the Fed, view aspects of the payments system and discover how the Fed promotes a healthy economy which positively impacts our daily lives. it is located in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Denver Branch.