The first of many We Are Colorado! activities will feature Self-Preservation, a mural by local artist Anthony J. Garcia Sr. The artist is also the director of BirdSeed Collective, a nonprofit based in Denver’s Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. Garcia, who is himself from Globeville, creates imaginative works on canvas as well as mixed media, silk screening, and urban art murals. 

In 2010, Garcia and co-founder Michael Broberg started BirdSeed Collective to encourage local youth artists to showcase their talents by joining an art collective that promotes urban art and self-sufficiency through art workmanship. By 2015, BirdSeed Collective became a nonprofit to continue the mission of providing a platform for residents and artists to become prosperous and economically self-sufficient through the arts. Today, the nonprofit has a gallery and studio and continues to honor artists in the community. 

In celebration of Colorado's long history of murals, Garcia’s painting inside the History Colorado Center will be inspired by the sarape, the colorful, blanketlike shawl worn traditionally in Mexico. Using culturally and artistically relevant and vibrant sarape colors and designs, Self-Preservationwill represent the ways different cultures can work together to form a community. 

In the fall, History Colorado will begin an oral history collection project in the Globeville/Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods. By partnering with Anthony Garcia Sr., History Colorado aims to incorporate community art as a way of highlighting the rich history of that Denver neighborhood.

Garcia will paint his mural on site from July 9 to July 20 at the History Colorado Center. Museum visitors are invited to watch the process and enjoy this colorful artwork as it develops. 

Self-Preservation is included in the cost of a general admission ticket: $14 adults, $10 students/seniors 65+, $8 children 6-12; children 5 and under free. For complete information, visit www.HistoryColorado.org.