Science and art come to life in Pueblo this June with opening of da Vinci museum along revamped riverwalk

 

The museum is part of a renaissance happening on the city’s Historic Arkansas Riverwalk, where “learning never exhausts the mind.”

Article by Colorado Sun writer: Sue McMillin

Bonnie Waugh, one of the artists in residence at the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America prepares to paint the entry of the Piazza Leonardo as and museum director Joe Arrigo looks on. The Pueblo museum is scheduled to open in June. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

PUEBLO — Whether they were setting up new offices, painting archways and murals in a soon-to-open museum or celebrating in Tuscany, a handful of Puebloans have been busily preparing in recent days for what they expect to be a renaissance on the city’s riverwalk.

Wait, what? Celebrating in Tuscany? Italy? Indeed. Representatives of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America, which will open June 12 on the Pueblo riverwalk, were in Florence, Italy, on April 18 to sign cooperation agreements with five other museums created in the same mold under the auspices of the Artisans of Florence.

Pueblo’s is the newest of the museums, which will display works created by the Artisans using da Vinci’s 15th and 16th century scientific drawings of machines that show concepts of flight, drones, robotics and more. The museums in Florence, South Korea and Pueblo are permanent; organizations in Australia and Brazil offer traveling exhibits. Also, the Artisans have a new partner in China but there are no details on location or type of museum, Tom Rizzo, a spokesperson for the Artisans, said in an email.

While the partnerships and cooperation among the small group of museums was celebrated in Italy, the buzz on the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo, or HARP, was all about when the museum and the new boathouse and event center would open.  “I’m trying to get moved into the (boathouse) building, and people keep showing up trying to get in,” said Lynn Clark, executive director of the riverwalk. “There’s a lot of excitement in town.”

As she spoke on the phone, she paused to tell someone, “We’re not open yet — next week.”

Joel Carpenter is one of three artists in residence at the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum of North America. Carpenter, a Pueblo artist, has been working on his interpretation of The Last Supper and expects to finish in early July, so early visitors to the museum may see him working on the mural. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Likewise, passersby regularly peer into the wall of full-length windows on the museum’s Riverwalk-facing side. While most are covered by ceiling-to-floor shades to keep out the harsh — and hot — southern Colorado sun, some of the curious feel lucky enough to get a glimpse of Pueblo artist Joel Carpenter working on an interpretation of da Vinci’s Last Supper painting above the ticketing and gift shop area. Or perhaps they happen by when museum founder Joe Arrigo has a rare spare minute to allow them to peek inside.

The fact that the two buildings will open within a few weeks of each other is serendipitous. The long-planned nearly $16 million river channel expansion and boathouse project was coming together just as Arrigo proposed housing the museum in a building that was abandoned by the Professional Bull Riders after 17 years in Pueblo.

“There’s occasionally this crease of time where you align with elected officials and can get things done,” Clark said, noting several riverwalk projects. “I’ve been here 16 years and it’s happened three times — with the Veterans Bridge, Gateway Park and this expansion. Sometimes you have to wait for that alignment to have enough people in your corner.“We’re having this moment here now.”

Channel expansion

The Pueblo Riverwalk runs along the historic channel of the Arkansas River, which was diverted from downtown Pueblo after the devastating flood that destroyed much of downtown and killed hundreds of people in 1921. A large levee was built along 2.8 miles of the diverted river to keep potential flood waters away from the town. A couple of parking lots were built in the original river channel, but mostly it was a weedy expanse running through downtown until a group of visionaries in the early 1990s proposed a riverwalk. A 1995 bond approved by voters secured $12.85 million for the project and the riverwalk opened in October 2000.

Expansions were planned but took time and money. In 2016, voters exempted Pueblo County from the state Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights to allow the county to keep excess tax dollars for specific projects. The Riverwalk channel expansion was among them and the county kicked in $9 million for the project. Combined with a half-dozen other grants and funding sources, HARP was able to launch the project. 

The Boathouse is part of the Phase IV $15 million expansion of Pueblo’s Historic Riverwalk that also includes extending the Riverwalk channel. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

The three-story boathouse, which opened April 23, will house the tourist boats that ply the waterway with a narrated tale of Pueblo history and information. The first floor will have a ticket booth and gift and snack shop, and the second floor will house riverwalk authority offices, which were moved from a building across the waterway, and a conference room that can be rented. The top floor has an open-air venue that also can be rented.  “We need to generate enough revenue in the building to pay for its existence,” Clark said, noting that a sponsorship by Pueblo Toyota means that it will be called the Pueblo Toyota Boathouse for at least the next five years.

The moves free up a couple of prime riverwalk spaces that Clark hopes to see developed. The riverwalk authority put out an RFP a year ago for 125 Riverwalk Place where a hotel could be developed, but the one interested party didn’t get funding. Clark said HARP is teaming with the Pueblo Urban Renewal Authority and the city to attempt to renew interest in a similar project. “It doesn’t have to be a hotel,” she said, but noted that Pueblo needs more downtown hotel rooms, and having one that fronts the Riverwalk and is within walking distance of the Pueblo Convention Center would be an ideal addition. HARP zoning requires that channel-level buildings be restaurant/bar, entertainment, service or retail establishments. Upper levels can house offices. “In the summer, you cannot get a seat on a patio downtown,” she said.

The riverwalk authority also is leasing its former boathouse ticket office and concession stand at 101 S. Union, a 472-square-foot commercial space that Clark suggested would be ideal for a coffee/ice cream/candy shop. “We don’t have a coffee shop directly on the Riverwalk,” she said.

The gleaming sports performance center with those full-length windows fronted the riverwalk. It was filled with city-owned workout equipment, including two mechanical bulls. The PBR leased the prime location for a bargain $1,500 a month, or $18,000 a year, but never used it much. It never attracted the 30,000 visitors a year who were anticipated, and by the end of 2024, PBR had moved its headquarters and everything else to Fort Worth, Texas.PBR sold its office building that was a bit farther down the riverwalk; that building is now owned by the city and is used for administrative offices.

Enter the idea for the Leonard da Vinci Museum.

Transforming a sports center

By the time PBR left the city, leaders had agreed to lease the sports center space to the museum, which would pay the urban renewal authority $142,744 a year, almost eight times the rent that PBR had paid.

Contracts were signed with the city and with the Artisans of Florence, and the transformation of the building began in early 2025. Arrigo optimistically suggested the museum could open in late 2025.  But it takes a bit of time and imagination to convert a building with therapy pools, workout rooms and locker rooms into a museum and educational center. And there was fundraising to do.

Now, the grand opening is set for June 12. Arrigo said they are about halfway to the $4 million fundraising goal, which they expect to hit this year.  Meanwhile, local artists and contractors have remade the interior, where today visitors feel like they’re walking into the Tuscan countryside.

Bonnie Waugh, one of three artists in residence at Pueblo’s Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America, shares her impressions of da Vinci’s contributions to the arts. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Pueblo artist Bonnie Waugh recently drove a lift through the building to an arched doorway, where she was adding color to a sketched design. She pointed out two figures on a nearby wall that she had worked on for six to eight weeks. She had added some insects around the female figure and was debating whether the male needed some too.

“I’ve done bigger projects, but this one has my heart,” she said, noting that she believes da Vinci, scientist who he was, would approve of their use of virtual reality equipment to get some images on the walls. “It has been fun to see it step by step. It’s such an amazing project for this region.” Handcrafted machines made by the Artisans of Florence have been placed throughout the main exhibit hall and flying machines hang overhead. Pueblo has about 200 pieces that will rotate through the exhibit space.

The education center has done pilot programs, is developing a partnership with Pueblo School District 60 and has summer camp programs for this year.

The Leonardo Da Vinci Museum of North America celebrates the works of the prolific Italian Renaissance man in the fields of art, science, and transportation. The Pueblo museum opens in June. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun) Replicas of all da Vinci’s codices will be housed at the museum, some on rotating displays and some available to researchers. The museum is the only place in the world with a complete set of da Vinci’s scientific drawings, which were sold all over the world after his death. An Italian publishing company has slowly gathered facsimiles of the set — the last coming from the King of England, who owns the original botany and some animal files, Arrigo said.

When the museum opens its door on June 12, a few nooks and crannies will remain unfinished. Arrigo envisions converting a former staff locker room area to accommodate  health care and anatomy displays. “We want to inspire curiosity and ultimately career development,” he said. He has emphasized the educational components of the museum from the outset and hopes to serve school districts throughout southern Colorado that don’t have the resources to travel to Denver.

He’s not sleeping much and noted with some relief that a new deputy director had been hired. Although he doesn’t use the title of director, he has been fulfilling the role.  “We still have holes,” he said. “We need someone to handle the docents and volunteers. We need to have a large fundraising event — we have to do that soon.”

But then there was that quick trip to Florence to celebrate with the sister museums. Arrigo, who paid his own way, was accompanied by a representative from Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade’s Business Funding and Incentives division. Also, several museum board members, donors, HARP board chair David Anderson and Pueblo Public Works Director Andrew Hayes paid their own way to attend the Florence celebration.

With the opening deadline looming, Arrigo is back to the proverbial grindstone.
“I think with the boathouse next door we’ll be a catalyst for a lot more activity on the riverwalk,” he said, gesturing to a spot in the Gateway Park garden where a locally created Vitruvian Man sculpture will feature a rotating da Vinci quotation (in English, Spanish and Italian): “Learning never exhausts the mind.”

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