I moved to Denver, Colorado, in 2005 to study at the Daniels School of Business, University of Denver (MBA 2007).
Aside from wanting to learn about mainstream business practice, I hoped to gain insights into bridging the divide that often exists between creatives and business people on non-profit governing boards.
Warhol in Colorado installation at the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, School of Art & Art History, University of Denver.
I graduated in 2007 right on the cusp of the great recession. Finding a position was difficult but I was fortunate to be hired by Dan Jacobs, director of the university's Victoria H. Myhren Gallery.
There, I was able to help mentor student interns, assist with teaching, and curate occasional shows. In March 2011, Dan and I organized a major project called Warhol in Colorado. I curated the photography components and also edited, helped design, and wrote for the exhibition catalog.
CPAC on Boulder Street, Denver, 2013
In 2009 I joined the board of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, a non-profit organization founded in 1963. In August 2011, I led CPAC's merger with Working With Artists, a photo non-profit situated in Lakewood, just outside the city limits. In January 2012, after some growing pains, I was appointed Executive Director. Managerially, I focused on professionalizing operations, broadening the scope of artists to emphasize contemporary practice, and diversifying income streams. As lead curator, I organized or curated numerous on- and off-site exhibitions, events, workshops, and reviews (see "Curatorial"). Perhaps most importantly, I engineered a move to downtown Denver, which was vital to improving visibility and raising the profile of the organization nationally.
In April 2015, I was principle organizer of a national weekend portfolio review, held at RedLine in conjunction with Denver's Month of Photography. The event was the largest and most successful portfolio review held in the city up to that time, and set a precedent for all future reviews.
Portfolio review weekend at Redline Denver, April 2015
In the fall of 2015 I embarked on a 12 month sabbatical to Eugene, Oregon. An interview with me, conducted soon after my arrival, can be found on Blake Andrews’ blog. I returned to Denver in August 2016. Since that time, my focus has been spent on consultations and editing via my company, Durrington Edits, and on researching Outside Influence, an anthology of post-WWII photography in Colorado 1945-95.