Dan Jacobs is the first full-time director of the Vicki Myhren Gallery at the University of Denver, where he is also the founding Curator of the University Art Collections. Before coming to DU, Jacobs was a consulting scholar and co-curator for several exhibition and research projects at the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego. In a senior position at the Getty Conservation Institute in the 1980s, he represented his division in the planning of the Richard Meier-designed Getty campus in Los Angeles. As Assistant Director at the Denver Art Museum from 1990 to 1998, he managed both the exhibition program and over $12 million in construction and interpretive projects. He’s also consulted on major museum renovation and expansion projects in Toronto, Seattle and San Francisco. He received his BA from Harvard College in Art History, followed by an M.B.A. from UCLA. In 2004 he received the M.A. in Art History from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Jacobs’ interests now focus on the unique value of teaching directly from art collections, both for future museum professionals and other students.

Gwen Chanzit is curator of Modern Art and the Herbert Bayer Collection and Archive at the Denver Art Museum. She has organized exhibitions on artists ranging from Matisse and Bonnard to Dana Schutz. Among recent exhibition projects are Figure to Field, Mark Rothko in the 1940s, Herbert Bayer: Berlin Graphics 1928-1938, Fracture: Cubism and After, Joan Miró: Instinct and Imagination, Starring Linda: A Trio of John DeAndrea Sculptures, Herbert Bayer: New York and Aspen Paintings 1938-1974, and Gunther Gerzso: A Mexican Master.

Most recent is Women of Abstract Expressionism, a traveling exhibition that opened at the Denver Art Museum in June and will travel for a year. A comprehensive catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Regarded as the world expert on internationally renowned Bauhaus artist Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), Chanzit regularly rotates installations of the Denver Art Museum’s Bayer Collection that now numbers more than 8,000 works. She has published four books and several articles and catalogs on this Austrian born Bauhaus artist who spent 28 years in Aspen.

Chanzit holds a Ph.D. in art history and contributes to future generations of museum professionals as director of museum studies for the University of Denver’s graduate program in art history.

Gwen Chanzit is curator of Modern Art and the Herbert Bayer Collection and Archive at the Denver Art Museum. She has organized exhibitions on artists ranging from Matisse and Bonnard to Dana Schutz. Among recent exhibition projects are Figure to Field, Mark Rothko in the 1940s, Herbert Bayer: Berlin Graphics 1928-1938, Fracture: Cubism and After, Joan Miró: Instinct and Imagination, Starring Linda: A Trio of John DeAndrea Sculptures, Herbert Bayer: New York and Aspen Paintings 1938-1974, and Gunther Gerzso: A Mexican Master.

Most recent is Women of Abstract Expressionism, a traveling exhibition that opened at the Denver Art Museum in June and will travel for a year. A comprehensive catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Regarded as the world expert on internationally renowned Bauhaus artist Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), Chanzit regularly rotates installations of the Denver Art Museum’s Bayer Collection that now numbers more than 8,000 works. She has published four books and several articles and catalogs on this Austrian born Bauhaus artist who spent 28 years in Aspen.

Chanzit holds a Ph.D. in art history and contributes to future generations of museum professionals as director of museum studies for the University of Denver’s graduate program in art history.

Speaker & Moderator

Shannon Robinson is a former corporate litigator who retired to become the president of a nonprofit foundation known as Windows to the Divine which promotes patronage and philanthropy through the arts. Through exhibitions, symposia and salons, the foundation encourages everyone to become a patron of the arts by collecting original art and supporting the vocation of the living artist. The foundation also promotes the vocation and charitable works of the Dominicans in Denver in their service of the poor and elderly.

Since 1999, Shannon has served as the curator and chairperson of the Windows to the Divine biennial national exhibitions. In 2015, through the foundation, she launched a national network of collectors and artists called Collectors for Connoisseurship (C4C) which provides educational programming and access to special arts events such as “The Renaissance of Realism” symposium held last year at the Denver Art Museum and the upcoming C4C Arts Weekend in 2016.

As an art collector for over 30 years, Shannon is passionate about the arts and education. Her work as an advocate for artists and art collecting has been featured in several arts publications, including Fine Art Connoisseur, Larry’s List and Southwest Art Magazine. With her Master’s certification from Regis University in Art History and Collecting, Shannon speaks on a wide range of topics at collector salons hosted by Windows to the Divine and its partners at museums and galleries in Colorado and around the country.