As the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, Denver has historically defined itself as an agricultural center and supply stop for miners, hunters, and others headed west, though in recent decades, it has also become known as an avid sports town and a jumping-off point for skiers, kayakers, and those in pursuit of outdoor leisure. What it has never been known as is a cultural center, and a few critics have even taken glee in deriding it as a cow town.

But with the much-publicized opening of the Denver Art Museums $110 million expansion in 2006 and the string of art-museum projects that have followed, the city’s image has undergone a rapid and massive transformation. Suddenly, the Mile High City is being widely touted as an alluring new cultural destination. “Watch out, Santa Fe,” wrote Gene Sloan in an extensive travel piece in USA Today last October. “There’s a new art mecca taking shape in the Rockies.”

This new reputation as a cultural hotspot has been much on the minds of planners as Denver prepares to host the Democratic National Convention in late August — and to accommodate the estimated 50,000 visitors and swirl of international attention sure to accompany the event. The gathering ranks among the most prominent events to ever take place in Denver, and officials see it as an unprecedented opportunity to shape national and even international perceptions of the city. It’s not surprising, then, that when discussions turned to possible outreach events to accompany the convention, the visual arts were front and center. “It just seemed natural to create an event whose focus was creativity and culture, because of the amazing explosion of cultural growth that we’ve had here in the past years,” said Erin Trapp, director of Denver’s Office of Cultural Affairs. “It would be missing a huge opportunity if we didn’t.”

To that end, the cultural affairs office has organized “Dialog:City,” an innovative nine-day series of events that deal with such issues as global warming and homelessness and aim to stimulate civic engagement. Among the artists and designers taking part are Korean architect Minsuk Cho and U.S.-based artists Ann Hamilton, D.J. Spooky, and Krzysztof Wodiczko. Supported entirely by private funding, the event has a price tag so far of $370,000, not including in-kind donations.

“Dialog:City” may be the most visible artistic event accompanying the convention, but it’s hardly the only one. The Denver Art Museum is offering a day of free admission in celebration of the opening of the convention on August 25, and area art spaces are putting together a variety of socio-politically themed exhibitions to run throughout. One highlight is “Inside/Outside/North & South,” a collaboration between local teens and their counterparts in Mexico and Bolivia that explores issues of prejudice and stereotyping, on view through September 14 at the Museo de las Américas. In another high-profile collaboration, artist Shepard Fairey, the political-action group MoveOn.org, and the San Francisco–based gallery/apparel line Upper Playground have teamed up to show art supporting Barack Obama for president, including works by such artists as David Choe, Sam Flores, and Mel Kadel, as well as five others chosen through a national contest; the show will be on view August 24–28 in a temporary space dubbed the Manifest Hope Art Gallery. And the Robischon Gallery is offering “Dialog:Denver,” for which 17 Colorado artists created their own political yard signs in conjunction with "Dialog:City," through September 20.

Visitors to the DNC will also have the opportunity to explore a metropolitan area in the midst of a museum-building boom. Leading the way in 2006 was the Denver Art Museum’s sharply debated addition, a jutting, faceted design by Daniel Libeskind. Opening at virtually the same time was the Lab at Belmar, a kind of artistic think tank with exhibition space located in a suburban retail development. The $1.7 million facility, with interior spaces designed by California architect Hagy Belzberg, has presented shows by such art world notables as Isaac Julien, Liam Gillick, and Fang Lijun.

Last fall, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver unveiled its new $16.5 million home in Denver’s fast-developing Central Platte Valley district. The subtle, light-infused glass structure was the first major public project completed in the United States by rising London architect David Adjaye. Currently under construction is a building for the Clyfford Still Museum, scheduled to open in 2010, six years after Patricia Still, the Abstract Expressionist's widow, chose Denver as the repository for his estate. It will house more than 2,400 works — 94 percent of the famously gallery-shy artist's output. And going up just outside the city is a new home for the University of Colorado at Boulders art museum, part of a $63.5 million visual arts complex slated for completion in December 2009.

And museums are not the only thing awaiting DNC attendees. Those passing through the Denver International Airport will see Mustang, the latest large-scale addition to the city’s growing public art collection, nearly 300 works strong. The 32-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture of a rearing horse is the crowning achievement of famed New Mexican artist Luis Jimenez, who died when a section of the piece fell and killed him in his Hondo, New Mexico, studio in June 2006. His family oversaw the work’s completion, and it was installed in February. Visitors can also peruse dozens of art galleries in Denver’s several formal and informal art neighborhoods. The newest of these is the River North Art District, which was founded in November 2005, and the best known is the art district on Santa Fe Drive, whose First Friday art walks draw several thousand participants monthly.

Forget those old notions of Denver. The cow town has become chic town.