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 Boulder’s 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.