Preliminary work is underway on a project that will lead to the creation of a museum in Pueblo, Colorado honoring the works and creativity of the great artist Leonardo da Vinci.
The museum will be carved out of space in an existing three-story building located at 101 E. Riverwalk, near the Pueblo Convention Center.
That structure was built at a cost of nearly $11 million well over a decade ago and had been the home of the Professional Bull Riders Sports Performance Center. But in a move that surprised many city officials in Pueblo, the group Professional Bull Riders Incorporated moved out of the building last summer, relocating to Fort Worth.
But the sudden open facility space on the Riverwalk has proved fortuitous for the Southern Colorado Science Center which, working in conjunction with a group called the Artisans of Florence, have envisioned using the building’s 18,000 square feet for exhibit space, as well as a gift shop.
The project has even won the support of film maker Ken Burns, who last year saw the broadcast of his latest documentary, a two-part work called Leonardo da Vinci. Noting that the museum will exhibit various examples of da Vinci’s inventions and machines, Burns remarked that the machines “were just ideas for him, fanciful for a day or two, a week, an obsession that went on for a while, but all of a sudden, there’s the machine.”
Pueblo city officials, including Mayor Heather Graham, noting that the da Vinci Museum would be the first of its kind in North America, have expressed enthusiasm for the project. Graham has, in fact, appeared before the Colorado Economic Development Commission to secure state funding.
Two months ago, that commission said it wants to see more concrete numbers as well as an exclusivity agreement between the museum and the City of Pueblo before committing itself.
A second pitch is expected to be made before the commission later this year.
If the Pueblo Museum becomes reality, it will join a unique group of similar da Vinci museums currently operating in Italy, France, Australia, South Korea, and Brazil.
Da Vinci, perhaps most known for its Mona Lisa portrait and Last Supper mural, was also a skilled architect, engineer, and scientist.
In 1881, the London Evening Express took note of yet one more da Vinci preoccupation: “He was known to have been the inventor of the parachute, and to have devoted all of the leisure moments of his life to the art of flying.”
February 13, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
