Latest news with #AmandaPrecourt
CBS News
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Colorado woman transforms old fortune cookie factory into art gallery
Tucked away in a central Denver neighborhood is a building with a story to tell, an old 1940s fortune cookie factory turned art gallery. "I come down here a lot and just sort of contemplate life and the world," said Cookie Factory founder, Amanda Precourt, of an exhibit that's tapped into more than 600 public cameras all over the world that always show a sunrise and a sunset. CBS At the time, the cameras showed a sunrise in Bali, Indonesia, and a sunset in Philipsburg, St. Maarten. It's no surprise the room is one of Precourt's favorite spots in the building she purchased and fell in love with nearly a decade ago. "There were two inches of water and fortune cookies, like the fortunes floating everywhere, and vats that were made for making cookies still in here at the time," said Precourt. "I knew that it would really be amenable and really a positive place to have art of some kind, and came to the space the Cookie Factory is by a series of good fortune." Eight years in the making, the Cookie Factory opened to the public, free of charge, in May. For Amanda, the mission behind the privately funded space is personal. CBS "I hope that the Cookie Factory will allow others to heal through art, as I have in my life. Art has been a very important space and place for me to find mental wellness," said Precourt. "People can use this as a place to gather and connect with friends and be with art, and also to come in total silence and just sit and be with the art, if that is what they need." Its inaugural exhibition features work by artist Sam Falls, created in Colorado's Yampa River Valley. "There's a great quote about art, that art is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," said Jason Jensdotter, who co-founded Cookie Factory. "I don't know if I agree with it all the way, but food for thought. I think this is a show that definitely comforts. It's based in nature. It is very poetic. There's a lot of poetry to these pieces." CBS The "Nothing without nature" exhibit will run through September, then switch to a new artist. As far as a long-term vision, Precourt is dedicated to keeping it a place for the community. "I really want Cookie Factory to be received and seen as a gift that I'm making to the city," said Precourt. "I just hope that we add more discussion and more space and more places for people to get together and talk about important subjects that art sometimes can elicit."
Axios
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Old cookie factory is Denver's newest (and free!) art gallery
An abandoned 1940s fortune cookie factory in Denver's Baker neighborhood reopens Saturday as a contemporary art space that's free and open to the public. Why it matters: Cookie Factory isn't just another private collection dressed up as a museum. It's a fresh model that's intimate, immersive and rooted in Colorado. What they're saying: "We are commissioning artists and giving them the freedom to create new works inspired by their visits to Colorado and in response to the architecture of the space," owner and developer Amanda Precourt told 303 Magazine. "All work on view is brand new, debuting just for our city." The big picture: Precourt — a mental health advocate who's spoken openly about her struggles with anxiety and depression — sees art as a form of healing. Collecting is one of "the myriad ways that art has saved me," she said in a New York Times interview. Zoom in: Precourt's 5,000-square-foot gallery, which sits on the ground floor of her two-story home, took her almost a decade to secure and renovate, the Times reports. The space will host two solo exhibitions each year — with the debut show, " Nothing Without Nature" by Los Angeles-based Sam Falls, opening Saturday. The intrigue: Precourt has worked with more than 20 galleries, per the NYT. She's also funding one of this spring's biggest contemporary shows — " Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers" — at the Guggenheim in New York City.
New York Times
07-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
This Patron of the Arts in Denver Was ‘Saved by Collecting'
Some collectors buy art because they enjoy it, some do it to show off and some simply want to fill their walls. For others, collecting is a true lifeline, and Amanda Precourt falls into that category. Precourt, a real estate developer who lives in Denver, is also a mental health advocate and philanthropist who has been frank about her own struggles. She and her father, Jay Precourt, were the lead funders of the Precourt Healing Center, an inpatient behavioral health facility in Edwards, Colo. — opening this week near the Vail ski resort — where she also has a home. 'I've been speaking out about it for seven or eight years,' said Precourt, 51. 'I've always struggled with anxiety and depression. Eventually, I just said, 'This is who I am, I don't want to hide it anymore.'' Her openness and advocacy has overlapped with, and informed, a burst of serious art buying. Collecting, she said, is one of 'the myriad ways that art has saved me.'
