Union Hall

Union Hall is a nonprofit exhibition space on the ground floor of the Coloradan tower directly beside the Union Station tracks; you go through the doors by Sweetgreen and Kaffe Landskap and find it down the hall. It exists to give emerging Colorado artists and curators paid, professional shows, including the Rough Gems program for first-time curators, and the work is often installation-heavy and stranger than what the commercial galleries on Wazee hang. Admission is free, hours are Wednesday to Saturday noon to 6, and it goes dark for a week or two between shows, so check the site before walking over. Parking is in the Coloradan garage (entrance at 18th and Wewatta) or metered on the street.

Why go. Twenty free minutes of what young Denver artists are actually making.

Openings are the night to go; otherwise pair a Saturday visit with lunch on Wewatta and a walk over the 18th Street bridge to the river.