Late to the Cause, Baryn Futa is Making Up For Lost Time

It is a simple fact that Baryn Futa didn't always have the deep appreciation for the arts that he has these days, as a prominent art collector and benefactor for artists themselves. Until he retired and began working with the Denver Art Museum (DAM), he was like everyone else; he liked art when he visited a museum, but he didn’t really think about art to any significant degree. However, his passion for art hit him like a thunderbolt when he began working with the DAM. Almost immediately, Baryn Futa started to use his time at the DAM to cultivate his love of the arts and art history, and few were more surprised than he. He used the opportunity to attend art fairs and museum exhibitions and anything else he could find, and Baryn attended numerous arts classes. Not long after that, he started his own art collection, which has grown to be very extensive and impressive.

These days, Baryn Futa seems to be making up for his time outside the art world, as if it was some sort of failure. These days, he holds memberships in a large number of prominent art museums with impressive collections of their own, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and The Jewish Museum. As often as possible, Baryn Futa also loans pieces from his own collection to museums. He does all this for one reason; he wants more people to appreciate the arts the way he does.

Not only does Baryn Futa collect art with an eye on preservation, and not just financial investment, but he also tries to support individual artists in a way that makes them thrive. He feels that artists are too under appreciated these days, and he finds the idea of a “starving artist” to be abhorrent. All true artists should thrive in their profession, and Baryn Futa does what he can to make that happen.