Today is the final day to see Half-Life of Memory at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities.
It also happens to be Mother’s Day - the anniversary of one of the most significant accidents in Rocky Flats Plant history, often referred to as “The Day We Almost Lost Denver.”
On Mother’s Day, May 11, 1969, a major fire broke out inside the plant’s plutonium processing building, burning enough plutonium to make seventy-seven atomic bombs. The fire released an unknown amount of plutonium into the atmosphere and became the most expensive industrial accident in U.S. history at the time. Had it not been for the courageous actions of firefighters who risked their lives to contain the blaze, Denver may have been rendered uninhabitable.
More than half a century later, the legacy of Rocky Flats continues to shape surrounding communities, landscapes, memories, and ongoing debates surrounding nuclear weapons, environmental contamination, and long-term stewardship.
The exhibit brings together artworks and artifacts that explore these histories and their lasting impacts.
If you’ve been meaning to stop by, today is the last chance.
#HalfLifeOfMemory #RockyFlats #ArvadaCenter #NuclearHistory #ColoradoHistory
In addition to paintings, drawings, etchings, sculptures, photos, and multimedia pieces, the exhibit includes hundreds of artifacts connected to Rocky Flats' history and legacy.
Half-Life of Memory closes after Sunday at the Arvada Center.
Half-Life of Memory closes after Sunday. It’s been great to see people spending time with and responding to the interactive works. Pictured here are Critical Mass, Body Burden, and View From The Road.
Interesting fact of the day - Rocky Flats workers unearthed fossils of a million-year-old horse in 1999 while excavating a trench meant to keep contaminated runoff from flowing into Rock Creek.
'Broncos/Horses'
Sculptures, Drawings, and Etchings
"During the Cold War, Rocky Flats served as the ‘workhorse’ of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, manufacturing roughly 70,000 plutonium triggers—each designed to ignite a nuclear explosion up to one thousand times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. These metaphorical depictions set aside victory or defeat and instead reflect on the lasting physical and moral consequences of nuclear weapons production."
Only a few days remaining to see the Half-Life of Memory exhibit at the Arvada Center
'Untitled (After Our Lives and Our Children: Photographs Taken Near the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant)'
Steel wool, steel, projection mapping
2011
“In the photobook’s foreword, Adams writes, ‘the individuals shown were within hazardous proximity of the Rocky Flats Plant. Their peril is representative, however, of a wider threat to all of us from nuclear weapons, one that continues in different forms to this day.’”
Four days left to see Half-Life of Memory at the Arvada Center.
-Video 3x speed-
#HalfLifeOfMemory #RockyFlats #RockyFlatsNationalWildlifeRefuge #ArvadaCenter #Arvada
'Alchemy: Photographs Taken near the Former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant ' Photograph series, marketing signs 2013 - present
"As memory fades and construction accelerates, Alchemy looks at how land is reshaped both physically and culturally, through development, language, and time. It questions what is remembered, what is forgotten, and what remains unseen within a rapidly changing landscape."
Final 5 days to see Half-Life of Memory at the Arvada Center.
Thank you to everyone who's stopped by the Half-Life of Memory exhibit. The response and level of engagement have been incredible.
Thank you again to the amazing curators, @collinparson and @olive.j.20 , for this opportunity and for bringing the community together around this exhibit and this important part of our story.
Half-Life of Memory closes at the end of the week - please stop by if you have a chance.
#HalfLifeOfMemory #ArvadaCenter #Arvada #RockyFlats #RockyFlatsNationalWildlifeRefuge
Thanks to everyone who came out for the artist talk and screening. There were a few heated moments, which is to be expected given the impact Rocky Flats has had on the community and the many perspectives around it. Let’s have these discussions. Let’s talk about it, let’s disagree. Whatever we do, let’s not forget.
Thank you to everyone at the Arvada Center who made these events possible, and to the incredible panelists.
Half-Life of Memory is on view at the Arvada Center through May 10.
-Photo 1 by the amazing Jon Lipsky
Thanks to Erin O'Toole and KUNC for highlighting the Half-Life of Memory exhibit and film, and for revisiting our conversation!
"If you visit the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Denver, you see different types of wildlife, miles of hiking and biking trails and acres of rolling prairie.
But you don’t see any trace of the astonishing history of what happened there during the Cold War: Rocky Flats was the site of a plant that made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons until it was shuttered in the early 1990s."
"Filmmaker Jeff Gipe explores that history in a recent documentary, Half-Life of Memory: America’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory. Gipe grew up in nearby Arvada. His father worked at the plant in the 1980s."
"The documentary is available on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, and will be screened this Sunday, April 26 at the Arvada Center - along with a new art exhibit running through May 10."
/podcast/inthenoco/2026-04-24/what-rocky-flats-meant-to-the-workers-who-helped-create-nuclear-weapons-there-during-the-cold-war
There's just over two weeks left to see Half-Life of Memory at the Arvada Center.
The April 26 screening of Half-Life of Memory: America’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory is sold out, but the film is available to stream for free on several platforms. You can also join a free virtual screening and panel hosted by the Union of Concerned Scientists on April 28.
Register for the virtual screening here:
/halflifeofmemory/play/69dd425ad3678edd6062579c/69dd427f0c09a2e5f18cae0d
Film info and streaming links:
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Exhibit info:
/events/jeff-gipe-half-life-of-memory
