Denver conference planners have arranged several tours for you to get to know downtown Denver, Denver’s parks, neighborhoods and cemeteries, and the cities of Colorado Springs and Boulder.

• Downtown Architecture Walking Tour: learn about Denver’s notable architecture and colorful downtown history through such buildings as the Richardsonian Romanesque Brown Palace Hotel, the Equitable Building, with its Tiffany glass windows, gleaming marble floors and walls, mosaic and ornate brass and bronze staircases, and Larimer Square, which has the second largest concentration of western Victorian buildings west of the Mississippi.

• Public Art Walking Tour: in downtown Denver, painting and sculpture by 19th-century artists Allen Tupper True and Alexander Phimster Proctor comingles with work by contemporary artists Bernar Venet, Sol LeWitt, Fernando Botero and Jonathon Borofsky. See the “big blue bear” by Lawrence Argent, one of the conference plenary speakers.

• Denver Performing Arts Complex: this behind-the-scenes tour provides a unique look at the Arts Complex and showcases rarely seen areas such as Actor’s Alley, where hand-painted replicas of Broadway show posters adorn the walls and feature autographs of cast members. See theatre design and construction first hand in the Tramway Building where all of the props, costumes, lighting and scenery are created for the Denver Center Theatre Company, and the stunning Ellie Caulkins Opera House, which is a 2,225-seat venue with flowing lines resembling a lyre lined with cherry wood.

For the full list of tours with their dates and times, check the conference web site: http://arlisna-mw.lib.byu.edu/denver2008/