Author: Scott McKinney

2026 marks the 250th birthday of the United States and the 150th birthday of the state of Colorado. In recognition of these anniversaries Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, in partnership with a number of community organizations, is planning on presenting a Year of Conversations.  

The Year of Conversations is designed to create spaces of community building, share civic tools to incorporate into our own lives, and explore our shared history while preserving, protecting and building our democracy and community together.  

Please join us in these conversations and plan on attending as many programs as possible. Our calendar will be filling up as the year goes on so please check back frequently to see the latest opportunities to be a part of the 250/150 conversation. 

CALENDAR OF EVENTS: 

faith 250: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Tuesday May 12th, 6:00-8:00pm
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery 

 Register Here

Brick by Brick Historic Preservation, the Bicentennial Commission & Civic Action
May 21st, 7:00-8:00pm (Doors open at 6:30pm)
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery (dome) 

This year is the nation’s 250^th anniversary, and Colorado’s 150^th. Join staff from the Museum of Discovery and the City Historic Preservation office to explore how the Fort Collins community came together to celebrate the bicentennial in 1976, and how it created important momentum for the work of historic preservation in our city.

 We’ll learn how community leaders from across the city worked together to celebrate together and save some important reflections of Fort Collins’ identity, and about their foundational efforts to build what we’ve come to know as Fort Collins today.

Bring your learning hat and your sense of civic pride as we explore stories from Fort Collins past that reflect the important civic values of shared responsibility, memory, stewardship, and active citizenship of Fort Collins past, present, and future.

 This program is Pay What You Can, Tickets are required due to limited capacity.

Register Here

Courtyard Open House
May 30th, 11:00am-1:00pm
Heritage Courtyard at the Center for Creativity at the Historic Carnegie Library, 200 Mathews Street, Fort Collins, Colorado

Join us at the Heritage Courtyard this May for a special interactive open house celebrating Historic Preservation Month. We’ll explore the four historic structures and learn the “behind-the-scenes” stories of their survival. Discover how and why these important buildings were physically uprooted, transported, and restored.   

Free and open to the public – no tickets necessary, just drop in! 

We’ve Been Here the Whole Time: Fort Collins Queer History
Sunday, June 7, 7pm-8pm (doors open at 6:30pm)
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery (Dome)

Kick off your Pride celebration early and journey into a past before rainbows and pride flags. Since the 1800s, queer Fort Collins residents have defied gender norms, established businesses, demanded equal rights, and danced into the night surrounded by friends and allies. Discover the history and places of Fort Collins queer community on June 5th at the Museum of Discovery’s Digital Dome Theatre.

This program is FREE but donations are welcome! Tickets are required due to limited capacity.

Register Here

faith 250: The New Colossus
Tuesday June 9th, 6:00-8:00pm
CSU Campus 

Emma Lazarus was asked to write a poem for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty celebrating the triumph of liberty in the Civil War. She subverted that purpose with 14 lines of text that turned one of the nation’s most recognized monuments into a symbol of welcome.

Register Here

Without Apology: Black History and Civil Rights in Fort Collins – A Walking Tour and Archive Open House
Friday June 12, 2026
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, 408 Mason Court, Fort Collins, Colorado, 80524

Join staff from the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery and the City of Fort Collins Historic Preservation office to explore stories of Black/African American history in Fort Collins, and Black residents who fought for civil rights in their lifetimes. We’ll begin by touring through the neighborhood around Washington Park to visit a few sites where important Black residents lived in the city, and then visit the Local History Archive at the Museum for an open house featuring resources our community has saved to help keep these stories alive.

Please wear comfortable shoes and sunscreen. The group will meet in the main lobby of the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery at 408 Mason Court in Fort Collins. This event is free but capped at 30 people, so please register for tickets. We will provide an indoor “virtual walking tour” experience if needed due to inclement weather.

Register Here

TED Democracy Philadelphia: Founding Futures
Saturday, June 13th
9:00am – 3:30pm
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, 408 Mason Court, Fort Collins, Colorado, 80524

On Saturday, June 13, 2026, in partnership with Poudre Libraries, we will host a livestream of TED Democracy Philadelphia: Founding Futures, a daylong symposium featuring 15+ original TED Talks focused on the future of democracy.

Speaker announcements coming soon!

Sign up for our newsletter, to stay up to date on speaker announcements

Streaming live from Philadelphia leading up to America’s 250th birthday celebrations, this landmark event convenes bold thinkers and civic leaders to share ideas and solutions designed to inform and inspire.

Through a collaboration with Visit Philadelphia and the American Library Association, and sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts, libraries across the country are hosting satellite livestream events — expanding access to these critical conversations and fostering local engagement nationwide.

We’re proud to serve as a host site and bring this important civic moment to our local community.

Event Details

Saturday, June 13, 2026

All Events Hosted at Fort Collins Museum of Discovery

• 9:00AM-10:30AM
• 12:00PM-1:30PM
• 2:00PM-3:30PM

Free and open to the public!

What to Expect

● Livestream of 15+ brand-new TED Talks from the stage in Philadelphia

● A welcoming space for shared civic engagement

● Opportunities for reflection and conversation

You must register for each of the three talks individually.

Sign up for our newsletter, to stay up to date on speaker announcements!

Courtyard Open House
June 20th, 11:00am-1:00pm
Heritage Courtyard at the Center for Creativity at the Historic Carnegie Library, 200 Mathews Street, Fort Collins, Colorado

Join us at the Heritage Courtyard this June for an interactive open house where we’ll discover the trees and flowers that make their home in the courtyard! We’ll also learn more about the ponderosa pines that were used to construct some of the historic cabins. Finally, we’ll use natural inspiration to create paper flowers and botanical art to take home.  

Free and open to the public – no tickets necessary, just drop in! 

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PREVIOUS YEAR OF CONVERSATION EVENTS: 

Without Apology: Black History & Civil Rights in Fort Collins 
Friday, February 20th, 2:00–4:00pm
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery  

  Join staff from the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery and the City of Fort Collins Historic Preservation Office for an afternoon exploring Black/African American history in Fort Collins.  

  This guided walking tour begins in the Washington Park neighborhood, highlighting sites where influential Black residents lived, followed by an open house at the Local History Archive. Together, we’ll explore the stories, records, and community-held resources that help keep these histories alive.  

Human Library
February 22nd, 2:00-5:00pm
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery 

Unjudge someone—Join us for the Human Library where human “books” have conversations with human “readers” and share their personal story and their experience living in Fort Collins.  

faith 250: The Declaration of Independence 
Thursday, March 5th, 6:00-8:00pm
First Presbyterian Church 

No words capture the American imagination as powerfully as Jefferson’s assertions in the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration simultaneously asks us to explore who we intend to be and the resistance to achieving those aims.

Women’s Suffrage Walking and Archive Tour
Friday, March 27th, 2:00-4:00pm
Center for Creativity – 200 Mathews Street, Fort Collins

Join Fort Collins Museum of Discovery and the City Historic Preservation teams to explore stories of Women’s History in Fort Collins, and women who influenced the city in their lifetimes. In celebration of Women’s History Month, we’ll be touring through the neighborhood around Library Park to visit a few sites where women who helped shape our community lived and worked.

We’ll then venture inside the Center for Creativity at the Carnegie for a virtual tour of women’s history as told through the Museum of Discovery’s unique archives and collections.

Location is the Center for Creativity – 200 Mathews Street, Fort Collins.

faith 250: America the Beautiful
Tuesday April 7th, 6:00-8:00pm
LoveFirst Community 

Katharine Lee Bates’ anthem emerged out of her travels. Her repeated prayer that God “Crown Thy good with brotherhood” asks us to consider the role of unity, fellowship, solidarity, community, and other forms of social cohesions in our understanding of the national good.

Civic Saturday
April 11th, 1:00-3:00pm
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery 

Courtyard Open House
April 18 11:00-1:00
Heritage Courtyard at the Center for Creativity at the Historic Carnegie Library, 200 Mathews Street, Fort Collins, Colorado

This spring, we are highlighting the 1905 Upper Boxelder Creek Schoolhouse with an interactive open house for all ages. 

• Play: Try your hand at traditional 1900s games. 

• Learn: Explore the architecture and stories of our one-room school. 

• Create: Participate in schoolhouse-themed activities and crafts. 

 Free and open to the public – no tickets necessary, just drop in! 

We are incredibly excited to present two amazing special exhibitions this fall and winter as we bring you Skin: Living Armor, Evolving Identity (Oct 12, 2024 – January 26, 2025) and The Bias Inside Us (November 27^th – December 31^st). Both exhibits are designed to spark dialogue and reflection on human culture and identity through science and history.   beginning with Skin which explores the physical, historical, and cultural elements of the human body’s largest organ.

From questions like “what’s a rhino’s horn made from?” (hint: it’s the same protein that makes up human hair and nails – keratin!) to an exploration of how geography and climate have impacted the evolution of skin pigmentation, this engaging exhibit will inspire you to reconsider everything from what’s in the dust in your home to the way you see the world. FCMoD hopes you’ll take home a deeper understanding of our shared humanity and recognize that we – as humans – are more alike than we are different. This installation is presented in both English and Spanish.

Skin: Living Armor, Evolving Identity was created by the California Academy of Sciences and modified for travel and distributed by the Science Museum of Minnesota.

On November 27^th, The Bias Inside Us will take its place alongside Skin as we explore how the human mind’s chemistry can lead us to a place of inherent bias. This community engagement project from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) will raise awareness about the social science and psychology of implicit bias, the impact of this bias and what people can do about it. This exhibit is brought to you in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES).

Both these exhibits are free for Members and included with the price of admission. If you enjoy this kind of programming, we encourage you to make a donation through our Give More campaign which helps create access for community members experiencing economic need.

https://46395.blackbaudhosting.com/46395/Give-More

We look forward to bringing these fascinating and thought-provoking exhibits to you!