Cemetery Seeks To Change Image With Concerts and Exhibits

The management of Wheat Ridge, Colorado's Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery wants to change its image by hosting special events including art exhibits and concerts. The 103-year-old burial ground hopes that the events will change perceptions of their cemetery as "something more than a spot for solemn rituals." From the article: "The push to make the cemetery feel more like an ordinary part of the community began a few years ago and is gaining momentum. Crown Hill now urges people to tour the grounds and examine works by the Mexican artist and architect Dionicio Rodriguez — his only pieces in the state are scattered throughout the grounds."

Comments

Slightly wrong approach

[Locke2005]

They just need to advertise it as the hip new hangout spot for goths!

Re:Slightly wrong approach

[Cryacin]

Spoken like someone who thankfully has yet to have the misfortune of losing someone.

Re:Slightly wrong approach

[Locke2005]

Actually, I have lost my sister. But death is as natural a part of life as birth. And cemeteries don't contain people; they contain some of the chemicals that were part of a person at the time of their death, but that person has been exchanging parts of themself with their environment for their entire life -- with every breath you take, you are a different person. I just think cemeteries would be more popular as goth hangouts than as places for concerts and wine tasting -- which is my way of calling this a stupid idea.

Re:Slightly wrong approach

[Da Cheez]

They just need to advertise it as the hip new hangout spot for goths!

Cemeteries make great hangout spots for more than just goths. For my friends and I in high school, the favorite spot to meet and talk and spar (we were all kind of martial arts nuts) was the local cemetery, and none of us were or are goths. The graveyard just provided a nice quiet place to have fun without worrying about bumping into little children or elderly folks like we would in the park. The grounds were better and more pleasantly kept than in the park, as well. We made sure not to disturb graves or markers, especially while sparring (we reserved that for open areas where anyone was yet to be planted), and so local authorities and the groundskeeper never had a problem with us being there.

When home from college, some of us still meet there and chat, though we don't spar quite as much anymore.

Grave markers can make for interesting reading, too.

Re:Slightly wrong approach

[SleazyRidr]

My mother always made a point to visit the local cemeteries whenever we traveled.

I just made the joke; 'you know no-one living around here has been buried in this cemetery for 85 years?'

A whole new meaning ...

[Anonymous Coward]

That gives "dancing on somebody's grave" a whole new meaning.

I hear

[v1]

people are just dying to visit the place!