Artists and visitors gathered at Tava House in Woodland Park on Saturday, Oct. 17, for a public celebration of new murals. The day also included a ribbon cutting with the Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce. The Gazette’s Pikes Peak Courier reported on Oct. 19 that visitors toured the venue and met artists whose work had been completed for the occasion. Tava House’s post-event history page likewise describes local artists and community leaders joining the celebration.
Before the gathering, Tava House announced a project bringing several artists’ work to the venue’s west-side concrete wall, with additional artwork at the Taproom entrance. In its Oct. 12 announcement, the company described the collection as a mix of individual styles rather than a single shared design. It listed Colorado aspens, wildlife, Western imagery and contemporary celestial art among the visual themes. Those themes and locations are the company’s description; the Gazette’s report adds event-specific details about completed works and the artists behind them.
One mural, “Renewal,” features a colorful butterfly painted by Gayle Gross, according to the Gazette. Gross told the newspaper that butterflies can represent a fresh start across cultures and faiths. She also connected the image with the site’s past, describing it as a place where the community had gathered before sitting empty for nearly two decades. That history is presented here as Gross’s account in the Gazette, rather than as an independently verified property timeline.
Lois Sprague painted “Love at First Sip,” another work described by the Gazette. The design draws on drinks served at Tava House and the people who come together there. Craft beer appears as one visual detail in the mural, not as the focus of the community event. The newspaper also reported that Sprague painted “The Story of Us” on the outside wall of Woodland Park’s Ute Pass Cultural Center and had recently refreshed that work. Her Tava House mural adds another public-facing piece by the artist in the area.
The two named works offer separate entry points into the wider project: Gross’s butterfly ties to her idea of renewal, while Sprague’s design draws on people gathering around drinks. Tava House’s current history page says seven artists participated in the Community Mural Project and calls the collection seven perspectives on one community canvas. The Gazette describes pieces on the exterior and inside the lower-level restaurant, but its descriptions of how the seven works divide between those spaces do not align. This account leaves out a precise indoor-outdoor count rather than asking the two reported examples to stand in for all seven.
The celebration brought the Chamber ceremony and art unveiling into the same public gathering. Debbie Miller, president of the Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce, led the ribbon cutting, the Gazette reported. Tours of Tava House and visits with artists followed. The event therefore gave visitors a chance to see the work in place and to talk with people who had made it, alongside the venue’s business-community milestone.
Tava House’s post-event history page says Saturday’s festivities also celebrated the Woodland Park Art Gallery’s expansion into the venue’s River Room. That detail comes from the company’s own account. The Gazette’s report covers the mural celebration, ribbon cutting, tours and artist visits but does not mention the River Room, so it is not presented as independently confirmed by the newspaper.
Before the event, Tava House said it hoped to connect the gallery with Woodland Park’s First Friday Art Walks and to invite a new group of artists to refresh the mural wall each year. Those remain company plans, not outcomes established by the Oct. 17 gathering. The announcement also linked future collections to the America’s Mountain Festival. Any later story about those programs would need to confirm whether the plans moved forward.
For guests who attended on Oct. 17, the murals were the visible result of work by seven artists, while the tours and conversations gave the gathering a chance for direct exchange. The Gazette documented those event-day activities; Tava House’s own recap adds the River Room expansion and its longer-term ambitions. The new art is now part of the venue, while the proposed art walks and annual refresh remain ahead.
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