Once a fortune cookie mill, a 1940s building in Baker is reopening this weekend as an art space called, fittingly, the Cookie Factory. Visitors who crack open its doors will find something better than a proverb or lucky numbers: a 5,000-square-foot gallery, a sculpture garden, and video-screening rooms where motion arts play.

The brainchild of real estate developer and philanthropist Amanda J. Precourt, who lives above the gallery, Cookie Factory is free and open to the public.

A headshot of Amanda J. Precourt
Philanthropist Amanda J. Precourt. Photo by Kristen Thoen

Precourt says art helped her overcome mental health struggles in her 20s and 30s; now, she wants to give Denverites access to that same healing power. (Precourt serves on the Denver Art Museum board and funded its $4 million Amanda J. Precourt Gallery, which showcases design and architecture from the museum’s collection.)

All work shown at the Cookie Factory will be site-specific and created in Colorado. The first exhibiting artist, Sam Falls, created the giant canvases on display in fall 2024 while at Precourt’s ranch in the Yampa Valley. Falls has a background in photography and has evolved from a traditional printmaker into an artist who, while still utilizing exposure and time, brings the natural world into his process. The paintings in his show, Nothing Without Nature, were made with help from Mother Earth: Falls composed layers of botanicals and pigment on canvas and then left them to the elements, creating a time-lapse snapshot of the environment he was working in. Viewed from a distance, they look like landscapes, but up close, they appear more reminiscent of a woven tapestry.

Artist Sam Falls layers flowers onto a canvas in a field
Artist Sam Falls composed his large-scale paintings using flora and then exposed them to the elements. Photo courtesy of the Cookie Factory/Sam Falls
A woman walks in front of a large-scale painting
One of artist Sam Falls’ large-scale paintings displayed inside the Cookie Factory. Photo by Third Dune Productions/Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York

Precourt is committed to keeping the Cookie Factory noncommercial, meaning the art will not be for sale through the gallery and she will not profit from the venue. (If you fall in love with a piece, however, she can connect you to the artists’ representatives.) She says the space is meant to be a gift to the community—eventually not just for the display of art, but also as a venue for fundraising events, musical performances, and meetings for local organizations.

Precourt’s partner, the internationally exhibiting artist Andrew Jensdotter, serves as Cookie Factory’s director of exhibitions. Paris-based curator Jérôme Sans, who visits Denver often, is the artistic director.

The group’s eight years of planning, building, and collaboration will culminate this Saturday, May 24, when the public is invited to a block party, from 1 to 6 p.m., in celebration of Cookie Factory’s opening. Expect food trucks, live music, and bedazzle and face-painting stations, plus a Hula-Hoop class, a paper airplane contest, and a performance by Ari Zarret, an 11-year-old magician.

The Cookie Factory, at 425 West Fourth Avenue, is currently open on Wednesdays from 4 to 7 p.m., but the team intends to expand hours soon. The block party is Saturday, May 24, from 1 to 6 p.m.