Amanda Precourt’s first visit to the crumbling fortune cookie factory in Denver’s Baker neighborhood provided her with some memorable images: thin pieces of paper floating in an inch of water, emblazoned with fortunes of decades past; a ceiling that was partially exposed to the weather and laced in black mold; and gobs of vintage, cookie-making machinery that remained from the company’s six decades in business.
“That first look was hilarious,” said Precourt, a developer, designer and philanthropist who sits on the board at both the Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. “I didn’t know what it was going to be when we closed on it in 2017. But I knew it was something special.”
Precourt paid $1.5 million for the 5,000-square-foot factory and now lives above it in a custom-built, 7,900-square-foot condo overlooking a residential stretch of Baker.
Built in 1941 as a paper mill, the former Sunrise Food Products Inc., at 425 W. 4th Ave., cranked out fortune cookies for Chinese restaurants for more than six decades, Precourt said. As of this weekend, it’s opening to the public for the first time as Cookie Factory, a fine-art gallery, sculpture garden and events space that offers always-free admission to the public, no matter the exhibition, she said.
That’s in line with Precourt’s other projects, such as her $4 million gift to Denver Art Museum that resulted in the Amanda J. Precourt Galleries, on the Martin Building’s second floor. Cookie Factory officially debuted on May 24, after which it will continue to display custom and large-scale works from international artists, with two new exhibitions each year.
The launch will feature a site-specific installation by Los Angeles-based artist Sam Falls, “Nothing Without Nature,” with new paintings, sculptures, video work, and photographs inspired by the Rocky Mountains. Precourt’s resources — this is not a money-making venture, she said — paid for Falls to spend time in the Yampa Valley and the Flat Top Mountains, so he could gather that inspiration.
The exhibition was programmed by artistic director Jérôme Sans, who’s based in Paris but curates small galleries around the world. He adores Denver and its collaborative spirit, and visits as much as he can, Precourt said.
“He calls us all cookies,” she said of Sans, one of the space’s co-founders, along with artist Andrew Jensdotter (Precourt’s husband). “There’s a silly ethos in how we all work and play together. Why do kids love cookies? Because they’re delicious, of course. We want to stay youthful here while also bringing serious artists and art to Denver.”
That includes making custom fortune cookies for visitors and artists with humorous messages — ordered from other cookie makers, since no there’s no equipment left at Cookie Factory — and giving them out to the public at openings.
Precourt has built luxury homes in the Vail Valley, but also credits art collecting with a mental health turnaround in her life. On May 5, the 50,000-square-foot Precourt Healing Center opened in Edwards on the Vail Health Edwards Community Health Campus. It offers 24-hour, bilingual inpatient behavioral health care and other services, having been funded largely by Amanda Precourt and her late father, Jay Precourt, a longtime oil and gas executive.
Cookie Factory is another win for Precourt after a lengthy development process, which was delayed by the pandemic and lately, rocked by Precourt losing both of her parents and her best friend last year. That has not deterred her from sponsoring shows at dozens of galleries around the world and continuing her prodigious collecting of major works by acclaimed artists such as Theaster Gates, Mary Weatherford and Sam Gilliam.
Cookie Factory keeps things light and airy, she said, with several interior exhibition galleries, including a dedicated viewing room for video works, and an outdoor sculpture garden to showcase large-scale works by exhibiting artists.
The rundown building was actually perfect for a gallery, she said, given the ample wall space and brick interior. However, she also had to tear down several walls that formerly separated pieces of heavy machinery — she remembers a massive mixing vat, among other items that were later refurbished and sold — to make more space for visitors, even if it meant losing pre-built exhibition space.
“The place is really conducive to art because the old, original wood ceiling is still intact,” she said. “It’s really quiet in here because of that, and you can feel the history. It feels pretty sacred to me in some ways.”
To get there, crews also had to power-wash the timber ceiling with walnut shells to scrape off the black mold (a softer alternative to sandblasting, she said) and rezone the building into a mixed-use, residential-and-commercial space.
She has not, however, gone the nonprofit route, as many galleries do. Precourt doesn’t want Cookie Factory to compete with her other loyalties to nonprofit art institutions, whether in programming or fundraising, and sees it as an investment in Denver, not a commercial venture. A proud Denver native and graduate of East High School who’s lived outside Colorado at times (including a decade in the Bay Area), she’s happy to be embedded in a friendly, walkable and creatively vibrant neighborhood just off a popular stretch of South Broadway.
“We can always use more art spaces in Denver, and this being a part of town where a lot of artists and musicians live, it feels like a good fit,” she said, praising the residents and business leaders in Baker for supporting her from the start. “It had a positive energy when I first visited, with all these fortunes floating around with encouraging messages. We want to bring those same messages of peace, love and prosperity to the art scene.”
