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Fairy tales help us imagine new worlds where everyday problems find magical solutions. Their characters and stories ask us to examine with fresh eyes our relationship to the natural world and with one another. Filled with optimism, fairy tales remind us that change and transformation can help us overcome obstacles and find a hopeful ending, no matter the struggles we face.ÌýÌý

Artists share this spirit of wonder. They create worlds that offer new ways of interpreting human experience, confronting our understanding of reality with imagery that can be fantastic, outlandish, or even unsettling. Like fairy tale narratives, artwork can blend realms, with hybrid creatures, mysterious thresholds and liminal spaces, inviting us to imagine otherwise. Through creative expression, artists envision inversions and reversals of cultural and social norms, often aided by power derived from magic and otherworldly sources.Ìý

The artworks, books, and maps in this exhibition bring to life the stories and themes of fairy tales, which are often shared across fables, myths and saints’ legends.Ìý Maps of Fairy Land trace pathways and meandering routes through landscapes described in these stories. Open volumes reveal illustrations that interpret fairytale settings and scenes, while other art works feature the magical beings that are the typical characters of fairy tales—animal, human and unearthly.ÌýÌý

The exhibition and related programming are generously supported by CU Boulder Student Arts and Cultural Enrichment fees. This exhibition was coordinated with concurrent exhibitions at the CU Museum of Natural History and Norlin Library, ³Ô¹ÏÍø Libraries. Special thanks to Professor Suzanne Magnanini and Rebecca Davis for curatorial content, and to the exhibition team: Dulce Aldama, Sean Babbs, Rebecca Davis, Suzanne Magnanini, Kathy Noonan, Hope Saska and Nancy Stevens. CU Art Museum staff contributed to the success of this show, including Pedro Caceres, Elizabeth van der Marck-Gregg, Stephen Martonis, Maggie Mazzullo, Hope Saska, and our team of Museum Attendants.ÌýÌý