Baryn Futa certainly did not always possess his current deep appreciation for art and artists. In fact, the yearning to support art didn’t happen until he retired and began working with the Denver Art Museum. That was when he began to appreciate the importance of the arts. He didn’t just learn to love art; he fell for life hard. No one was more surprised than he with his deep attraction to the art world.
Beginning with his retirement, Baryn Futa used his time at the DAM to cultivate his love of the arts and art history by attending art fairs and museum exhibitions and anything else he could find. He attended many arts classes and started his own art collection, which has grown to be very extensive and highly impressive. He now has memberships in many prominent art museums with impressive collections of their own, including The Jewish Museum, the Guggenheim, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. When possible, he also loans pieces some of his own collection to museums because he wants more people to appreciate the arts the way he does.
Despite the fact that art is a key element of every human society and should always be supported and protected to the extent, too often art is taken for granted and not appreciated as a priority. That is what drives Baryn Futa’s work in support of the fine arts, as both a benefactor and someone who simply appreciates the finer things in life. Baryn feels that brilliant artists are not appreciated sufficiently to thrive, which is why he has spent his life doing as much as he can to alleviate that situation.