Exhibitions
Other Worlds
Breck Create is partnering with Mountain Top Explorium to present Other Worlds—an immersive exhibition featuring the work of artists Jill Hadley Hooper and Sadie Young. For this exciting presentation, each artist will create site-specific installations that will transport patrons of all ages to worlds deeply rooted in themes of nature, the mountains, some wild and not-so-wild animals, and, of course, monsters.
Fiber artist Sadie Young will transform the lower-level gallery into a colorful, yarn-wrapped, unearthly experience inspired by the natural world, with an abundance of friendly monsters to guide you on your journey.
Artist Jill Hadley Hopper will take over the upper-level gallery with a fully immersive installation that gives the feeling of stepping into a storybook drawing. Here you are invited to join the animals of the forest after a Jamboree, where you too will have a role to play.
About the artists
SADIE YOUNG
Sadie Young is a multimedia and installation artist whose practice spans crochet, fine oil portraiture, carpentry, and immersive installations. While she has explored a variety of mediums, her solo artistic voice resonates most strongly through fiber arts. Since creating her first large-scale yarn installation in 2020, Sadie has been captivated (hooked) by the medium’s versatility and tactile connection. Though she continues to explore other materials and mediums in her large-scale projects & studio practice, yarn remains at the heart of her solo work.
Sadie’s art is deeply influenced by her background in psychology, particularly Jungian concepts, which inspire her exploration of the self and emotional landscapes. She earned her BFA from MSU Denver in 2015 and months after founded Spectra Art Space, a woman-owned gallery and immersive art experience venue in Denver. Spectra supports emerging and local artists through rotating exhibitions, events, and award-winning immersive experiences, with a mission to make art accessible to creators and patrons alike. Spectra has received several awards including recognition as #1 in Arts and Entertainment from Entrepreneur Magazine’s list of America’s 150 Favorite Mom-and-Pop Shops and multiple accolades from Westword Magazine for Best Immersive Experiences. In 2023, Sadie was honored as a Marquis Who’s Who listee.
As Spectra’s founder, creative director, chief curator, and installation artist, Sadie has spearheaded 11 large-scale immersive experiences and created installations for events around Denver like the Denver Film Festival. Sadie has been hosting, producing, and curating music and art events in Colorado since 2009, she continues to produce dynamic events and installations that invite audiences to reflect, connect, and engage with art on a transformative and accessible level.
Learn more on the artist’s website: www.spectraartspace.com or on her Instagram @YoungSayDay
JILL HADLEY HOOPER
Jill Hadley Hooper has worked professionally as an illustrator and artist for the past 35 years. Illustration projects have included products, newspapers, and books, with magazine clients including The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Harper’s, and The Atlantic. Hooper illustrated a weekly column from 2007 to 2010 for the New York Times Style section, and created multiple bookcovers for authors such as Cynthia Ozick and Gene Wilder. Her twelfth kid’s picture book was published in January of 2026. According to Hooper, “the fun of being an illustrator is dipping in and out of diverse topics.”
“Painting allows for more sustained attention with a text, topic, place, or object. Often, I employ non-traditional printmaking and mark-making techniques. The paintings can have a layered excavated quality with the erasure and sanding of the image – its history – visible in the final work.” From 2011 to 2018 Hadley Hooper focused on creating large paintings of inherited objects – for example, a teacup painted five feet wide, the exaggeration representing its outsized regard. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in San Francisco, Toronto, New York, Denver, and Santa Fe, among others. Most recently Hooper has been represented in Denver by Goodwin Fine Art and Robischon Gallery.
In 2016 Hadley Hooper was commissioned by the Denver Art Museum to create an environment that visitors could interact with. It was a walk through a life-size pop-up book; there was a crescent moon you could perch on, a seat held aloft by a pair of birds to swing on, and a boat inside a 30-foot whale.
Breck Create Curator, Jill Desmond, who worked with Hooper on her 2016 DAM installation, invited the artist to once again think big – this time for the second floor of the Old Masonic Hall. This new space holds a community table surrounded by forest and a cabin. Patrons will step into the scene as the forest animals are having. Upon hearing footsteps, the animals scatter and hide. But they’re watching and waiting. After your visit the fox will once again pick up the violin and the raccoon will get back to playing the piano.
Hadley Hooper was born and raised in Denver. The artist has a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Hooper’s studio and home are a block apart in Denver’s Highland neighborhood where she lives with Hugh Graham and Augie the dog.
In Partnership With
Mountain Top Explorium is a community resource that nurtures connection between children and their world through exploration, creativity, and relationships. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Explorium serves as a hub for discovery, offering a variety of interactive environments and educational initiatives. Our work extends far beyond the walls of our Children’s Museum through diverse community-focused initiatives, including our Summer Day Camps, After School Programming, and In-Class STEM Enrichment Workshops. By prioritizing hands-on engagement and meaningful facilitation, Mountain Top Explorium helps children build lasting connections to their community and the world at large.