PUEBLO — Pueblo elected officials, community leaders and representatives will present to the Colorado Economic Development Commission (EDC) to secure state approval for Pueblo to be the official location of the the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America.
WATCH: First Leonardo da Vinci museum in North America coming to Pueblo
The proposed museum will be in the old Bull Riders University building.
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Having studied da Vinci in depth for a film, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns was thrilled to learn about the plans for the museum in Pueblo.
"It's so exciting that for the first time in the United States, in Pueblo, Colorado, of all places, there's going to be a museum that's going to have a lot of these machines that were just ideas for him, fanciful for a day or two, a week, an obsession that went on for a while, but all of a sudden, there's the machine," said Burns.
The project aims to represent a unique opportunity for Pueblo to join a group of global locations that include the following:
- Italy
- South Korea
- Australia
- France
- Brazil
Pueblo elected officials and representatives from the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America will ask for this approval on Thursday in Denver. This presentation will mark the final steps for Pueblo to gain approval from the EDC.
The initiative aims to do the following:
- represent a significant economic and cultural opportunity for Pueblo
- utilize an underutilized state-funded asset to attract tourism
- foster education
- enhance community engagement
The museum board says the commission wants more information about the agreement with the museum curators and wants to know how long this would be the only da Vinci museum in North America.
The current plan is to locate the museum along the Riverwalk, but some are skeptical about putting it in a smaller city.
News5 spoke with Craig Eliotcisney who is the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America.
"A lot of people say, why Pueblo? And we say, why not Pueblo? I mean, it's more of a why not here. Everybody says, shouldn't this be somewhere else? And I don't really understand why people would say that. This is a great location. The southern half of Colorado is so under-served, especially when it comes to educational opportunities for children," he said.
A final decision is not expected until sometime next year. The museum's goal is to open by September.
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