University of Colorado Art Museum Acquires $1.35 Million Sharkive Collection

The University of Colorado Boulder just announced that it will acquire a $1.35 million collection of art prints called The Sharkive. The works were produced over the past four decades in collaborations between artists around the world and Lyons-based Shark's Ink. 

Shark's Ink was founded in Boulder in 1976 as Shark's Lithography by Bud and Barbara Shark. Over the years, the couple collaborated with more than 160 artists, among them John Buck, Enrique Chagoya, Red Grooms, Jane Hammond, Robert Kushner, Hung Liu and Betty Woodman.

“We’re really thrilled about it,” Bud Shark said in a statement announcing the CU acquisition. “From the very beginning, when we started putting work into an archive, CU was our first thought and our first choice for where we would like it to go, partly because I had had a close connection with CU when we first moved to Boulder. We really wanted it to be in a learning institution, accessible for students to study and look at and hopefully be inspired by."

The collection will add more than 700 prints to the University of Colorado Art Museum archives, as well as 2,000 related materials.


“The Sharkive embodies the strength and vitality of the arts today and is a treasure for the entire community,” says University of Colorado Chancellor Philip DiStefano in a statement. “Through this significant acquisition, we are ensuring the long-term preservation of Shark's Ink's innovative legacy and providing a learning resource for our students.”

The museum will offer a full exhibition of the Sharkive in 2021. In the meantime, limited-edition prints will be on view for the public to peruse this month, and the collection will be available for study later this year.

“We are beyond thrilled to have acquired this amazing visual feast that demonstrates incredible technical skill, collaboration and creativity,” said museum firector Sandra Firmin in a statement. “The collection represents Colorado’s cultural heritage and will strengthen our state’s increasingly influential position as a hub for the creation and study of contemporary American art.”

For more information about the University of Colorado Boulder's collection, go to the CU Art Museum's website.