The committee overseeing historic preservation at the Colorado Capitol is mulling whether to replace the presidential portraits hanging in the building鈥檚 third-floor rotunda with paintings of the state鈥檚 former governors.
The idea was floated at the panel鈥檚 meeting last month in response to the controversy earlier this year that followed President Donald Trump鈥檚 about how he looked in his Colorado Capitol portrait. Trump called the portrait 鈥渢ruly the worst.鈥�
The painting and there鈥檚 currently an awkward blank space in the rotunda above a placard marking Trump鈥檚 White House terms.
Dawn DiPrince, president and CEO of History Colorado, told fellow members of the Capitol Building Advisory Committee that the controversy presents an opportunity as Colorado prepares to celebrate the sesquicentennial anniversary of its statehood next year.
鈥淐apitols for a state should really be a celebration of the state,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 feel like Colorado鈥檚 150th birthday is a really wonderful time to do that. It does not make sense to me to take up such a significant amount of space in our state鈥檚 Capitol when we don鈥檛 even have space to hang all of our governors鈥� portraits.鈥�
Right now, a limited number of gubernatorial portraits are displayed on rotation on the first floor of the Capitol.
The Colorado Capitol has a portrait of every president. Most state Capitols do not.
The conversation around replacing the presidential portraits with gubernatorial ones began before the Trump controversy, . But the Trump drama kicked it into high gear.
鈥淭he fact that the White House asked that the current portrait of the current president be removed gave us an opportunity to think about all of this and how we want this space to be used,鈥� said former state Sen. Lois Court, chair of the Capitol Building Advisory Committee. 鈥淚t is, in fact, our state Capitol. It is our space.鈥�
History Colorado has portraits of all but four of the state鈥檚 governors. The missing portraits include . But DiPrince said that could be addressed with photographs of those governors.
Another issue is that the gubernatorial portraits are not uniform in size. The presidential portraits are. Displaying the paintings of the former governor on the curved walls in the third floor of the rotunda would require some planning.
Finally, Colorado鈥檚 former governors aren鈥檛 quite as well known as the nation鈥檚 former presidents. That presents a problem.
鈥淪omeone would have to develop the interpretation to go along with the governors鈥� portraits so that those things could be explained and made important to the children and other people who are looking at them,鈥� said Georgi Contiguglia, former president and CEO of History Colorado, who also sits on the Capitol Building Advisory Committee.
Not everyone on the Capitol Building Advisory Committee is keen on swapping out the governors for the presidents. Some called it a 鈥渒nee-jerk reaction鈥� to the Trump saga.
鈥淭hat seems to be a very poor reason to open that discussion,鈥� said Kurt Morrison, deputy Colorado attorney general.
State Rep. William Lindstedt, D-Broomfield, said the Trump situation is probably a one-off.
鈥淚 think this particular scenario is unlikely to occur again.鈥�
The committee is also considering whether to accept a donated portrait of Trump to replace the one the president didn鈥檛 like. That offer has apparently been made to state leaders
The original portrait by donors after Republicans launched a fundraising campaign. It was painted by Sarah Boardman, who said Trump鈥檚 complaints upended her career. She said the situation 鈥� of over 41 years, which now is in danger of not recovering.鈥�
The Capitol Building Advisory Committee put off a decision on the portraits to a later date.