By Mary Voelz Chandler

Walking into the Denver Art Museum’s Hamilton Building Tuesday night for the annual members’ meeting brought the sight of hundreds of metal rods lying on a fenced-off Martin Plaza.

The reason? No, it’s not a giant jungle gym complex designed to lure younger visitors.

The museum is preparing to erect an intricate net of scaffolding and begin the final phase of its roof replacement project. You will remember that not long after the Daniel Libeskind-designed Hamilton opened in 2006, leaks began appearing in the atrium of the building, with apparent signs of water damage elsewhere.

By October 2007, a new layer of rubber membrane was put in place, as crews dodged some of the worst snow Denver had seen in years. Then last year, more work was done to the back section of the roof. And now, that work continues on the area over the atrium, in essence completing a whole new roof on the $110 million building.

At the conclusion of the meeting, DAM Director Lewis Sharp said that the work would be done in October and that the skylights and decorative elements would be back in place.

It has looked shorn for too long.

Other than that, the meeting brought the usual previews of shows coming up this year. First off is “The Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters From the San Francisco Bay Area,” which opens March 21 and carries a ticket tab of $15 for adults. I call that a brave move in these iffy times, and since members are admitted free, a chance to drive museum membership. Then, in May, it’s “The Masterworks of Charles M. Russell: A Retrospective of Paintings & Sculpture,” and in November, “Embrace!” The latter, curated by Polly and Mark Addison Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Christoph Heinrich, will give over space in the museum to 17 artists to create installations and such. Three Denver artists are involved, including John McEnroe — he of the wonderful “National Velvet” sculpture in the Central Platte Valley — and Rick Dula, whose paintings have included hyper-realistic views of the construction of the Hamilton Building. The bulk of the artists are from the United States and Germany. (Are we surprised? No.) And each one has a patron who is footing the bill for that person’s installation. (Count Nancy Tieken and the Addisons among them.)

Chivalry lives.

It also, though, is a reflection of the new fiscal reality. In this space I was going to address the budget figures in the new annual report handed out Tuesday. But the consolidated statement of activities is for the year that ended last September, and since then the museum has already trimmed its budget some 12 percent.

For info: denverartmuseum.org

Contact me at ChandlerRMN@hotmail.com.