WIRED FOR TRAVEL/ Using the Internet to avoid travails.

With the "El Greco to Picasso" blockbuster exhibit moving into theDenver Museum of Art this month, the Mile High City would seem - evenmore than usual - to be miles ahead of its sister cities asColorado's cultural center.

But it is important to remember that Denver is not the state'sonly arts option.

There are museums and galleries of merit all over the CentennialState, some with cultural ambition, some just plain quirky and almostall of them with better air quality.

There are the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and Pueblo'sSangre de Cristo Arts Center on the one hand, the Satirical World ArtMuseum in Estes Park and the Fred Harman Art Museum in Pagosa Springson the other.

Pueblo's Sangre de Cristo Arts Center has historic andcontemporary regional art collections, including representation byeach member of the renowned Taos Society of Artists, as well as thelargest repository of works by Taos legend Gene Kloss.

www.sdc-arts.org

Located in an historically landmarked twostory, red-brick buildingdowntown, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art exhibits paintings,photographs and sculpture, and offers performances and a variety ofeducational programs.

www.bmoca.org

Founded in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum is recognizedinternationally for presenting outstanding exhibitions with aparticular emphasis on contemporary art.

www.aspenartmuseum.org

A not-for-profit, yearround visual arts community in SnowmassVillage, the Anderson Ranch Arts Center offers workshops, artistresidencies, exhibitions, travel expeditions, tours, lectures andmore for artists of all skill levels and backgrounds "to promoteindividual artistic expression and development."

www.andersonranch.org

The Western Colorado Center for the Arts in Grand Junction has apermanent collection of almost 300 historic and contemporary works,along with a variety of educational programs that include privatetours of art collectors' homes, dinners with wellknown artists and"casual lunchtime demonstrations by artists of all types sharingtheir work, ideas and techniques."

www.gjartcenter.org

Collections at the Museum of Northwest Colorado in Craig include avariety of cowboy artifacts and art. Chaps, spurs, saddles, gunleather, guns and other accoutrements represent one of the world'soutstanding collections of western Americana.

www.museumnwco.org

The late Fred Harman was one of the country's foremost painters ofthe American West and the creator of the "Red Ryder and LittleBeaver" comic strip.

The Fred Harman Art Museum in Pagosa Springs combines theseelements of his career to view the West "as seen through Red Ryderand Western Art."

www.harmanartmuseum.com

And then, of course, there's the Denver Art Museum, which has thatworld class "El Greco to Picasso" show through Jan. 4. If you don'tmind big city traffic.

www.denverartmuseum.org

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0126 or bainbird@gazette.com