Photo of eclectic man in front of a garage packed with collections. Credit:Sarah Chesnutt, Ang and Mark Leffingwell

To Have and to Hoard

An Exhibition of the Collections of Joel Haertling

Exhibition: December 8, 2022 - February 5, 2023
Canyon Gallery at Boulder Library [ Check hours ]

Some great press on the exhibit:
30-minute audio interview on KGNU radio
Cover story in the Boulder Daily Camera
Also a cover story in the Boulder Weekly
and a long article in Longmont Times Call
Channel 8 did a great video piece (the story starts at about 4:21)

Joel Haertling is an eclectic character and avid collector who grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He is a filmmaker, musician, collector, son of a renowned architect (Charles A. Haertling), and his mother (Viola Brase) was a piano teacher. He also worked for Boulder Library for over 30 years and was the director of the Cinema Program. As a connoisseur and collector of ephemera, found art, personal objects and much more, he brings people together through things. It has been said that garage sales are his natural habitat, and many of the mementos were procured from the residents of Boulder, where he finds value in objects they wish to discard.

Joel has been acquiring things, while also meticulously documenting it, for many years. Some of his process and mindset can be discovered amongst the huge, yet comparatively tiny, cross-section in this exhibit, compared to his ~35,000 cu ft of storage!

Upcoming documentary:

We are working on a documentary feature film and need your help.
Please support our GoFundMe campaign and help spread the word!

If you have stories, photos or footage including Joel, please CONTACT US

© Novicain, LLC 2023