The last time Denver put together a cultural plan, some big, bold things happened in its wake.

The city started its “One percent for art” program, generating millions of dollars as new building went up. It began a collection of public sculpture that now includes hundreds of pieces.

The plan led to real employment for artists, laid the groundwork for entire arts districts and inspired new venues where people hear music and watch plays.

That was way back in 1989, during the Peña administration, and the plan guided the way public dollars were spent for a quarter century.

Now it’s time for an update. Denver is developing a new plan, Imagine 2020, which will take public art policy into the next decade.

There’s an open invitation for all citizens to have their say on the plan. The city is conducting an online survey where people can give their opinions and make suggestions about how Denver can move forward.

Got an idea? The survey offers a place to share it. Just go to imaginedenver.org and click through.

To get the ball rolling, here are eight new suggestions for big, bold moves that could radically change the art scene in years to come. The right public policy could help each of them become a reality.

1. Zero. Zip. Nada. Let’s make Denver’s big cultural institutions free.

That’s right: Free. The Denver Art Museum and the Zoo, the Museum of Nature & Science, the Botanic Gardens, the History Colorado Center, the Clyfford Still Museum, at least some of the plays at the Denver Center — they ought to be free, making the region’s best cultural attractions accessible to all, seven days a week.

Those organizations will quickly tell you this isn’t possible, but don’t buy it. The same attractions are nearly all free in St. Louis, a city not too far away. People pop into the museums there without planning or pressure, they meet for lunch at the zoo, they gather for no-charge Shakespeare in the park. These are world-class attractions without the real and psychological barriers of money.

It’s just a matter of realigning missions so that these tax-exempt nonprofits put their relationship with the people they serve first. Great municipal institutions aren’t about the number of curators they have, or research projects in faraway countries, or the careers of people who work there. They’re primarily about connecting the citizens to paintings, zebras and dinosaur bones.

We give these places tens of millions in public dollars each year. What if we just decided to buy our own tickets with that money?

2. No more giant animals. We should rethink our ideas of public art.

Denver has spent millions on public art pieces with little show to for it. The Blue Bear is a hit and the Blue Mustang, too (if only because the DIA sculpture got a real conversation galloping around the topic of art). But what of the hundreds of thousands spent on art at the new justice center or on street corners, transit stops and parks? What pieces do you remember?

The singular, permanent object isn’t really working. Our high-tech world demands change, interactivity, excitement, renewal. We should spend our art money on temporary pieces and let the people play along. What if those funds went toward open-mic stages or outdoor movie theaters instead of giant animals? What if we bought changeable pieces for 1/20th of the price and switched them out annually for 20 years?

Let’s go further. What if there was a ballot question every two years where people voted on a new color to paint that blue bear? Or we invited artists to create miniature-golf holes that everyone could play? What if people could write haikus on their mobile phones and project them on the side of City Hall? The more public the art, the better off the public will be.

3. Real arts education. We could teach cultural literacy to every kid.

You can like Beethoven or not; appreciate Matisse or pass; laugh with or at Oscar Wilde, but you have to know who these people are to decide, and that’s where we are failing our kids.

We all know arts education has gone down the tubes in this country, and yet still, we are producing more artists then we can feed. What we need are audiences, people who comprehend art and understand its power to teach and unite the community, to support symphony orchestras and Spanish-language theater and classical ballet companies genuinely, so they don’t need public subsidies.

This isn’t just about exposing students to violin lessons or square dancing, though that’s part of it. It’s about offering them a demanding curriculum, worthy of a modern metropolis, that teaches the history and evolution of art across civilizations and instills an appreciation of what elevated thinking can do.

4. Let’s get famous. One huge and outstanding event might put us on the map.

Austin has the South by Southwest music fest. Charleston has its classical Spoleto Festival. Miami attracts the gallery world with Art Basel, Santa Fe has its opera. Even Louisville, Ky., stages its Humana Theatre Festival of New American Plays. Cities across the globe have won cultural reputations by putting all their efforts behind one signature event and making it terrific.

Denver needs the attention, and we’ve got the talent and drive here to make it happen. We just need to pick our best shot.

We might be close with the Biennial of the Americas, which is based on the good idea of bringing the best art and thinking from the Western Hemisphere together in one place. What other city is doing that?

The next one starts in July. Let’s see what politicians and institutions support it with more than lip service, and let’s get the rest on the train.

5. Looks count. We have to up our architectural game.

The last cultural plan — and remember this was 1989 — wasn’t even polite about the city’s low regard for its own good looks: “Denver lacks a coherent self-image, and consequently a world view that grows out of that self-awareness. The resulting uncertainty is evidenced by the eclectic and frequently derivative architecture of its Cityscape.”

A few good things have happened since then — preservation in LoDo, architect Curt Fentress’ design for DIA, the stunning, city-owned Clyfford Still Museum, and some swell residential projects in the Highlands and Stapleton.

But much of the construction has been embarrassingly bland: The Four Seasons Hotel, Denver’s undistinguished, fourth-tallest building, the University of Denver’s soulless expansion, the block housing northwest of LoDo, Curt Fentress’ boring Colorado Judicial Center.

Since the problem is the same, let’s just repeat that earlier report’s solution: “Create a Design Commission to review the design quality of all new public and major commercial development in the City of Denver.”

Only this time, let’s take it seriously. The building department needs to reward good design and discourage bad design with all its permitting power. Developers aren’t bad people, they just need coaching.

6. Party time. Let’s throw an awesome First Friday.

In many cities, First Fridayevents are more than a chance for art galleries to show off. They’re important moments for the culturally minded to come together over art. They are huge expressions of civic pride, and their enthusiasm spills over to other days and other events. Las Vegas, for example, shuts off its downtown streets, puts up stages and lets the crowds go wild.

Denver’s biggest and most popular First Friday, along the Arts District on Santa Fe Drive, tries hard and we should make it policy to help turn it into something more special. Let’s barricade the tight, little boulevard, bring in the bands, booths, food trucks and ballet dancers.

We need to party more in this town, and a celebration based on art, rather than say, beer, would be a legit place to start. Though let’s be sure to have some beer there, too, right?

7. Hot pockets. Could we make better neighborhoods through art.

Denver has some lively little commercial zones — South Broadway, the Highlands, Larimer Square, East Colfax, South Pearl Street — places where art, food, shopping and a good attitude come together to give the city some personality. We need more of them, and culture, fueled by an ambitious, take-no-prisoners policy, can make this happen fast.

Invite neighborhoods to come up with a plan to animate their own streets. Hold a competition and give the winners what they need to become truly interesting places. Some urban zones already have a start: Five Points, South Federal Boulevard, East East Colfax, Globeville, Curtis Park.

Give three year’s free rent to restaurateurs, classical quartets, children’s theaters and gallery owners. Hand property owners cash to upgrade their fronts and create cheap studio spaces. Subsidize curated, independent boutiques, set up amphitheaters, make parking lots.

Five cool new neighborhoods by 2020. It’s doable.

8. The new, new venue. Let’s build the theaters of tomorrow.

From Red Rocks to the Ellie to the just-announced new amphitheater in Ruby Hill Park, the city has a proud track record of giving its citizens quality performing arts venues. We could use a policy that continues that.

We need to put up or shut up on existing facilities, and rehab places like Boettcher Concert Hall. And we need to update our attitudes. Shared start-up spaces are the trend in business and an arts policy that carves out a similar sort of practical, affordable cooperatives for small arts groups makes sense, too.

The swell rehab of the McNichols Building last year was a bold tribute to our past. Let’s move toward the future by embracing technology. Denver needs a high-tech theater and recording space that arts groups can share that will allow them to digitize their work, sending video and audio over the internet, so that people can experience, and interact with, art in real time. The next Red Rocks will live in the cloud.

Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi

IMAGINE DENVER 2020 PUBLIC SURVEY Help the city of Denver gather data and suggestions on how to support the arts in the city as its prepares its next cultural plan. The survey takes 10-30 minutes depending on how much you want to share.

It’s online at imaginedenver2020.org.