Tara Bardeen

Founder, Go Play Denver

Denver

Tara Bardeen is no stranger to entrepreneurial efforts. Her parents started Pumpkin Masters Carving Kits when she was five years old and for most of her childhood the family business consumed not only her parents’ attention, but also the basement of their house in Denver’s Wash Park neighborhood. Coming home from school each day, she had a front row seat to watch the passion, struggle, hard work, and that little bit of luck, that drove the company forward to its eventual success. Inspired by the can-do energy of her family life, Tara started her first company around the age of 10, which offered reusable mesh vegetable bags she sewed herself. Weeks after graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in Chinese Language and Literature, she founded her second company, Rice Paper Kite, which produced high-quality, hands-on Chinese language and culture materials for children, teachers and families. Once hired to build the Chinese department at Colorado Academy, Tara found she didn’t have the time necessary to run Rice Paper Kite while also launching a new program and teaching, so she transitioned the company’s assets into a free online resource. In 2012, her current entrepreneurial effort came to life. Go Play Denver, Tara’s "love letter to the city," is dedicated to connecting people to Denver’s arts and culture scene by making it easy to find free/low-cost events via a curated online calendar, guides, social media feeds, group outings and a free weekly newsletter. Tara believes that adults play through arts and culture and that a city’s cultural scene is the spark of magic that connects people not only to each other, but to their community.