Edward Brando, 6, waves at the orbs during a FriendsWithYou Art in Unexpected Places installation event in the rink in Snowmass Base Village on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Skico and FriendsWithYou stage Art in Unexpected Places installations in the rink in Snowmass Base Village on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Skiers carve down Little Nell to the Silver Queen Gondola with a FriendsWithYou Little Cloud installation at Aspen Mountain on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
People eat ice cream during a FriendsWithYou Art in Unexpected Places installation event in the rink in Snowmass Base Village on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Sarah Sanders, left, and Kelly Peters pose in front of a mural by Peters in their Selfie Den creation at The Collective in Snowmass Base Village on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020.
It didn’t take long for Kelly Peters and Sarah Sanders to become friends “best friends,” Sanders says while collaborating on the creation of the Selfie Den, now open in The Collective in Base Village.
The two Snowmass Village locals work in Base Village: Peters, an artist, runs Straight Line Studio, an art gallery and studio space; Sanders manages events, activations and operations for The Collective and Base Village Plaza.
So when the opportunity arose to reimagine the ball pit in The Collective as a new (and decidedly more COVID-19-safe) experience, they put their heads together and came up with The Selfie Den. Thanks to several weeks of 12- to 15-hour days sourcing materials and working with local contractors to build a space that Peters said is “truly like nothing in the valley.”