The pandemic stripped away the social side out of Aspen’s historically lively art and gallery scene. Yes, galleries were able to open quickly after the spring 2020 lockdown and, yes, they provided sanctuary for people seeking solace or inspiration when most every other cultural hub was closed.
But there were no opening receptions and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, no walk-throughs, no in-person artist talks. Art viewing has mostly been a solitary or virtual venture. Even as several new players arrived on the local scene, they arrived quietly.
There were positives to be found in the experience of gallery hopping during the pandemic – you had more conversations with gallerists, for example, and you realized how little you actually get to look at the artwork at a crowded opening.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Founded in 1966, Anderson Ranch Arts Center is a premier destination in America for art making and critical dialogue, bringing together aspiring and internationally renowned artists to discuss and further their work in a stimulating environment.
Its mission is to enrich lives with art, inspiration and community. The 5-acre campus hosts extensive workshops for aspiring, emerging, established artists, children and teenagers in eight disciplines, including photography & new media, ceramics, painting & drawing, furniture design & woodworking, sculpture, printmaking and digital fabrication.
Artist Ajax Axe welds during a Facilitated Studio Practice session in the Anderson Ranch sculpture studio.
Kaya Williams/The Snowmass Sun
A sense of place is fundamental to the artist community at Anderson Ranch Arts Center.
“We are so much about place, we are so much about this space and inviting people in,” said Artistic Director of Painting, Drawing and Printmaking Liz Ferrill, who also oversees the artists-in-program at the campus. “We have been kind of clinging to that from the very beginning.”
So in the months after the pandemic hit last March, the wheels were already turning among ranch staff to figure out how to maintain that energy within the parameters of COVID-19 restrictions and public health guidelines.
Kaya Williams/The Aspen Times
For artists-in-residence at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, five weeks goes by fast too fast, almost.
“There’s not enough time at the end to do everything I wanted to do,” said filmmaker and photographer Jayme Gershen.
Gershen is one of 14 Miami-based artists participating in the 2021 Oolite Arts Home and Away residency at Anderson Ranch, which began Feb. 3 and runs through March 9.
Anderson Ranch provides housing, meals, studio space and access to its wide range of facilities and resources in Snowmass Village; Oolite Arts, an organization that supports visual artists in the Miami-Dade area, sponsors participants and provides an additional $2,500 unrestricted stipend for costs beyond the already-covered accommodations and travel.
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