FOOD & DRINK

If you use the Rio Grande Trail starting from Basalt High School then going east past the Roaring Fork Club — where people ride carts following little white balls around — do not stop and pick the red chokecherries or blue serviceberries that grow along the trail. I...

The sleeper concert of the summer might happen on Friday night when Bonny Light Horseman plays at Paepcke Auditorium as part of the Roaring Fork Sessions music series. The Faux Paws are scheduled to open the show at 8 p.m. BLH is a folk rock/Americana trio of Anaïs Mitchell, Eric...

Join the Aspen Music Festival and School for a special recital you can watch LIVE at CPRClassical.org. Aspen livestreams are BACK for their 75th anniversary season. Throughout the summer, experience all the fun and excitement of a free summer music festival concert from the comfort of your own home. Next...

Last week in Aspen, the distinguished Aspen Art Museum’s third annual Aspen Art Week came to an effervescent close with the 19th annual ArtCrush Gala. More than 600 local and international glitterati delighted in the premier institution’s 45th anniversary, as well as the 10th anniversary of its iconic edifice designed by architect Shigeru Ban. For the first time in Aspen Art Week history, three pivotal creatives were honored: Ban, artist Jacqueline Humphries, and composer and artist Jason Moran.

Theatre Aspen has canceled three performances of its ongoing play, “Come From Away,” after an unspecified number of cast members became sick with COVID-19. The canceled performances include the play’s opening night Tuesday and scheduled shows tonight and Thursday. Performances at the Hurst Theatre are set to resume on Friday. Theatre Aspen had already hosted at least two preview performances, one of which occurred on Friday.

During a work session on Tuesday, Pitkin County commissioners voiced support for more funding and focus toward climate goals for the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport. They also revealed an intent to submit their own ballot question on the future of the airport for the Nov. 5 general election. George Newman, a...

To attend ArtCrush, the Aspen Art Museum’s annual gala, various art-world luminaries fly into the tiny Aspen airport on tiny little planes. The only direct flights from New York are private jets, and once you arrive, there are no Ubers, only taxis and private drivers. This secluded mountainous enclave was molded to the tastes of high net-worth individuals—“a mixture of second and third home owners from California, Miami, Chicago, and Texas,” Aspen Art Fair founder Becca Hoffman told me while I was in town for the annual fair, which this year took place from July 29 to August 2. Given its mixed political affiliations, $1500 cowboy hats, and overwhelmingly white population, it’s easy to be cynical about this place. But Aspen’s frictionless lifestyle, I found, can also be quite seductive. Every day looks like The Sound of Music and the water does wonders for your skin and hair.

In the former silver mining town of Aspen, Colorado, art week brings an exotically curious international crowd. Billionaire collector home tours, dinners, exhibitions, activations, and art fairs take over the tiny, quaint city nine-thousand feet in the Rockies. The air is thin, rare, and rich in this alpine ecosystem of nature that meets the nostalgia of the American West with the hyper-commerce of the 21st century. A newcomer on the scene, The Aspen Art Fair, feels like it's been there all along. Ideally situated at the historic five-star Jerome Hotel, which opened in 1889 and is now part of Auberge Resorts’ portfolio, the fair presented thirty international exhibitors and curatorial projects from more than twelve countries. Cozily tucked into bottom-floor bungalows, the fair follows the grand tradition of hotel art fairs, like the Gramercy International Art Fair at the Gramercy Hotel in New York and Felix at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Co-founded by art world veterans Becca Hoffman and Robert Chase, the Aspen Art Fair included a stellar list of galleries, including Galerie Gmurzynska from Zürich, Perrotin, and Southern Guild from Cape Town, South Africa. With the general art market in a post-pandemic slump, Hoffman, who is also the founder of the women-led 74th Arts, which organizes global art fair experiences in cities around the globe, knows full well the power of boutique. “We need to rethink how we connect on culture, in citywide environments. How do we have more intimate opportunities for engagement, education, connection, and commerce?” Hoffman—tough as nails and ultra-savvy—told us on the third to last day of the fair. With Aspen being 1,390 times smaller than the population of New York and a super concentration of centimillionaires, Aspen is the perfect environment for art and commerce. With works ranging from Picasso to Paola Pivi to Fairfield Porter and Richard Diebenkorn, the Aspen Art Fair is both refreshing and exhilarating.

Mature and old-growth forests can store carbon, filter drinking water, and provide wildlife habitat — with added wildfire resilience and natural beauty to boot. Plans are now in the works to conserve and steward those trees on millions of acres of federal land, with public comments accepted this summer. The guidance stems from President Biden’s 2022 executive order to “define, inventory and analyze threats to mature and old-growth forests” and develop recommendations related to “land management and changing climates,” according to the USDA, which oversees the Forest Service.

The Chris Klug Foundation is deeply grateful to all those who helped make our 2024 Wine & Dine for Life gala so special. This annual awareness and fundraising event helps us share our lifesaving message for organ, eye, and tissue donation, and helps us support individuals nationwide before, during, and after transplant.

From August 8-11 in Aspen, the first edition of Watch Week Aspen will descend upon the stylish city nestled in the Rocky Mountains. In an enterprising partnership between the renowned Oliver Smith Jeweler and Aspen Chamber of Commerce, the radiant summertime presentation will commence with a celebratory cocktail reception led by Swiss haute brand Parmigiani Fleurier.

The Aspen Institute will host a free lecture at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies. The featured speaker is Rob Saunders, founder of Letterform Archive and curator of the exhibition, “Bauhaus Typography at 100,” currently on display at the center. The lecture in Paepcke Auditorium is part of the institute’s McCloskey Speaker Series.