Aspen Art Museum

Free, drop-in spotlight tours led by museum staff are offered every Wednesday and Saturday at 1 p.m.

This after-school program for kids in grades K–4 is held weekly at the Aspen Art Museum from September through May. Taking place most Wednesdays from 2:30–4 p.m., these workshops recognize the value of exposing children to the arts at an early age and use the artist’s process as an educational tool. Museum educators and teaching artists lead classes that include activities in the gallery and take-home projects.

Classes are limited to fifteen participants. Prior registration is strongly encouraged.

Story Art is a community outreach program that provides playful exploration of storytelling for young audiences with their parents or caregivers. This free community program builds visual literacy and art appreciation. This session takes place at the Basalt Regional Library at 14 Midland Ave.

Active Art: Carbondale brings art to Heritage Park Assisted Living once a month. This program provides older adults opportunities to access contemporary art while supporting brain fitness and socialization. Residents are also able to visit the museum for guided tours throughout the year.

Active Art is a monthly program that provides older adults in the Roaring Fork Valley seasonal opportunities to access and engage with contemporary art and the wider community through art appreciation classes, museum tours, art-making activities, and collaborations. Active Art: Aspen takes place in seasonal cycles over three sessions.

What can we learn from artists and their practices? How can art help us reimagine the world we live in? The AAM offers K–12 art teachers a free retreat to harness the transformational power of contemporary art for students. Sessions led in collaboration with Flavia Bastos, Director of Graduate Studies in Visual Arts Education at the University of Cincinnati.

Since 2005, the Aspen Art Museum 
and the Aspen Skiing Company have collaborated to bring contemporary art to audiences in unexpected places. Each year, an artist is commissioned to produce artworks that are used on lift tickets for the winter season.

Create Your Own Lift Ticket workshops are offered throughout the season for kids and families to respond to these designs by creating a personal lift ticket with the help of AAM educators.

What can we learn from artists and their practices? How can art help us reimagine the world we live in? The AAM offers K–12 art teachers a free retreat to harness the transformational power of contemporary art for students. Sessions led in collaboration with Flavia Bastos, Director of Graduate Studies in Visual Arts Education at the University of Cincinnati.

A limited-edition textile work printed with an image of Aspen’s sky covers objects and artworks throughout the museum. Visitors are invited to check out pieces from Level 3 to wear during the day, becoming part of the artwork. At the end of the day, the editions will be removed, imbued with the energy of what they were covering, and available for purchase.

Channeling Oscar Wilde’s pun of the “earnest Ernest,” Ryan Gander’s Earnest Hawker is a once-successful artist whose name suggests the cheerful antagonism and current status of his character: he attends gallery events for all the right and wrong reasons (and perhaps partly just for the promise of free drinks). Engaging the general public in conversation, Hawker eventually pushes a sale on his unsuspecting listeners. Mingling throughout the day’s events and exhibitions, Gander’s Hawker inhabits countless iterations of the artist’s fictional future self.