Aspen Art Museum

Etienne Charles is the Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Hailed by The New York Times as “an auteur” (Ben Ratliff), by Jazz Times as “A daring improviser who delivers with heart wrenching lyricism” (Bill Milkowski). According to Downbeat Magazine “Charles delivers his ebullient improvisations with the elegance of a world-class ballet dancer.” (John Murph).

Join us today at 2:30pm MT and meet Fanel Reyes from Oaxaca, MX. Fanel is a ceramic artist as well as an illustrator. Fanel works primarily with locally sourced clay called Donají, which is extracted from a mountain near her city. She has inherited her knowledge from a lineage of traditional potters who have taught her how to burnish her ceramic pieces using quartz and master the technique of bonfire-firing.There are over 70 pottery communities from the coast to the mountains of Oaxaca. Learn more about this fascinating artist and her practice. We hope you join us!

Acompañanos hoy a las 2:30 pm MT y conoce a Fanel Reyes de Oaxaca, MX. Fanel es artista de cerámica además de ilustradora. Fanel trabaja principalmente con barro de origen local llamado Donají, que se extrae de una montaña cerca de su ciudad. Ella ha heredado sus conocimientos de un linaje de alfareros tradicionales que le han enseñado a pulir sus piezas de cerámica con cuarzo y a dominar la técnica de la quema. Hay más de 70 comunidades alfareras desde la costa hasta las montañas de Oaxaca. Aprenda más sobre esta fascinante artista y su práctica. ¡Esperamos que te unas a la conversación!

At The Hotel Jerome

Free and open to the public.

Register for this event here.

Free and open to the public

no registration required

The AAM invites the community to join Gabrielle Rucker of Sparkle Nation Book Club for a special youth program. Live music will be courtesy of KDNK community radio and Denver-based band Brothers of Brass. Other family activities include garden-related art-making activities.

Invite Only

The Aspen Art Museum has a historic program of collection visits, which offers access to some of Aspen’s most iconic private homes.

Spaces for these visits are limited and priority will be given to AAM members

If you are interested in joining this event or future collection visits, please see our membership benefits and become a member today!

Registration Required

Free and open to the public

Aspen Art Museum

We welcome British-Nigerian artist Zina Saro-Wiwa to Aspen to unveil some of her rare and delicious botanical gins from her Illicit Gin Institute distillery. The Illicit Gin Institute is a thinktank and distillery created by the artist that explores the poetics and possibilities of palm wine gin—also known as “kaikai” or “ogogoro” or “illicit gin.” A spirit that, like tequila or clairin rum, was at first created by necessity as an inexpensive drink. Unlike tequila or rum, however, it has not yet been understood or appreciated globally. In this smoky yet smooth palm wine spirit, Saro-Wiwa sees a potent vehicle for storytelling, regeneration, and environmental repair. A voice for the maligned but historically Edenic Niger Delta region from which she hails. She has woven the gin into her art practice since 2013, and it has now culminated in the building of her own distillery and a research drive into Niger Delta botanicals and foodways. The tasting will consist of an introductory lecture and tastings of some of the botanical gins produced by her experimental distillery in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Her delicious botanical gin chocolates will also be offered.

At Capacity

Pine Creek Cookhouse

Cooking collective Spiral Theory Test Kitchen—Precious Okoyomon, Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Quori Theodor, and SK Lyons—present THE NOTHING, a post-Anthropocene eating experience and once in a lifetime culinary adventure. Enjoy a hike up to Pine Creek Cookhouse, followed by a sumptuous, out-of-this-world feast surrounded by the mountains.

Registration Required

Aspen Art Museum

Zina Saro-Wiwa’s next Illicit Gin Institute event is all about fruit and flowers. The artist will lecture once again on the gin and her practice with some emphasis on the idea of “sweetness” and the place of flowers in Nigerian culture. The tasting will open with a plain gin and a toast to the ancestors, followed by botanical gins flavored with unusual botanicals such as green orange peel and hibiscus. Bright and refreshing champagne cocktails that feature not only the gins but also bitters made from local Niger Delta basils and bitter leaves will also be offered.

Wednesday, August 4, 6–9 PM
Thursday, August 5, 2–8 PM
Friday, August 6, 10 AM–2 PM

Registration required

Into the Wood is a new pop-up, interactive installation by Los Angeles–based artist Adam Stamp. Created for ArtCrush 2021 and presented by L'Officiel Magazine, Into the Wood will provide a backdrop for Aspen Art Museum visitors to be photographed.

Limited to AAM Members and ArtCrush Ticket Buyers

Registration required

Join the AAM and L'Officiel in celebrating the launch of ArtCrush 2021 with a welcome party at the museum. Exhibitions on view include Cerith Wyn Evans’s Aspen Drift; Precious Okoyomon’s *Every Earthly Morning the Sky’s Light touches Ur Life is Unprecedented in its Beauty; Shara Hughes; as well as the ArtCrush auction galleries and The Store. The event also marks the launch of L'Officiel’s Photobooth project, a weeklong pop up photography studio in the museum.