Cultural Events Calendar

The 2026 Aspen Laugh Festival features comedic talents, delivering sidesplitting anecdotes and clever wit that resonate with a diverse audience. This year’s lineup reflects the joyous tradition of comedy that has graced the historic Wheeler Opera House venue since its inception in 1889.

Step Right Up is an immersive experience filled with all that you’d expect from a night at the carnival! The ambiance will be vibrant, indulgent, thrilling, and nostalgic. The “carnival” our audience experiences will also be a metaphor for curated distortions of reality in a world designed to steal our attention. Step Right Up will invite all of us to see what it's like inside the spectacle and emerge changed.

This is a retrospective exhibition spanning 5 decades. Marcia begins with small paintings on wood panels, and continue with works on paper-namely monoprints, etchings, and woodcuts. The breadth of this time span shows recurring themes of her connection with the natural world; trees, whales, birds, dragonflies.

On view: March 13 to April 10, 2026
Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Friday, March 13 from 5 PM- 7 PM

The 2026 Aspen Laugh Festival features comedic talents, delivering sidesplitting anecdotes and clever wit that resonate with a diverse audience. This year’s lineup reflects the joyous tradition of comedy that has graced the historic Wheeler Opera House venue since its inception in 1889.

Our Après party series returns this winter season on select Saturdays from 5–9 PM! Join us on the rooftop for cocktails and music by GOLDEN and other special guests.

The 2026 Aspen Laugh Festival features comedic talents, delivering sidesplitting anecdotes and clever wit that resonate with a diverse audience. This year’s lineup reflects the joyous tradition of comedy that has graced the historic Wheeler Opera House venue since its inception in 1889.

Join us for a conversation in Schermer Meeting Hall at Anderson Ranch Arts Center with Visiting Artist Ana María Hernando. A studio tour will immediately follow.

Visiting Artist lectures are free, open to the public, and available in person or via livestream.

Ana María Hernando, from Argentina (b. 1959, Buenos Aires), is a Colorado-based multidisciplinary artist whose work focuses on the feminine, using empathy to make the invisible visible, and to question our preconceptions of the other and each other, including nature and the earth, their worth, and value. In her installations, Ana María uses textiles in abundance, and sometimes includes the work of women from around Latin America and beyond, from embroideries of cloistered nuns in Buenos Aires, to mountains of tulle, to the weavings and wares of Peruvian women from the Andes.

Book presentation and signing for Heartwood

Join environmental psychologist and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Dr Lindsay Branham, artist Laura Betti, and Aspen City Councilmember John Doyle for an invigorating conversation about the healing and wholeness of trees to celebrate the publication of Lindsay’s book: Heartwood: The Wisdom and Healing Kinship of Trees. Laura Betti creates large-scale, freehand pen-and-ink typographic drawings. Her most recent work, Human//Nature, features lines from Heartwood. John Doyle is a longtime local, an environmentalist and a wood sculptor. Come for a lively exploration on how forests are our guides back into interconnection with the Earth.

In the final Winter Music recital, Aspen favorite Augustin Hadelich returns for a rare winter appearance, joined by acclaimed pianist Francesco Piemontesi in his AMFS debut. Praised by The New York Times for his “gorgeous tone, poignant intensity, and brilliant technique,” Hadelich brings his signature warmth and expressive depth to a program of Debussy, Rameau, Poulenc, and more, in a richly expressive evening of music in immaculate acoustics of Harris Concert Hall.

Colorado natives bringing tribute to the Grateful Dead. The laid back group of musicians from Gunnison and Crested Butte, Colorado found a common love for the music with one another and a desire to learn and perform the material. The six piece ensemble features the same instrumentation as the Grateful Dead including two drummers and four part vocal harmonies.