Kirsten Dobroth

A quarter-mile section of Carbondale’s Rio Grande trail will be lined with farolitos, or small paper lanterns, this weekend as part of “Light The Night With Love.” The inaugural event features public art installations stretching from DeRail Park to the Latinx Folk Art Garden, and proceeds from tickets purchased as part of the “HeART Walk” go to the American Heart Association.

Aspen’s Baldwin Gallery opens a new exhibition next week called “A Third of the Night” by LA-based artist Enrique Martínez Celaya. Martínez Celaya’s been a fixture in the Aspen arts scene over the years, and is known for his involvement with Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and exhibitions at the Baldwin Gallery. He’ll be back in Aspen when the Baldwin Gallery debuts his newest collection of paintings and sculpture on Friday, Feb. 12, and said it’s a kind of homecoming. It will also be his only exhibition in the United States this year.

The Art Base has been passing out free art kits for kids from its Basalt location since everything shut down due to the pandemic in March. Since then, the art organization has distributed 1,600 kits to local families, and recently, it partnered with Carbondale based Dance Initiative for a special edition “Wild Rumpus” Art Box. 

The entire outdoor industry has been impacted by the pandemic, and the regional backcountry hut system is no exception. The 10th Mountain Division Hut Association closed its huts last March and cancelled remaining reservations for the winter during the original spate of coronavirus lockdowns. They reopened to the public this summer, and have been taking reservations for the current winter season, albeit with new restrictions in accordance with local health protocols.

The pandemic provided inspiration for Anderson Ranch Art Center’s outdoor exhibition “Sculpturally Distanced,” which featured 17 works of art scattered throughout the Snowmass Village campus this summer. As part of the art institution’s newest outdoor exhibition, six Roaring Fork Valley artists decorated trees around the facility for an artful take on more traditional holiday aesthetics.

When the pandemic shut down ski resorts across the state in mid-March, an influx of skiers and snowboarders descended on Colorado’s backcountry. The makeup of those users is now coming to light, thanks to a new study released by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC).

A new coffee table book from The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies documents Aspen’s surroundings through photos and essays. The book is called “The Hidden Life Around Us,” and includes over 400 species of plants, animals, bugs and fungi surveyed at the organization’s 25-acre Hallam Lake Nature Preserve in Aspen.

When ski lifts across Colorado stopped spinning in mid-March due to the pandemic, there was a rise in backcountry use among skiers and snowboarders. Officials think that trend is likely to continue this year, too.

“Given what we saw last spring, we are expecting more people in the backcountry than we’ve seen in previous years,” said Brian Lazar, an avalanche forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. 

This is Week In The Arts—a curated list of upcoming virtual events, exhibitions and reopenings around the Roaring Fork Valley.

Aspen Film streams the documentary “16 Bars” Thursday, Nov. 19 through Sunday, Nov. 22 this week. The film touches on the songs and stories within America’s prisons. More information can be found at Aspen Film's website.

This is Week In The Arts—a curated list of upcoming virtual events, exhibitions and reopenings around the Roaring Fork Valley.

The Red Brick Center for the Arts opens two new exhibitions on Thursday, Nov. 12. “Alaprimas: Living Locally, the Art of Life in the Roaring Fork Valley” features watercolors by local artists, and the gallery’s Resident Artists Exhibition features mixed media work.

The day of the dead, or Día de los Muertos, is a Mexican tradition honoring loved ones who have passed. Traditionally, locals fill graveyards with candles and flowers for the event. Carbondale Arts is hosting its own Día de los Muertos event virtually as part of its monthly First Friday celebration on Nov. 6 from 6 to 7 p.m. 

Updated at 11:45 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 5

State Sen. Bob Rankin has won his reelection bid after a close content between him and Democratic challenge Karl Hanlon. Hanlon called Rankin to concede Thursday morning. There were about 1,000 votes separating the two men, according to the latest, unofficial returns. 

This is Week In The Arts—a curated list of upcoming virtual events, exhibitions and reopenings around the Roaring Fork Valley.

This is Week In The Arts—a curation of virtual events, exhibitions and reopenings around the Roaring Fork Valley.

The Aspen Art Museum recently opened its newest exhibition—a multimedia collection by artist Barbara Kasten called “Scenarios.” Along with pieces that incorporate painting, sculpture and photography, the exhibition includes three of Kasten’s video installations, which is the most comprehensive collection of her non-photographic work in the United States. Although, Kasten says the new medium is all part of her progression as an artist.

“It’s really an extension of photography and an extension of the ideas that I’ve been working with all my life,” she said.

You can find an English language version of this story here.

Antes de la pandemia, los trabajadores independientes representaban alrededor de un cuarto de la fuerza de trabajo, y ese número sólo ha crecido desde el golpe de COVID-19. Millones de personas más se han unido a la economía del contratismo (gig economy) este año, ya que los empleadores han eliminado puestos de trabajo de tiempo parcial y de tiempo completo - más de un tercio de los trabajadores estadounidenses ahora dicen que son parte de esta economía. Algunos economistas dicen que dentro de 10 años, la mitad de la fuerza laboral en los Estados Unidos serán trabajadores independientes.

Entonces, ¿qué piensan los freelancers del Valle de Roaring Fork sobre las elecciones de este año? La diseñadora gráfica e ilustradora local Lindsay Jones habló con Aspen Public Radio sobre sus pensamientos antes de emitir su voto en noviembre durante la  primera parte de nuestra serie electoral: "¿Qué puedo esperar de mi gobierno?"

This is Week In The Arts—a curation of virtual events, exhibitions and reopenings around the Roaring Fork Valley.

Carbondale’s 5Point Adventure Film Festival was one of the first events to feel the effects of the pandemic last spring. The annual festival runs each April, but new social-distancing protocols left organizers with few options aside from postponing the full mountain film showcase altogether.

Since then, 5Point’s reimagined its annual festival into a fully virtual event running each night from Wednesday, Oct. 14 to Sunday, Oct. 18. Audiences can livestream a curated selection of short adventure films each night, which are followed by Q and A sessions with the filmmakers. 

This is Week In The Arts—a curation of virtual events, exhibitions and reopenings around the Roaring Fork Valley.

This is Week In The Arts—a curation of virtual events, exhibits and reopenings around the Roaring Fork Valley.

This is Week In The Arts—a curation of virtual events, exhibits and reopenings around the Roaring Fork Valley.