In the 1980s, Aspen was at a cultural tipping point. Real estate developments ushered in throngs of tourists, celebrities and wealth — but not without pushback.
Many of the dissenters were women — politicians, environmental activists and philanthropists — who had been shaping the town since their arrivals in the 1950s.
“Aspen in Excess: The 1980s,” a new exhibition from the Aspen Historical Society, opens at the Wheeler/Stallard Museum on June 16. It explores economic and cultural shifts in Aspen throughout the transformative decade.
Aspen Historical Society curator Lisa Hancock researched and designed the exhibition.
“Most people were just seeing Aspen as celebrities, drugs, scandals — lifestyles of the rich and famous,” Hancock said. “Almost a countermeasure to that … we also had these incredible women that had come here and shaped the community.”
One section of the exhibition, titled “Matriarchs,” tells the stories of women who came to Aspen in the ’50s and remained influential into the ’80s.
Many of the women were drawn to the area for a lifestyle much different than what Aspen became known for in the ’80s.
For them, Hancock said, the allure was what Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke coined as “The Aspen Idea” — a philosophy of a life spent enriching the mind, body and spirit to create a “community of peace,” as Walter Paepcke put it.
It was a mutualistic relationship between the mid-century women who migrated here and the town that embraced them, Hancock said.
“Not only did they influence Aspen with their amazing personality and the way they lived their lives, Aspen let them be who they were,” she said. “They could come here and they could be single, they could be professional, they could be creatives.”
There was Eve Homeyer, Aspen’s first woman mayor, who established the city’s first bus system and open space program.
Terese David started her own boutique and Aspen’s first preschool.
Betty Pfister was a helicopter pilot who founded the Pitkin County Air Rescue Group.
They’re just a few of the 26 women highlighted in the “Matriarchs” section of the exhibition. Each woman’s photo and biography is displayed on detachable paddles hung on the wall. The display is interactive, giving visitors an opportunity to sift through the women’s biographies and swap out which are highlighted.
A full list with biographies of the selected matriarchs can be found here on the Aspen Historical Society website.
The exhibition will be on display until June 2027, with a grand opening ceremony from 4-7 p.m. on June 24.
