Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/310878
PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER MACDIARMID/GETTY IMAGES G listening within its earthy, yet elegant enclosure of ribbonlike wooden slats woven like a crisp basket around an internal shell of sparkling glass, the brand-new Aspen Art Museum stands as an architectural jewel box at the heart of downtown Aspen, quietly beckoning passersby to peer past its semitransparent surface and step inside. Opening this August after more than five years in the making, the new $45 million, 33,000-square-foot museum also promises to serve as a cultural nexus in Aspen, bringing broader exposure to its significant collection of top-notch contemporary art while offering a multiplicity of programs and events that will both enrich life for the local community and provide the city with an attention-getting international cultural stage. "The museum will be the most architecturally significant contemporary building not just in Aspen, but in the entire western part of our state," says Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, Aspen Art Museum's CEO, director, and chief curator. "It will be a super-significant building locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally—and because our program focuses on the best contemporary art from around the globe, we needed to have a building that was of the same status architecturally." Designed by world-renowned, Japanese-born, New York – based archi- tect Shigeru Ban—winner of the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize, internationally known as architecture's highest honor—the understated, intriguing new structure also gracefully contrasts and connects with its natural surroundings, standing out against the backdrop of the spectacu- lar Rocky Mountains, yet ref lecting the overall environs. Unlike most museums, whose walls seal off sight lines to the outdoors and focus atten- tion inward on the art, the indoor-outdoor concept of this museum accounted for much of what appealed to the members of the board and architectural committee during the selection process. "Shigeru Ban knows that contemporary art can be intimidating," says Zuckerman Jacobson, whose position is endowed by museum board members Nancy and Bob Magoon. "So it was important to allow people to see the art before going in. Exhibitionist THE NEW SHIGERU BANDESIGNED ASPEN ART MUSEUM MAKES ITS DOWNTOWN DEBUT, MARKING A NEW ERA FOR ASPEN'S INTERNATIONAL ART SCENE. BY JEAN NAYAR continued on page 92 RE 49, Relief Éponge Bleu by Yves Klein. Works by Klein and David Hammons are part of six inaugural exhibitions to be featured at the new Aspen Art Museum. ART AT ALTITUDE 90 ASPENPEAK-MAGAZINE.COM 090-092_AP_SC_ArtAtAltitude_SUM_FALL_14.indd 90 5/6/14 5:53 PM