Arts Program Events

Aspen local Mark Seal has been a journalist for thirty-four years. A contributing editor at Vanity Fair, he has written for many major periodicals including Esquire, Rolling Stone, InStyle, Time, and The New York Times. He has served as a collaborator on almost twenty nonfiction books including San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos's Sharing the Wealth, Bo Derek’s Riding Lessons, and Without a Badge: Undercover in the World's Deadliest Criminal Organization, about N.Y.P.D. drug cop Jerry Speziale's infiltration of the California cocaine cartels, soon to be a major motion picture from the director of Training Day.

NEW VIEWS: Premiere Documentaries – Presented with Aspen Film

Tickets $16 available at the Wheeler Opera House, www.aspenshowtickets.com, or (970) 920-5770.

NEW VIEWS: Premiere Documentaries – Presented with Aspen Film

"We all get dressed for Bill," says Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Bill Cunningham is an 80-year old New York Times photographer and unlikely man-about-town.

The Aspen Writers' Foundation, a program of the Harman-Eisner Program in the Arts, presents the Aspen Summer Words Writing Retreat and Literary Festival, a five-day celebration of words and ideas, now in its 34th year. This year's festival flies under the banner "Crossroads: A Literary Intersection of the American South," and will explore stories from the Gulf to the Atlantic with some of the legendary writers who crafted them, including: Dorothy Allison, Richard Bausch, Nikky Finney, Ernest Gaines, Randall Kenan, Ron Rash, Kathryn Stockett, and more! This pioneering forum is the ideal venue for readers and writers alike. Afternoons and evenings are filled with Literary Festival events, including author readings and talks, interviews and Q&As, publishing industry panels, private consultations with editors and agents, literary awards, and social gatherings.

Meet at Ella Restaurant + Bistro for the official down-valley launch of the 2009 Big Read Roaring Fork Valley.

Scribes and Scribblers: Now in their 18th year, our Scribes & Scribblers creative writing camps for kids are more popular than ever! We invite young writers to romp through different lands and discover words, pictures, and stories while making new friends.

Scribes and Scribblers: Now in their 18th year, our Scribes & Scribblers creative writing camps for kids are more popular than ever! We invite young writers to romp through different lands and discover words, pictures, and stories while making new friends.

Join us at the stunning Woody Creek home of Isa and Daniel Shaw, and travel across landscapes, countries and continents with some of today's foremost fabled and fabulous storytellers.

The arts play an irreplaceable role in society. They awaken and develop our full human potential. They articulate and communicate what it means to be alive. They provide the most enduring legacy of a nation.

But in America today the arts seem to be retreating from education, public life, and the media. What is to be done? A candid discussion of the real issues that need to be addressed by both the public and private sectors to provide effective support for the Arts in America.