IDEAS: the Magazine of the Aspen Institute Special Issue 2019

Look close, look deep, look anew: it’s what the Bauhaus taught, and what the Institute will conserve and reinvent at the new Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies.

Steele brought a welcome blend of candor regarding current US political strife and idealism that the nation can come together in contentious times.

The Better Arguments Projec teaches Americans how to have better arguments and fewer divides, and joins forces with local organizations to talk to people on all sides of polarizing issues.

The Institute celebrated the centennial of the famed German design school by exploring artist Herbert Bayer’s influence on the Aspen campus—and why it is “a total work of art.”

When leaders from the Institute’s dynamic fellowship programs come together, they inspire one another to help more people, address more problems, and push the envelope for more and better solutions. Because humanity, as this year’s theme reminded them, has no borders.

The 10th annual forum continued a tradition of breaking news (last year, Russians hacking Senate campaigns) and naming the greatest threats to the US homeland (this year, the superlative went to China). But the event also addressed new and growing threats, like domestic terrorism and gun violence.

The Stevens Initiative invests in virtual-exchange programs that link youth in the United States to their peers in the Middle East and North Africa. This April, the initiative announced six new grants.

It can be hard to find a quiet moment during the summer at the Aspen Institute. The air is electric. Ideas jump from person to person. It is exhilarating and inspiring and chaotic.

The NextGen network asks young leaders to explore how societies should respond to new technology and to examine local and international policy solutions.

The fellows put their new leadership skills into action with a group Community Impact Project. The Newark fellows (@NewarKulture) created a campaign and docuseries that focused on homelessness, environment and art, education, and immigration and xenophobia.