Anderson Ranch Arts Center is a non-profit arts organization and art gallery founded in 1966 and located in

Snowmass Village Snowmass Village is a Colorado municipalities#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality in Pitkin County, Colorado, Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The population was 3,096 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. A popular ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. The center hosts an

artist residency Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

program, summer arts workshops and a January workshop intensive.

About

The campus is five acres in size with working studio space in historic buildings for ceramics, painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and new media, sculpture, furniture making and woodworking as well as a digital fabrication lab, library, café, gallery and a lecture hall. The Ranch invites visiting artists, critics and curators year-round. James Surls face sculpture on Anderson Ranch campus

James Surls face sculpture on Anderson Ranch campus

Anderson Ranch hosts many public events throughout the year, such as the Summer Series: Featured Artists & Conversations, Lunchtime Auctionettes, Guest Faculty Lectures, the Annual Art Auction and Recognition Dinner, as well as indoor and outdoor exhibitions. The nearby

Aspen Art Museum Founded in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Aspen, Colorado, United States. AAM exhibitions include drawings, paintings, sculptures, multimedia installations and electronic media. Building ...

and

Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but also has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, its original home. Its stated miss ...

along with Anderson Ranch forms a trio of significant arts institutions in the

Roaring Fork Valley The Roaring Fork Valley is a geographical region in western Colorado in the United States. The Roaring Fork Valley is one of the most affluent regions in Colorado and the U.S. as well as one of the most populous and economically vital areas of th ...

History

Located in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

, just 8 miles west of

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population ...

, the art center was formerly a working sheep ranch settled by Swedish immigrants in the late 19th century. Hildur Hoaglund Anderson, born in 1907 in Aspen, was the youngest child of the family that built and lived in the current campus buildings. Anderson Ranch became an artists’ community in 1966 when it was founded by ceramic artist Paul Soldner. Other early artists involved were

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. He was considered one of the key figures of New Hollywood. He earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Internatio ...

Sally Mann Sally Mann (born Sally Turner Munger; May 1, 1951) is an American photographer known for making large format black and white photographs of people and places in her immediate surroundings: her children, husband, and rural landscapes, as well as ...

Daniel Rhodes Daniel Rhodes (May 8, 1911 – July 23, 1989) was an American artist, known as a ceramic artist, muralist, sculptor, author and educator. During his 25 years (1947–1973) on the faculty at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred Univer ...

, Jim Romberg,

Toshiko Takaezu Toshiko Takaezu (June 17, 1922 – March 9, 2011) was an American ceramic artist, painter, sculptor, and educator whose oeuvre spanned a wide range of mediums, including ceramics, weavings, bronzes, and paintings. She was noted for her pioneerin ...

, James Surls, and Charmaine Locke. The center became a non-profit in 1973 and started offering an artist residency program in 1985. In 1990, the campus buildings and barns were relocated to their current locations and designed by architect Harry Teague. Takashi Nakazato, a 13th-generation master potter from Karatsu, Japan, where he is recognized as a living national treasure, has been creating ceramics at Anderson Ranch in a designated Visiting Artist studio since 1994. 1982-17-Edited 1982-Laurie-Anderson

The ceramics program has a long artistic connection with the

New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (NYSCC) is a statutory college of the State University of New York located on the campus of Alfred University in Alfred, New York. There are a total of 616 students, including 536 undergr ...

and the furniture and woodworking program has a similar creative history with

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

and RISD. Past summer faculty have included

Mickalene Thomas Mickalene Thomas (born January 28, 1971) is a contemporary African-American visual artist best known as a painter of complex works using rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel.

Catherine Opie Catherine Sue Opie (born 1961) is an American fine art photographer and educator. She lives and works in Los Angeles, as a professor of photography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Opie studies the connections between mainstream an ...

Judy Pfaff Judy Pfaff (born 1946) is an American artist known mainly for installation art and sculptures, though she also produces paintings and prints. Pfaff has received numerous awards for her work, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Founda ...

and Wendy Maruyama, among many others. Anderson Ranch is amongst the few remaining

arts and crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

schools across the U.S. located in historically unique architecture like

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, commonly called "Haystack," is a craft school located at 89 Haystack School Drive on the coast of Deer Isle, Maine. History Haystack was founded in 1950 by a group of craft artists in the Belfast, Maine are ...

in Maine, Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is an Arts and Crafts center in the U.S. city of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The oldest craft school in Tennessee, Arrowmont offers workshops in arts and crafts such as painting, woodworking, drawing, glass, photog ...

in Tennessee. Since 1978, Anderson Ranch Editions has published limited edition prints in etching, lithography, woodcut, and silkscreen with visiting artists including Steve Locke, Tom Sachs, Hiroki Morinoue, Nina Katchadourian, Roy Dowell and Laurie Anderson. One of the lithographs Anderson created with Bud Shark at Anderson Ranch became the cover art for her second studio album ''

Mister Heartbreak ''Mister Heartbreak'' is the second studio album by American avant-garde artist, singer and composer Laurie Anderson, released on February 14, 1984, by Warner Bros. Records. Contents Like its predecessor, '' Big Science'' (1982), ''Mister Heart ...

'' released in 1984. Since 2019, the art center has hosted a curator-in-residence. The inaugural curator was

Helen Molesworth Helen Anne Molesworth (born 1966 in Chickasaw, Alabama) is an American curator of contemporary art based in Los Angeles. From 2014 to 2018, she was the Chief Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. Early life and educatio ...

from 2019–2021. Douglas Fogle was curator-in-residence from 2022–2023. The outdoor sculpture gardens on campus have displayed works by

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist, furniture designer and Landscape architecture, landscape architect whose career spanned six decades from the 1920s. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Grah ...

, Sanford Biggers, Letha Wilson and

Hank Willis Thomas Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976) is an American conceptual artist. Based in Brooklyn, New York, he works primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture. Early life and education Hank Willis Thomas was born in 1976 in P ...

International Artist Award

Since 1997, the International Artist Award is given to globally-recognized artists who demonstrate the highest level of artistic achievement and whose careers have fundamentally influenced contemporary art. Past honorees include:

References

{{authority control Artist colonies Artist residencies Artist's retreats Art schools in Colorado Arts centers in Colorado Arts organizations based in Colorado Art museums and galleries in Colorado Colorado culture Crafts organizations Crafts educators Education in Pitkin County, Colorado 1966 establishments in Colorado Educational institutions established in 1966 Contemporary art galleries in the United States American art