PAST EVENTS
The Recycling Symbol: Born in Aspen
Monday, March 18 | 6:00 – 7:00 pm | Dunaway Room, Pitkin County Library
Free and Open to the Public.
You know the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol, one of the most recognizable designs on Earth. But you probably don’t know the story of its creation and Aspen’s role in its roots. The Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies and the Pitkin County Library invite you to hear the story from the symbol’s creator, Gary Anderson, who as a college student in 1972 won a national contest to create a symbol promoting recycling. Sponsored by Walter Paepcke’s Container Corporation of America and judged by Aspen icon Herbert Bayer and other leading designers, the contest concluded with the symbol’s unveiling at the 1972 International Design Conference at Aspen. Anderson is returning to Aspen for the first time to discuss his symbol’s creation and its sometimes-controversial legacy, joined by Recycle Colorado executive director Liz Chapman in a conversation moderated by the Bayer Center’s Penner Manager of Educational Programming, Andrew Travers. This event coincides with Global Recycling Day.
Hurst Lecture Series: Richard Carter’s Observable Universe
Wednesday, December 20 | 6:00 – 7:00 pm | Paepcke Auditorium
SOF members-only reception with speakers | 5:00 – 5:45 pm
Featuring Richard Carter, renowned artist, cofounder of the Aspen Art Museum, and former studio assistant to Bauhaus artist and designer Herbert Bayer from 1972 to 1978, in conversation with Andrew Travers, Bayer Center’s Penner Manager of Educational Programs, and moderated by Genna Moe, Senior Director of the Society of Fellows at the Aspen Institute. Carter will discuss his work with Bayer, his involvement in the evolving Aspen art scene over the past five decades and his new exhibition, Richard Carter’s Observable Universe, on view in the Paepcke Gallery (1000 N. 3rd St.) from October 2, 2023 through April 12, 2024. Spanning 2002 to 2021, these mixed media pieces mark a break from Carter’s signature geometric and constructivist paintings and instead reflect his intense study of Earth sciences and astronomical, natural, and geological phenomena.
Richard Carter arrived in the Roaring Fork Valley in 1971 from New Jersey. A self-taught painter, Carter worked as the studio assistant to Herbert Bayer in Bayer’s Red Mountain studio from 1972-1978. During that period, he immersed himself in painting, sculpture, printmaking, tapestry design, exhibition design, and environmental works as well as architectural projects. In 1976 Carter, along with two other Aspen artists, conceived of and spearheaded the movement to convert the Holy Cross Power House into the Aspen Center for Visual Arts which later became the Aspen Art Museum. These days, Carter works out of his studio on the banks of the Roaring Fork River in Basalt.
kaleidoscreen Restoration Conversation – Friday, September 15 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM
View the restoration-in-progress of Herbert Bayer’s functional sculpture, kaleidoscreen, while Mike Carpenter, EverGreene Architectural Arts Project Manager, and Andrew Travers, Bayer Center’s Penner Manager of Educational Programs, discuss the restoration process and importance of conservation projects on the Aspen Institute campus and beyond. The event will be held outside the Walter Isaacson Reception Center of the Aspen Meadows at 845 Meadows Rd, Aspen, CO 81611.
Registration is not required.
Bayer Center Open House – Monday, July 24, 2023 | 3:00 – 5:00 PM
View the newest exhibition, Concept of a Visualist: Herbert Bayer’s World Geo-Graphic Atlas, at the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies and meet its curators, Bernard Jazzar, Bayer expert and curator of the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Collection, and Benjamin Benus, Associate Professor of Art and Design History at Loyola University New Orleans. Remarks by Aspen Institute President and CEO Dan Porterfield and Lissa Ballinger, Acting Director of the Bayer Center, at 4:00 pm.
Herbert Bayer’s World Geo-Graphic Atlas Exhibitions: A Conversation with the Curators – Monday, July 24, 2023 | 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Featuring Bernard Jazzar, Herbert Bayer expert and curator of the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Collection; Benjamin Benus, Associate Professor of Art and Design History at Loyola University New Orleans; and Andrew Travers, Penner Manager of Educational Programs at the Bayer Center; in conversation with Aspen Institute President and CEO Dan Porterfield. They will discuss the campus-wide exhibition that explores Herbert Bayer’s 1953 World Geo-Graphic Atlas, a landmark work of visual education and modernist design. Marking the 70th anniversary of the atlas’s publication, this is the first exhibition devoted to this groundbreaking and influential work.
