Anderson Ranch Arts Center’s 2016 Summer Workshops reflect the Ranch’s 50-year-long commitment to tradition and innovation in the visual arts.
Aspen/Snowmass, Colo. (February 1, 2016) — Anderson Ranch Arts Center, a premier art making destination and catalyst for critical dialogue in the contemporary art world, announces its 2016 Summer Workshops. In the spirit of its 50th anniversary, Anderson Ranch’s summer program reflects its longstanding commitment to interdisciplinary artistic experiences, inspiration through dialogue and fostering of community. Anderson Ranch invites artists of all levels—aspiring, emerging and established—to learn from expert faculty across eight disciplines, and to join the Ranch in celebrating an incredible milestone in its rich history.
This summer guest faculty will teach over 150 workshops drawing upon the Ranch’s full breadth of classic techniques and cutting-edge technologies. For the first time in the Ranch’s history, photography students have the opportunity to enroll in a three-year Advanced Mentored Study Program, focused on visual storytelling and documentary photography. Led by renowned photojournalist and filmmaker Ed Kashi and New York Times Senior Staff Photographer James Estrin, this workshop harnesses digital photography, smart phone technology, social media, and transmedia in the pursuit of powerful, effective storytelling. Internationally acclaimed painter—and 2007 Anderson Ranch National Artist Honoree—Enrique Martínez Celaya will also hold the second session of a three-year Advanced Mentored Study Program for painters. The curriculum is designed to encourage students to expand the scope of their practice and theoretical approach, and in doing so, encounter ways of making more relevant artwork.
Anderson Ranch’s world-class facilities allow students of all levels to engage in a wide range of traditional and contemporary techniques—whether designing collapsible furniture through 3D modeling, firing up a gas, electric, soda or wood fire kiln, writing interactive code for web-based artworks, turning corrugated cardboard or blending photography and painting via collage. Use of the Ranch’s Digital Fabrication Lab (FabLab)—complete with 3D printers, CNC router, laser cutter and plasma cutter—is integrated across disciplines, designed to spark ideas and expand learning opportunities. For young artists, Anderson Ranch also offers summer programming for children, ages 4 to 17, in a variety of media.
In celebration of its 50th anniversary, Anderson Ranch presents symposia, exhibitions, lectures, and workshops throughout the year, honoring the Ranch’s legacy and its future. In The Dynamic Culture of Contemporary Art Making, a lively, contemplative two-night seminar running July 13-14, acclaimed sculptor and Anderson Ranch Artist Advisor Tom Sachs along with poet and fellow collaborator Tom Healy will explore the values and meanings surrounding contemporary art making—a process that is integral to the Ranch’s core mission to stimulate creative dialogue. The festivities continue with 50th Celebration Week, July 17 – 22, featuring the Ranch’s acclaimed Summer Series of Featured Artists & Conversations and 20th Annual Recognition Dinner.
# # #
About Anderson Ranch Arts Center
Founded in 1966, Anderson Ranch Arts Center is a premier destination in America for art making and critical dialogue, bringing together aspiring, emerging and internationally renowned artists to discuss and further their work in a stimulating environment. Nestled in the Rocky Mountains of Aspen/Snowmass, Colo., the Ranch hosts extensive workshops in eight disciplines, including Photography & New Media, Ceramics, Painting & Drawing, Furniture Design & Woodworking, Sculpture, Woodturning, Printmaking, and Digital Fabrication. In addition to the Summer Series: Featured Artists & Conversations, the Ranch also hosts engaging events throughout the year including: the Recognition Dinner (Thursday, July 21); the Annual Art Auction & Community Picnic (Saturday, August 6), a thirty-five-year-old tradition featuring works of local, national and international artists; and the Artists-in-Residence Program, fostering artistic growth for emerging and established visual artists. In 2016, Anderson Ranch will celebrate its 50th anniversary, furthering its mission to enrich lives with art, inspiration and community. Learn more at andersonranch.org or 970/923.3181.
# # #
For further information, please contact:
Jennifer Slaughter at 970/923.3181 x 301 or jslaughter@andersonranch.org
