Who We Are
We are the Aspen Institute, Aspen Music Festival and School, and Aspen Center for Physics – three of Aspen’s longest serving nonprofits – working in partnership to provide sustainable solutions to our housing challenges. We are seeking approval from the City of Aspen to provide deed restricted housing on land we own at the Aspen Meadows Campus. As organizations that serve as ongoing stewards of the Aspen Idea, we consider the goal of housing our people an extension of our commitment to the legacy of Aspen as a place that fosters and cares for the mind, body, and spirit.
Our Opportunity
When we house our people, we are housing those who are essential to Aspen’s cultural richness and preserving the Aspen Idea, a living concept capable of expanding what is possible within ourselves, our community, and our world.
Our institutions are quintessential in making Aspen Aspen. People from around the world are drawn to visit, live, and work in Aspen because of the embodiment of the Aspen Idea, which originated and blossomed with our three organizations. We work daily to advance intellectual, artistic, and civic leadership for a better society. All three organizations offer a significant amount of free and affordable high-level programming to the community, as well as in local schools.
In the last decade, all three of our organizations have faced the same housing challenges and have experienced the loss of staff, the inability to recruit staff, and the difficulties of getting the caliber of scholars, scientists, artists, and thought leaders we are capable of recruiting to participate in our programs and work in Aspen.
This is detrimental to our sense of community, our organizations, and Aspen. But it is not the end of the story; we are adding a new chapter and identifying housing solutions so we can continue to deliver programs to the community that put Aspen on the cultural and intellectual map and will keep us thriving for decades to come.
Walter Paepcke, founder of the Aspen Idea, wanted people to ask themselves when they came to Aspen: “What are the important things in life, what do you believe in, and why do you believe in them?” The Aspen Institute, Aspen Music Festival and School, and Aspen Center for Physics believe that providing housing for our staff, and visiting scholars and artists is essential for our organizations to thrive. That is important to the life of Aspen now and into the future.
Our Leadership
We are committed to being part of the Aspen community, which means providing housing in Aspen for as many of our staff, visiting scholars, and artists as possible who contribute to the fabric in this town professionally and personally. To do this, proactive and strong leadership is as significant as fostering new scientific thought, facilitating groundbreaking conversations, and performing emotionally moving concerts.
Leadership means guiding our organizations in a responsible fashion so that new generations can relish in the legacy we’ve created and carry it forward in ways we may not even yet imagine.
We are dedicated to addressing our housing issues with creative thinking and resourceful solutions by using land we each own and funding we have dedicated to this purpose.
The board and staff of the Aspen Institute, Aspen Music Festival and School, and Aspen Center for Physics are maintaining the pioneering spirit that led to each of our founding and we will continue to be proactive, diligent, forward thinking and committed to building sustainable housing to perpetuate and house the Aspen Idea.