Get TIO in your Inbox!

July 2009

[click "Play" to hear Beth & George Gage on "Fire on the Mountain"]


Men of the 10th Mountain Division here for July 4 and Telluride Mountainfilm benefit showing of "Fire on the Mountain"

10thMtDivPoster-nwm Telluride began celebrating the Fourth of July in the 1880s, about 100 years after Congress the day Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The party got way out of control some time in the early 1970s, and Telluride cancelled the Fourth of July party until further notice. When the holiday was reinstated on the summer calendar a year or two later, the main event was a BBQ and fireworks sponsored by the Fire Department. Period.

In late 1980s, the Fourth of July parade was returned to its past glory, with almost everyone in town taking part, leaving only tourists as spectators.

03 July, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Keith Wicks]

104-0416_IMG_2-1 Telluride has artist Keith Wicks to thank for helping everyone see the light.

Wicks is a founding member of the Sonoma Plein Air Foundation. On a visit to Sonoma County and Napa Valley in Fall 2003, Sheridan Arts Foundation board chair Mark Dalton and his wife Susan happened upon an outdoor show of paintings in the Impressionist tradition in the Sonoma town square. Impressed, as it were, by the quality of the work on display, the couple met with the show’s organizer:Wicks.

Seeing an opportunity for a great addition to Telluride's summer cultural calendar and a new and interesting way to raise funds for SAF’s family programming, Mark Dalton retained Wicks to mount the first local Telluride Plein Air event.

03 July, 2009 /

JeffreySchafer NEW YEAR'S EVE Telluride is experiencing an art attack.

Since Monday, 30 top plein air artists have been in the region for the Telluride Plein Air event, painting the town fuzzed up, fluid, atmospheric, and tonal in the style of the Impressionists, reducing subjects to dots, dashes, blobs, and swaths of scintillating color to reflect our changing light.

On Thursday, July 2, the Sheridan Opera House hosts an Artists' Choice Gala Premiere/Silent Auction/Wine Reception, showcasing the work produced during the week. The event is an exclusive chance to bid on the paintings and meet the artists. At 8 p.m., Imagine, A Beatles Tribute Band performs.

July 2 is also the first Thursday Art Walk of the summer season, a daylong showcase of Telluride's fine art scene, including galleries and studios, which stay open late until 8 p.m. The Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities conceived of the event as a way to deepen ties between the town's  business and cultural economies, exposing locals and guests to emerging and established artists and the town's retail scene. Almost all participating venues are located in and around Colorado Avenue, within walking distance of one another, and many hold opening receptions, 5 – 8 p.m.

02 July, 2009 /

Plein Air artists in Telluride (see Slide show of their work below)

This week, 30 nationally recognized artists have been painting in and around Telluride for the Sheridan Arts Foundation's 6th annual Telluride Plein Air event.

Bottom line: Impressionist style plein air painting is an old idea updated by new blood.

Eugene Boudin was one of the more adventurous 19th-century painters, known primary for his beach scenes and seascapes of northern France, and luminous skies. When Boudin taught his young student, Claude Monet, the importance of painting a scene directly from nature in the light, in the air, just as it was, painting en plein air was born. In the stroke of Monet’s agitated brush, the dark palette of Realism (and the Barbizon School) gave way to the brighter highlights of painting directly from nature.

02 July, 2009 /

Pellham Telluride's Nugget Theatre has one more showing of Disney's "Earth" on Friday, July 3 at 6:00 pm. The movie is rated G and is the story of one year on Earth, with an emphasis on its wild creatures.

The rest of week the movie is "The Taking of Pelham 123", rated R, with Denzel Washington as a New York subway dispatcher with an intimate knowledge of New York underground against criminal genius, John Travolta, in a race against time to save the hostages aboard the subway train.

For trailers and reviews, see the Nugget website. Please note revised showtimes.


02 July, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Kris Holstrom on permaculture]

021 Cooperation, coordination, community. The words resonate for Kris Holstrom on two fronts: at work as Sustainability Coordinator of Telluride's The New Community Coalition and at home on the Tomten Farm.

Cooperation, coordination and community certainly are key drivers for moving the region into a sustainable future, but how do they function on her family farm? The answer is simple yet complex: they merge into a design system known as "permaculture."

01 July, 2009 /

17Nemirov This week, a group of 30 artists, the winners of a juried process, are in Telluride for the Sheridan Arts Foundation's Plein Air event, culminating with a show of their work over the Fourth of July weekend. These painters are visiting town from all over the country, except for two: locals Wayne McKenzie and Meredith Nemirov also made the cut.

Both McKenzie and Nemirov  were selected to participate Telluride Plein Air 2008, when Nemirov won the Sheridan Arts Foundation's Quick Draw & Sale, happening this year, Thursday, July 2, 10:30 a.m. – noon, Main Street.

A longtime contributor and instructor at the Ah Haa School for the Arts, Meredith Nemirov is teaching two classes at the school this month.

01 July, 2009 /