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Author: Susan Viebrock

[click "Play" to hear Ron Gilmer's conversation with Susan]

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Ron Gilmer with Brother Jeff

Ron Gilmer is affectionately known around town  as the Grand Vizer or Grand Potentate of the Telluride AIDS Benefit.

While he lived, Ron's partner Robert Presley inspired the Telluride community with his generosity, his talent as a fabric artist, and his wild and crazy ways. The man was universally loved. Even after his death from AIDS in August 1997, Robert continued to make a difference: the added complication of having AIDS in rural Colorado helped change the way state Medicaid handles virus patients. Robert was also the muse of the Telluride AIDS Benefit, started by a group of his friends in 1994 as a street dance to help  him offset his burgeoning AIDS-related medical expenses.

14 February, 2010 /

The Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities is pleased to announce Small Grants and Artists Fellowships are now available online. The beloved Small Grants program funds artists and non-profit arts and humanities organizations up to $1,000 - $2,000 each. Artist Fellowships fund individual visual artists up to $500 to undertake formal or informal education, or small individual projects that display artistic merit and originality.

The deadline for applications is Monday, March 8 at 5 p.m., via email. This year TCAH continues to go “Green” – all information, applications and announcements will happen online!

14 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Erika Gordon talk about "Why Oz?"]

Wizard11x17 Telluride is sorta kinda like Oz, only our denizens are taller. And we are not plagued by witches – although switching around a consonant or two could be a game changer.


"The Wizard of Oz (1939)" is as much a part of American culture as burgers, beer and baseball. The Library of Congress named "The Wizard of Oz" the most-watched film in history, and the movie is often ranked among the "top ten best movies of all times" in  critics' and popular polls.The perennial fantasy film from MGM during its golden years is the Telluride Film Festival's Valentine to the community. "The Wizard of Oz" is the featured film on Sunday, February 14, part of the Festival's ongoing Sunday at the Palm series hosted by outreach/education liaison Erika Gordon.


13 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Jeff Tretsven speak about Nonviolent Communication]

One of the best gifts one partner can give another on Valentine's Day is not roses or chocolate. It is listening so the other feels heard. The Telluride's Christ Presbyterian Church, 434 West Columbia, hosts a workshop on Saturday, February 20, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. that aims to teach that skill. The theme:  "Compassionate Communication." The facilitator: Jeff Tretsven, who has been coaching in the discipline for more than two years.


Compassionate Communication is based on  the work of Marshall Rosenberg, author of "Nonviolent Communication: A Language of LIfe." Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is itself based on the first of the five restraints or vows (yamas) in the ancient text "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali," thought-threads dating back at least 4,000 years. The grounding yama is ahimsa.

13 February, 2010 /

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Diana Mellon, scarves

Valentine shoppers be advised. The human touch rules this year, anything imbued with attitude and the scent of green, such as the work of the 15 artisans from the Four Corners region gathered at the historic Sheridan Opera House for the first Regional Arts Fair. The event takes place Saturday, February 13, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday, February 14, V-Day, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.


The list of participants and their work follows:
12 February, 2010 /

[click "Play" for Kristin Holbrook's thoughts on Valentine's Day] Poor Valentine's Day. The holiday has the misfortune of falling between the Christmas/New Year season, when lots of folks blow the bank, and April tax season, which blows everyone's mind. Being date...

12 February, 2010 /

DSC_6617 Love is in the air – although the air in the Telluride region tends to be thinner than at most addresses around the globe. Our Shangri-La literally takes your breath away. It is the picture perfect setting for a Valentine’s Day Weekend.

Valentines Day Specials and Packages in the Mountain Village include "Discover Romance at Capella, Telluride": three night’s accommodations, daily breakfast for two, champagne and chocolate-dipped strawberries upon arrival, and one couples' massage. Starting at $625 per night, available February 12 – February 15, 2010.

Capella properties also feature menus for lovers.
11 February, 2010 /


When the going gets tough, the tough don diapers and wings and arm themselves with bows and arrows.

In 2009, Telluride's SquidShow Theatre Company produced no fewer than one full-length contemporary play, four full-length original plays, six professional play readings, and two historical adaptations from non-fiction work, a whopping 22 performances, reaching over 1,600 locals and tourists. SquidShow Theatre hit the ground running in 2010, packing the Sheridan Opera House with an unprecedented encore performance of “Inaccurate Reenactments,” its Telluride Historical Museum-sponsored hit.

And yet the Squids lost their funding from regional grants.

10 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Flair Robinson's conversation with Susan]

New York City Final_2_2 Upcoming at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts: Tile Basic Mosaics taught by instructor Flair Robinson, Wednesday – Friday, February 24 – 26, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage from small pieces of colored glass, stone and other materials such as ceramic tiles for decorative purposes generally inside a home or church. The technique has been around for centuries: examples abound in pre-Islamic Persia, ancient Rome, and early Jewish and Christian cultures. Mosaics dominated church art throughout the Italian Renaissance and Baroque eras (16th and 17th centuries), but the art form is still going strong today.

10 February, 2010 /

(editor's note: The information for this post was provided by TNCC's Walter Wright)

GBR-logo-color Telluride's The New Community Coalition wants to thank everyone participated in the first session of the Green Business Roundtable series on Friday, February 5, at the Wilkinson Public Library. The well-attended event was made possible with the support of the Coalition's staff, the Library and financial support from the Telluride Foundation. A special thanks goes out to Kent Ford and Tracy Daniels, the first presenters, who provided a model for green business development based on their experiences in Durango over the past seven years.

Highlights of the talk:

10 February, 2010 /