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Culture

[click "Play" to listen to Scott Rhea's interview with Susan]

Mstrcopy_w_RoJune 26_for web copy I have covered Telluride cultural life over a career of 18 years and counting, and found that the parade of interesting people who gravitate to our Shangri-La never ends. You may not know the names of many of these people, not because they are not abundantly talented and widely accomplished, but because Telluride is their sanctuary, a place to get away from the faces they meet in the real world. Case in point: Scott Rhea.


Scott, who divides his time between Tinseltown and the Ski Ranches just outside the Town of Telluride, has had a very successful career shooting fashion print and editorial fashion. But it is book of unique underwater images released in 2009 that triggered his coming out party in Telluride.

06 July, 2010 /

by Lauren Metzger, Marketing & Exhibition Manager
Ah Haa School for the Arts

[click "Play for Lauren's interview with Julee Hutchison]


Julee_hutchison_web For the last two years, July has also brought a crazy overload of excitement and energy for me in the form of...the Ah Haa Art Auction. Now in it's 18th year, this local extravaganza is part of my job description.

As the Ah Haa School's largest and most important fundraiser, I am in charge of securing art for the live and silent portions of this one day event, as well as marketing, of course. This year I am once again amazed by the tremendous amount of support our community has for the Ah Haa School. The money raised in this one evening keeps our doors open for another year by covering operational costs that allow us to offer a wide variety programs and workshops.

06 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Jennie Franks]

People like secrets. Knowing them makes us feel important, even powerful. Here's one: the Telluride Playwrights Festival. Like the Telluride Musicfest, the Telluride Playwrights Festival is one of the best kept secrets on Telluride's summer cultural calendar –  despite the fact both events feature blue chip talent and reinforce the Telluride brand on world stage.

Last year, for example, the Telluride Playwrights Festival presented a play by Jan Buttram. Her "Phantom Killer” went on to get produced at the Abingdon Theatre in New York City this past February and received great reviews. Another Playwrights Festival alum, Tracy Shaffer, will see her Telluride script, "(W)Hole," go up in Denver this fall. Given the track record, it is a safe bet the  scripts written by this year's crop of carefully vetted playwrights – Philip Gerson, James Still and James McLindon, each highly regarded in the fields of theater and television – will meet with similar success. The best part: You can say you knew them when.
06 July, 2010 /

In addition to the 3 films already scheduled for tonight's Montainfilm in Telluride fundraiser, there is screening of "Bag It", all the stuff about plastics we have conveniently ignored. The program at Telluride's Historic Sheridan Opera House includes "Making the Crooked Straight", "Alone on the...

05 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Susan's interview with Jim Riley]

Sunset Show Summer traffic in the Telluride region is generally concentrated in our box canyon: the town of Telluride is central ops for all the major festivals, which tend, however, to concentrate their activities over long weekends. Mid-week the action shifts "uptown" to Telluride's sister town, the Mountain Village, where every summer Wednesday night, 6 p.m. rain or shine, the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association presents the Summer Concert Series.

In its 11th year, the popular program draws on average 1,500 – 2,000 music lovers to the grassy slope known as Sunset Plaza at the top of the Chondala (Lift 1), where everyone seems to enjoy an opportunity to catch up with one another as much as revel in the sounds.
05 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Susan's conversation with Dr. Cohen]

Mark-cohen-skull-02 Like the Telluride Musicfest  (just over) and the Telluride Playwrights Festival (ongoing this week through July 13) the Telluride Science Research Center (TSRC) is another of the towns well-kept secrets, despite the stature of the participants. The Research Center's mission: to inspire substantive scientific inquiry, breakthroughs, and discoveries by hosting scientific meetings in an open environment conducive to productive collaboration and positive contributions to research, policy, and education. To those ends, TSRC has provided meeting services for top scientists, who have met in the Telluride region every summer since 1984.

The Pinhead Institute, dedicated to teaching young people and adults bio-literacy, and TSRC collaborate from time to time, for example, to present Tuesday night Town Talks, 6 – 7:15 p.m., a program in its eighth year.
04 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Greg LaRock's interview with Susan]

LaRock, Greg - Eight O'Clock Alley - 8 bit The Sheridan Arts Foundation's Telluride Plein Air is a robust weekend of fine art and music, culminating over the Fourth of July weekend starting July 2 with a Quick Draw and Sale, 10:30 am – 12 p.m.; the Oak Street Park gala premiere and silent auction,  5 – 8 p.m. and  gala concert featuring Janis Joplin's original band, Big Brother & the Holding Company, 8 p.m. (The sale of works by Telluride Plein Air artists continues throughout the weekend, interrupted only by the Fourth of July parade, 11 –  noon.)

Telluride Plein Air traces its lineage across the pond to the end of the 19th century.
02 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Susan's podcast with David Brankley]

The BeanMountainfilm Telluride celebrates the First Thursday of every month with the Telluride Council's for the Arts & Humanities' ArtWalk, a meet-and-greet on the street to experience the town's fine art and retail scene. (Stores stay open late until 8 p.m.) All participating venues are on or within walking distance of Main Street. For a list of what's going on where, go to www.telluridearts.org.


For the July ArtWalk, the spotlight is on artist David Brankley, whose concise, compelling paintings are on display at The Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities'  Stronghouse Studios, 283 South Fir (one block south of the Village Market). The artist's reception is from 5 – 8 p.m.
01 July, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Lucy Boody's conversation with Susan]

Lucyboody Amy Jean Boebel is on a roll. All summer long the owner of Sapsucker Studios, 299 Sputh Spruce, is displaying the work of remarkable women like herself. In June, it was Ally Crilly's elephants. In July, it is Lucy Boody's scarf art, the artist's first one-woman show.

Lucy Boody was once upon a time the Town of Telluride's dogcatcher, a job she "co-chaired" with Michael Saftler. But there is a little more to her story than jailing our furry friends.

01 July, 2010 /