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Ahhaa_auction As much spectacle as fundraiser, the theme of the 2009 Ah Haa auction encourages everyone around Telluride to embrace their love of art and discover their inner artist: "Celebrate Art ! Be The Artist You Want To Be!"

Now in it’s 17th year, Ah Haa’s annual fundraiser is not to be missed. The event includes a live and silent auction, featuring over 100 pieces of original art, services, and excursions, donated by the regional artists, locals businesses and Ah Haa. The monies raised in this single evening support scholarships, supplies,
teachers, the Visiting Artist series, and keeping the spirit of Ah Haa going for another year.

In years past, local celebrities such as General Norman Schwarzkopf have contributed art work they created in conjunction with Ah Haa teachers in support of the school. (Joanne Corzine bought Stormin' Norman's first effort for $17,000.)

08 July, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Philip Glass]

Portrait2a There is nothing minimalist about Philip Glass when it comes to loving.

Last year, the iconic musical wizard came to town for the Telluride Musicfest just to watch his ladylove, bravura cellist Wendy Sutter, perform. Caught up in the electrifying energy of the world-class chamber music event, he wound up giving an impromptu performance in the Mais' living room at the old Skyline Guest Ranch, home base for the concert series. At the end of the season, Glass asked artistic director, virtuoso violinist Maria Bachmann, if he could return as the 2009 Composer-in-Residence. Who would turn down the man described by renowned New Yorker critic Alex Ross as  "Without a doubt, America's most famous living composer of classical music?"

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 /

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 /

Unknown  Starting Monday, July 29, 30 carefully vetted artists, including locals Wayne McKenzie and Meredith Nemirov, are gathering in and around Telluride to synthesize the light hitting town and mountain scenes into color on canvas. The group is part of the 6th annual Telluride Plein Air event, produced by the Sheridan Arts Foundation to support its year 'round programming.

This year, the general public gets its first peek at the work at two venues in the Mountain Village.

The  Masterpiece Showcase & Sale takes place at Mountain Village Heritage Plaza, June 30 – July 2, where gallery quality works selected by the artists will be on sale. 

30 June, 2009 /

Tpf_logo_1 On Wednesday, July 1, the Telluride Playwrights Festival opens with a reading, 6 p.m., in the Gallery Room of the Sheridan Opera House.

Nicholas Day and local Jennie Franks will read "DR. FREEMAN & HILDA," a 40 minute one act black comedy written by Franks about the famous lobotomist Dr. Walter Freeman, who specialized in frontal lobotomies from the 1930's to the late 1960's. The dark doc performed over 6000 lobotomies.

$10 Donations accepted.

29 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Mark Galbo on Rock 'n Roll Academy]

Ladies Rock n Roll at SOH 085 These 10 Telluride ladies have always rocked. But until last October, they never rocked out.

Last fall, under the expert guidance of Mark Galbo, founder/CEO, Telluride Rock & Roll Academy, the women began a journey of self-empowerment that culminated in a performance on the stage of the historic Sheridan Opera House last  January. Tuesday, June 30, 7 – 11p.m., is their long awaited encore.

Join  “Mach Schau”  – Suzanne Cheavens, Baerbel Hacke, Molly Papier, Cindy Carver, Kathleen Erie – and "Mamalicious"  – Suz Remec, Melissa Plantz, Libby Ball, Melanie McDonald, Wendy Fulton – for  their second full-tilt rock 'n roll show and dance party.

"Being in a band and playing rock and roll is all I've ever wanted to do. I love the work and how making music makes me feel: exhilarated, happy, whole. Like I've hooked into some divine mystery. I wish I could do nothing except play my guitar," said Suzanne Cheavens, writer/KOTO's music director – and lead guitar.

28 June, 2009 /