Around Telluride

Dateline Telluride: KOTO Guest DJ Day got Fall Fundraising '09 off to a fine start on Friday, September 11. The Mayors of Telluride and the Mt. Village were featured. Stu Fraser took 3rd place with $2,240. Coming in 2nd was Davis Fansler at $2,945....

IMG_4336 Telluride's community radio station, KOTO, is holding it Fall fundraiser on Friday, September 11. The guest DJ theme is "Mayors." See schedule is listed below. The on-air  event is another fun Telluride tradition, another way Telluriders connect. In the interest of full disclosure, I was one of the guest DJs last Spring, and I can say first hand it is a great event. Call in and support your favorite guest DJ.

Art1 Some of us in Telluride heard that totally subversive speech by our President on Tuesday. You know the one: Obama actually urged kids to make the most of themselves. Take responsibility. "Just like Mao," said Fix News talking heads.

Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts must have gotten hold of an advanced copy of Obama's pep talk. Starting September 14, every Monday and Wednesday, ARTrageous After School Days, 3:15 – 5:30 p.m., offers a wide array of creative projects, from puppet-making to recycled creations. Wednesday is clay day. For two hours, young kids get to create critters that would make Wallace and Grommit proud. What's more, Ah Haa plays the willing chauffeur and plans to pick up students outside school on ARTrageous days.

SheridanInteriorWidesmall_001 It is a little bit like learning Greek statues were originally brightly painted, not white. Photos discovered in 2002 illustrate the fact that Telluride's Sheridan Opera House was originally stenciled throughout the auditorium. Read on to learn how you can help restore the original decoration.

The original decorative painting of the Sheridan Opera House is significant because it is a rare example of the transitional period between the Art Nouveau style of the late 1800s and the Craftsman style of the 1920s. Because this transitional style is so rare and unusual, the discovery represents a “missing link” along the continuum of architectural styles in the United States.

During the early 20th century, other opera houses in the Rocky Mountains region were decorated in a classical, more traditional style, but true to form for Telluride, our Opera House’s bold stenciling is a more innovative, edgier kind of decoration for the period.

When I took Gina the Dog out for her walk this morning I found it was Fall in Telluride. For the last several days I have been aware that the willows along the San Miguel were turning, and there were a few patches of...

Have you checked out our new horizontal navigation bar? Slick, isn't it? Have you seen it lately? Just in time for the 2009 Telluride Film Festival, we've put up a link to a new page collecting all the best stories from TFF, both past and...

Kris Holstrom The Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) recently named Kris Holstrom, director of The New Community Coalition, the newest member of the Colorado Carbon Fund Advisory Committee. The committee, comprised of six Colorado stakeholders appointed by Tom Plant, GEO Director, oversees operations of the Colorado Carbon Fund (CCF). CCFAC makes important financial decisions, including approval of spending on carbon offset projects and community “re-investment” activities.

“I'm particularly pleased that 20% of funds raised goes directly to the region of origin for local projects,” says Holstrom. "Once again," she adds, "Colorado stands out as a leader in the 'New Energy Economy,' a phrase Governor Ritter coined.    Launched a year ago,  the Colorado Carbon Fund is the first state-run voluntary carbon offset program in the country. The fund provides high quality carbon offsets to individuals and organizations as a way to support new clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction projects in Colorado. As of June 2009, the program has over 400 donors and has raised enough money to support a first project, to be announced soon.

Painting_within Did you know you had an artist living next door? Robert Weatherford is a Telluride local, an Ah Haa board member, and a painter with an international reputation. The course he teaches, "Painting from Within" is all about helping students bring their inner Picasso or Matisse to the surface. The class echos one of the founding premises of the school itself: Everyone is an artist.

Focusing on expressing what's hidden or unspoken, rather than technique,  Robert believes what makes a painting speak to the painter –  and the viewer –  is honesty. The work should come from the soul, not the intellect. The end result are interior landscapes expressing the movement of the spirit that are still aesthetically appealing and accessible.