The 90s cult classic movie Apen Extreme defines the mantra, “Go big or go home,” and it should come as no surprise that Aspen, a town with under 6,000 full time residents, has decided to once again go big – really big – by raising $50 million for a brand new Aspen Art Museum in the heart of town.
Before this past weekend’s fundraising celebration, the museum had already raised $30 million, including a $1 million donation by Mexico City based collectors, Gabriela and Ramiro Garza, and another $1.5 million raised during the Friday night benefit auction. Even more impressively, the entire campaign has taken place during one of the toughest economic downturns in our history – the stock market plunged over 500 points just the day before ArtCrush. A key figure responsible for the campaign’s success is Director Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, who tapped a powerhouse board that includes Nancy Magoon, Jonathan Lee, Toby Devan Lewis, Susan Marx, Eleanore and Domenico De Sole, Frances Dittmer and, of course, Amy and John Phelan.
Roni Horn Clowd and Cloun (Gray). Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
These are not ordinary board members who only write checks and occasionally show up at cocktail meetings. Amy and John Phelan, for example, open their house each year for an ArtCrush pregame celebration, WineCrush, and do just about anything it takes to make it phenomenal – including personally staying to the bitter end of the after party this year to make sure that DJ Samantha Ronson was well attended to. It is no surprise that so many key figures in the art world, particularly those from New York, look forward to supporting and participating in the event every year.
Rashid Johnson Alternator, 2011. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery.
Another element driving support for the museum is Aspen itself, which might be the strongest small art community in the country. Aspen is a town that promotes the casual, rejects the ostentatious (to an extent), and is an incredibly active and social community. Many might ask themselves why a small town in the mountains needs a $50 million museum. The answer becomes clear after witnessing first-hand what Aspen is all about. This unique community will actually take advantage of the museum, and moreover, it will use it as a platform to support and promote artists from around the world.
This explains why great artists came out in droves to support the ArtCrush fundraiser. Roni Horn, E.V. Day, Will Cotton, Rashid Johnson, R. Luke Dubois, Nir Hod, Dustin Yellin, Richard Phillips, Inez van Lamsweerde, Vinoodh Matadin, and Lawrence Weiner are only some of the artists who donated works for the benefit auction.
Dustin Yellin Egg Pipe No. 4. Courtesy of the artist.
Naturally, many of these artists could not have made it there without the gallerists who also came to show their support: Cris Canizares of Hauser & Wirth, whose artist Roni Horn was the Crush’s honoree, Brad Waywell of Marianne Boesky, Michelle Pobar of Honor Fraser, Janis Cecil of Edward Tyler Nahem, Dan Burns of Galerie Lelong, and Kristen Dodge, Larissa Goldston, James Solomon of their eponymous galleries.
Hauser & Wirth’s Cristopher Canizares, Artlog’s Manish Vora, AAM Board Member Jonathan Lee, and Alex Lee
