Arts
Design
Museums are typically testaments to the past, but a growing number are using exhibitions to shape our response to the future—specifically to climate change. Museum leaders will share how they see their institutions as mediums for storytelling, and how they balance truth-telling and advocacy.
Amid contentious policy disputes and multiple sources of “truth,” how should we engage in informed debate on today’s most significant issues? The visual arts can help. Hear from the co-curator of the exhibition now showing at the Aspen Institute’s Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies about how Bayer’s World Geo-Graphic Atlas was a precursor to the world of information...
Human-centered architecture puts user needs at the center of the buildings in which people work, play, learn, and heal, recognizing that design decisions play a potent role in mental and physical wellbeing. In clinical settings, health-promoting spaces are easy for patients and visitors to navigate, let in natural light, minimize intrusive noise, and foster respect for hum...
The spaces in which societies undertake to care for their citizens — ranging from health facilities and schools to prisons — have across time shaped fundamental architectural ideas. What do the spaces we build say about our priorities, including our commitment to equal access? What resources are needed to provide dignity and parity around key resources, including the most...
The word city is not exactly synonymous with nature. Yet increasingly, urban landscapes offer innovative canvases for designers and artists who use ecology and horticulture as their medium. As the bustling field of landscape architecture makes its way into everything from infrastructure projects like the High Line to commercial stores lining Fifth Avenue, how are these des...
Philosophers debate the nature of beauty, and poets write tributes to it, but how does science answer the age-old question of whether beauty is in the eye of the beholder? The growing field of neuroaesthetics seeks to illuminate our understanding of how our brains respond to people, places, and things we find beautiful. Designers and architects are now using what science t...
Herbert Bayer, a Bauhaus-trained artist and designer, settled in Aspen in 1946. Invited by Aspen Institute founder Walter Paepcke, Bayer’s legacy, spanning 30 years in Aspen, is palpable across the campus here: architecture to landscape, painting to sculpture, tapestry to wall-scape. A prolific artist and designer, often referred to as a polymath given the breadth of his a...
We are often told great art speaks for itself. In practice, though, helping visual art find an audience usually requires a skillful narrative. How should we understand this use of storytelling, and who does it best? Does surging interest in contemporary art present special opportunities and responsibilities for developing appreciative audiences? What are key strategies and...
How do we create a culture that brings out the best in our personal and professional lives? Rituals are powerful tools for building a culture that better aligns your values and priorities with your everyday practices. Our work shows how rituals help people bridge transitions, get to flow, deal with conflict, and increase bonding. In this session, we’ll share some of the...
Revered artist and 2019 Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence Edmund de Waal describes his work: “I make things and I write about them. How objects come into being, how they are collected, passed on, lost, stolen and recovered is at the heart of what I do.” De Waal explores why this matters and some of the connections between his family stories and most recent exhibitions and...
Join leaders from X (formerly Google X) for a hands-on workshop, and get in the mindset that helped create breakthrough technologies such as internet-beaming balloons and self-driving cars. This interactive, problem-solving session — driven by a set of guidelines known as the Sustainable Development Goals — is an opportunity to flex your creative muscles and imagine new wa...
From churches and libraries to parks and offices, the space we inhabit affects how we interact with others. How these spaces are designed, and ultimately used and maintained, are part of an established social infrastructure that determines our feeling of connectedness with one another. Spaces that are aesthetically impoverished deter interaction, while those that are invit...
We're often taught that our surroundings are incidental to our well-being, but an emerging body of research shows that the physical world can be a powerful tool for cultivating happier, healthier lives. Studies show that workers in colorful offices are more alert, friendly, and confident than those in drab ones, that windows can speed healing, and children progress faster...
Design’s intrinsic motivation is to improve a user’s experience. There has been a surge of design with and by people with a wide range of physical, cognitive, and sensory abilities aiming to make the lives of those with special needs easier. Fueled by advances in research, technology, and fabrication, this proliferation of functional, life-enhancing products is creating un...
This conversation with two global design leaders will feature a discussion on how design creates better trajectories for brands and why design will be responsible for creating a benevolent future. We will explore the unforeseen paths taken from Harvard Graduate School of Design, Rem Koolhaus, PepsiCo, General Mills, and the lessons learned along the way to better connect w...
What is design’s role in our lives today? How will it evolve in the future? How can design help us address the tumultuous changes we now face? Award-winning design critic Alice Rawsthorn delved into these key themes to write her latest book, Design as an Attitude. From the deepening environmental and refugee crises to the rise of inequality, intolerance, and prejudice to t...
How can business leaders use their acumen and resources to revitalize the communities of which they are a part? What can artists do to empower those who are trying to escape poverty and social isolation? Join Lynda Resnick of The Wonderful Company, the Haas Brothers, and the Ladies of Lost Hills for a conversation about the inspiring lessons of individualism and collaborat...
How are stories told – and what power and inspirations lie in ancient art forms reinvented? Internationally acclaimed artist, author, and 2019 Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence Edmund de Waal discusses his creative process and works. From interventions and artworks exploring themes from diaspora and memorial to anxiety and the color white made for historic spaces and muse...
As virtual and augmented reality technologies mature, the line between the physical world and a simulated world begins to blur. By way of amusing features like face filters and animated avatars, many users are embracing augmented realities on a regular basis, sometimes without even realizing it. Join a panel of technologists to discover how these platforms and products are...
How can we normalize inconceivable futures? At any given moment, there are multiple, parallel futures fighting for dominance – emerging from science fiction, political parties, corporate visions, counter cultures, and more. But in all cases, they need design to compete and thrive. Across the last decade COLLINS has worked with many of the world's leading organizations, inc...