Aspen may be best known for its mountain views and ski-season glamour, but summer brings out a different kind of energy. The pace is lighter, the days stretch longer, and the town’s art scene moves easily between museum exhibitions, blue-chip galleries, historic landmarks and sculpture set against the Colorado landscape. 

This season, Aspen offers the kind of cultural itinerary that feels made for wandering: start with Shigeru Ban’s Aspen Art Museum, move through the galleries of Cooper and Galena, then head out to Snowmass for sculpture in the open air. Whether you are in town for a weekend of adding a cultural stop to a mountain escape, here is how to make the most of Aspen through art. 

MORNING 

Aspen Art Museum, designed by Shigeru Ban. Photo Credits: Aspen Art Museum 

Start at the Aspen Art Museum, a must-see not only for its exhibitions but for the building itself. Designed by Shigeru Ban, the museum’s latticed wood façade was conceived to open the building out to its surroundings, allowing visitors to take in the beauty of Aspen from within. 

Arch Connelly ‘Straighten Your Wig and Pray’ exhibition. Photo Credits: Aspen Art Museum 

This summer’s programme is especially strong. Arch Connelly: Straighten Your Wig and Pray marks the first museum survey dedicated to the Chicago-born artist, who became a vivid figure in New York’s East Village art scene in the 1980s. The exhibition traces his work from the late 1970s to 1993, offering a fuller view of an artist whose practice moved between glamour, intimacy, ornament and edge. 

Adrián Villar Rojas: First Gods, Lost Animals. Photo Credits: Aspen Art Museum 

Also on view is Adrián Villar Rojas: First Gods, Lost Animals, which unfolds across two floors of the museum. Evoking the formation of a cave, the exhibition considers the cave as both geological and symbolic space: built slowly through material accumulation, while also holding traces of myth, ritual and human imagination. 

MIDDAY 

After the museum, stay downtown and make your way through Aspen’s gallery circuit. Begin with Baldwin Gallery on South Galena Street, a contemporary art gallery that has been part of Aspen’s cultural landscape since 1994. 

Candy Darling, 1972, Polaroid © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

This summer the gallery presents Robert Mapplethorpe, bringing together the rigour, sensuality and formal control that makes his images so enduring. Known for his flowers, celebrity portraits and striking studies of the human figure, Mapplethorpe’s work still holds its distinctive tension: classical, controlled, and quietly provocative. 

Also on view are George Stoll’s memento mori: Pride, Remorse and Grace, which evaluates everyday household objects into sculptural form, and Ross Bleckner: Eunoia, a meditation on memory, beauty and loss. 

Casterline|Goodman Gallery. Photo Credits: Casterline Goodman Gallery 

From there, walk to Casterline|Goodman Gallery, which works across the primary and secondary markets, or stop by Christopher Martin Gallery on East Cooper Avenue, where Martin’s acrylic and canvas works are shown in a polished downtown setting. 

AFTERNOON

Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Photo Credits: Anderson Ranch Arts Center 

For a change of pace, drive out to Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village. Set on a five-acre historic mountain ranch, Anderson Ranch brings together galleries, artist residencies, workshops and summer exhibitions, all framed by the surrounding landscape. 

Mark Handforth (from left to right) Form-Constant Orange, 2023, Hypnagogic Candy, 2023, Yellow Violet Sky, 2023. Photo Credits: Anderson Ranch Arts Center 

This year’s outdoor sculpture presentation includes works by James Surls, Carmen Herrera, Mark Handforth, Trey Hill and Jason Mehl. It is the perfect afternoon counterpoint to the more formal spaces downtown: less white cube, more open air, with art encountered across the grounds rather than behind a single threshold.

BACK IN TOWN 

If you have time, return to Cooper Avenue for a few more gallery stops. Hexton Gallery, which opened in Aspen in 2018, now presents a programme focused on leading mid-career and established contemporary artists. 

Nearby, Galerie Maximillian offers a broader art-historical mix, bringing together 19th and 20th-century masters with modern and contemporary works. It is a useful stop for anyone interested in Aspen’s collector culture, where established names and contemporary discoveries often sit side by side. 

FOR ASPEN’S DESIGN HISTORY 

Make time for the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies, located on the Aspen Institute Campus, The centre is dedicated to the legacy of Herbert Bayer, the Bauhaus-trained artist and designer who played a major role in shaping Aspen’s modern visual identity after emigrating to the United States. 

Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies. Photo credits: Michael Brands

It is a quieter stop, but an essential one. In a town often associated with lifestyle and landscape, the Resnick Center gives Aspen’s cultural history a sharper design context. 

STOP BY 

For a different kind of cultural landmark, visit the Wheeler Opera House. Built in 1889, the Romanesque revival building remains one of Aspen’s great historic institutions, hosting film, comedy, theatre, music and opera. Even outside performance hours, it is worth stepping inside: the second-floor lobby offers a panoramic view of Aspen Mountain. 


Wheeler Opera House. Photo Credits: Wheeler Opera House 

To go deeper, book a Wheeler Opera House tour, which offers an insider’s look at the building’s renovations and history. Alternatively, join the Historic Downtown Walking Tour, which begins near the Wheeler and traces Aspen through its architecture, landmarks and local stories. 

Aspen in the summer is best enjoyed at a relaxed pace. Begin with the museum, drift through the galleries, then leave town for Anderson Ranch or the Resnick Center. The pleasure is not only in the strength of the art, but in how naturally it sits against the mountains: contemporary, historic, polished and open-air all at once.