The Aspen Art Museum had reason to celebrate after completing its recent $45 million construction this summer. Here, CEO and director Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson shares her favorite moments from the opening of the new museum, designed by Pritzker prize–winning architect Shigeru Ban.
The Spectacular Now:
“First Buddhist monks blessed the building. We opened and 8,000 people came through. They were lined up down the corner and around the block. I almost started to cry.”
Ban-Aid:
“For Shigeru Ban’s exhibition, ‘Shigeru Ban: Humanitarian Architecture,’ inside the museum, it was important for me to show the broad-based nature of his practice, including his creations for United Nations refugee shelters in the 1990s. His humanitarian work emphasizes the notion ‘do well to do good,’ which characterizes a lot of people in Aspen.”
Culture High:
“Visitors will be profoundly and permanently affected by the artwork and these spaces. It was just something that was never here before.”
637 East Hyman Avenue; aspenartmuseum.org
