![](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/5c312310-d89f-413d-8ee2-77c7b48575c4/52186625194_b166890670_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&q=80&rect=0%2C806%2C5504%2C3098&w=800)
How to Beautify a City
Setup
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 designers reconnecting us to nature? What is the role of art and nature in public spaces? And how does art, nature, and beauty intersect to enhance our lives?
- 2022 Festival
- Arts
- Society
- Environment
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Arts
![Gettyimages 1488043800](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4f1048e8-0b45-4e5c-ab68-b59fdc805164/GettyImages-1488043800.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=b78045&q=80&rect=2240%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
![Gettyimages 1488043800](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4f1048e8-0b45-4e5c-ab68-b59fdc805164/GettyImages-1488043800.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=2240%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
Conflict and suffering can bring out the worst in people, but it can also bring out the best. This is one of the lessons New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has learned...
![Meet 7 Women Leading the Way to a Brighter Climate Future](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/11e09403-1a70-4720-abb0-8c203f892106/GettyImages-1415703633.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=738%2C0%2C3733%2C3733&w=400)
Women are crucial to the climate movement, but their voices are often underrepresented and their work goes under-supported. Meet just a few of the women from this year’s Aspen...
![Aif Stock Hero Images](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d53c86d8-a116-4261-8468-bf005c53bca1/AIFStockHeroImages.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=ac473e&q=80&rect=1453%2C0%2C3377%2C3375&w=400)
![Aif Stock Hero Images](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d53c86d8-a116-4261-8468-bf005c53bca1/AIFStockHeroImages.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=1453%2C0%2C3377%2C3375&w=400)
The federal right to abortions in the United States has been overturned, access to contraception and IVF services are threatened in many states, and the gender wage gap persis...
![Chasing Hope](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/2f55539f-2197-464f-8b26-2929b02cf707/53824051485_57d377543e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C300%2C5802%2C3264&w=400)
As one of the foremost reporters of his generation, Nicholas Kristof has been witness to century-defining events and atrocities around the world. How has he managed to weaponi...
![Roots and Revelations](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/9a7290c3-c71d-4303-979a-7b49449a77c4/53824082684_f2a441a5d7_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1667%2C0%2C2666%2C3999&w=400)
Henry Louis Gates Jr. — one of America’s leading public intellectuals and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard — explains the i...
![Closing Session](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/48047a1f-d980-4abf-ae89-bfbd1c8bc246/53824584793_ab831623a7_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C160%2C3200%2C1800&w=400)
![In Defense of Misfits: The Transcendence of an Unconventional Life](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/87df6db6-1f1f-4b05-95dd-118770600fd1/53823661837_0b1ee54615_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=4%2C0%2C8248%2C4640&w=400)
A nonbinary comedian challenges us to question our notions of self, gender and society, and opens our eyes to what we may gain in the process.
![Supercommunicators: The Science of Conversation and Connection](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4439f33b-44f3-4ce3-918c-6b7713b6017a/53825026550_67fcc31319_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=18%2C0%2C1562%2C879&w=400)
Why do some conversations succeed while others stumble? The neurology and psychology of communication offer surprising explanations for why human connection goes right or wron...
![Women Investing in Women](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/29942e24-e2ab-4f83-94d2-b907fbaf4615/53823873613_23991edd49_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C3100%2C4650&w=400)
Women are twice as likely to invest in female-led businesses. Explore the ways women approach wealth building and investment, and how they create opportunities to build financ...
![Are American Women Going Backwards?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a4f70e43-9976-4d6c-936d-6ffb4f1b3993/53824046585_143bcae259_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C462%2C4651%2C2618&w=400)
The rollback of reproductive rights, the push to end no-fault divorce, and gun laws that allow domestic abusers to own a firearm are turning the clock back on women’s rights....
![Pushback: The Perils (and Power) of Corporate Commitments](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4740a973-6c0d-4f57-9c35-796fdd369fa2/53823862693_2b19d6cc7e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1453%2C3100%2C1744&w=400)
With ESG caught in the political culture wars, business executives must decide to speak up or stay quiet about climate, diversity and democracy. What do employees and citizens...
![Extreme Heat: The Silent Killer of Climate Change](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/b5e2e176-6cbe-4d92-b593-011e59139c36/6.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C97%2C4651%2C2616&w=400)
Heat is now the top weather-related cause of death in the U.S., killing more people than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined. An environmental journalist and two city ch...
![There’s an Energy Transition Happening in Your Backyard](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/038a9839-e479-49fe-ab58-0fbb6194b7d8/energytransition.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=2293%2C0%2C3669%2C5503&w=400)
Every transition comes with tradeoffs, and even clean energy carries negative consequences. As they mine for critical minerals or build solar arrays on sensitive land, clean e...
![The Secret of Making Hits](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/008361bf-2540-4a00-8e1f-69739f370ce8/53822660989_e5265f0505_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=1%2C307%2C5880%2C3308&w=400)
Amid seismic shifts in the entertainment world, Oscar-, Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning Brian Grazer has managed to keep pivoting to new ways to tell stories in movies, TV and...
![Choosing Our Families](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/3812d6cd-ff04-4feb-b0a9-ab271b9c5849/53823337075_48dbca4089_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
Marriage rates have been decreasing for decades, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t finding new ways to create family ties that bind. Family bonds in the LGBTQ community and...
![Guerrilla Creativity](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/24e08eb1-8bb0-4970-9930-a617d58c5f32/53821275967_e65a66da2d_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C185%2C5493%2C3090&w=400)
In the last 30 years, conglomerates from Amazon to Netflix to Spotify have changed the way we interact with media, books, fashion and music. Creatives are struggling to mainta...
![Forgiveness in Times of Turmoil (podcast recording)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6a39dfbb-1abd-4ee5-9416-2290484c22f4/53823968189_21a4f4f910_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1292%2C0%2C2067%2C3100&w=400)
As the stakes of political confrontation have escalated, the issue of forgiveness is complicated. Should one ever hold the line rather than look for avenues of reconciliation,...
![King of the Deal](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6ae1f900-5437-49d6-b9b1-b2a8d361dd92/53823958184_0494f8c2a2_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
From one of the highest perches in the entertainment industry, the CEO of sports and entertainment behemoths Endeavor and TKO takes us on a journey of leadership and leverage....
![A Vision for Tech Equity](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d6b710dc-4837-4bae-aedc-b17d43cbe3ee/techequity.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=4%2C0%2C8248%2C4640&w=400)
The innovative philanthropist who paid off the student debt of the entire graduating class of Morehouse College class of 2019 talks about how to ensure all communities benefit...
![What Images Teach About Racial Justice](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/b952ab2d-c640-4a57-8279-6c7d03238fb9/53820187272_5aeee651ba_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
Images communicate truths, and also lies. Learning to pay attention to photographs can help us discern. An art and cultural historian and a visual artist host a master class o...