Explore
Sessions
From the Aspen Ideas Festival 2007 Opening. Opera superstar Jessye Norman speaks (and sings) about the necessity of arts in our lives, and the importance of fantasy.
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...
2017 Harman Eisner Artist in Residence Jeff Koons and entertainment industry titan and former Walt Disney Company chairman and CEO Michael Eisner, join in a conversation about creating wonder. From household appliances to iconic large-scale inflatables, Koons has pioneered transforming familiar subjects into captivating works of art, and democratizing access through major...
Aspen Institute President Dan Porterfield and Festival Director Kitty Boone kick off the 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival. This session features conversations with Jeffrey Goldberg, Brittney Cooper, Fred Dust, and a host of ideas that just might change the world.
Legendary performer and 2019 Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence, Rita Moreno has won all four of the coveted EGOT collection of awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) and has had a host of other prestigious honors bestowed upon her. This summer, Moreno tackles a revisit of her most iconic project with a new role in and executive producing duties on Steven Spielberg’s remake...
Perhaps it is because of her exceptional, inspiring approach to linking geography, environment, and community in her work that Chicago architect Jeanne Gang is one of the most celebrated architects in her adopted city of Chicago. Touted as being bold, ingenious, and courageous in her work, Gang employs the best of nature and sustainable practice throughout the structures s...
Acoustics, intimacy, clarity: One could argue that how and where we listen to music is as important to the experience as the music itself. “The orchestra has to feel the audience, the audience has to feel the orchestra,” said architect Frank Gehry on his design of the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, which opened in 2017. “When they do that, the orchestra plays better, and th...
Memphis Jookin’ dancer and 2014 Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence Charles “Lil Buck” Riley and ballet dancer and director Damian Woetzel in a conversation of words and movement. Join these collaborators, arts advocates, educators, and friends as they talk shop about being an artist in the 21st century. With musical guests including Robert McDuffie and Arthur Bloom.
Stuart Weitzman is one of America’s most famous shoe designers, known for outfitting countless celebrities (think Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Kate Moss) but — perhaps more importantly — women across the globe who aspire to quality, class, and style. Here, he shares the lessons of his entrepreneurial adventure — which concluded with the 2015 sale of the company for $574 mil...
Audrie & Daisy is an urgent real-life drama that examines the ripple effects on families, friends, schools, and communities when two underage young women find that sexual crimes against them have been caught on camera. From acclaimed filmmakers Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk (The Island President, The Rape of Europa), Audrie & Daisy—which made its world premiere at the 2016 Sun...
What can a French modernist composer and a sitar-playing Indian rock-star teach us about the science of happiness? What connects a bombastic 19th-century symphony to 2016 research about the psychology of making decisions? This groundbreaking talk from Arthur Brooks, a former professional French hornist turned PhD economist and president of the American Enterprise Institute...
Where does classical liberalism come from? What comfort and lessons are we to take from our forebearers? In the aftermath of the 2016 election, acclaimed author and essayist Adam Gopnik traced the moral and philosophical trajectory of liberalism as a way to contextualize the election for his daughter. Gopnik takes the audience on a tour of the great places and people who c...
Debating immigration is a perennial favorite in presidential elections, perhaps never more so than in 2016, when border walls and banning Muslims push the boundaries of what proposals are considered acceptable to American voters. The artists on this panel vary in their mediums and perspectives, but they all contend with the immigrant experience. Guided by Eric Liu, we have...
Two authors of acclaimed but thoroughly different memoirs of growing up in rural American communities dive into their experiences growing up in the heartland, what they think urban Americans get wrong about our rural people and places, and how they are using their platforms to address some of the most complex challenges that rural communities face today.
In 2016, filmmaker/photographer Pete McBride and writer Kevin Fedarko set out on a 750-mile journey on foot through the entire length of the Grand Canyon. But their quest was more than just an endurance test – it was also a way to draw attention to the unprecedented threats facing one of our most revered landscapes. Throughout their passage, McBride and Fedarko encountered...
Any city would be lucky to have an artist in its corner like 2016 Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence Theaster Gates, whose work embraces activism, cultural preservation, and community development. Since he began work on his now famed Dorchester Projects in 2009, Gates’s transformation of a once-neglected South Side neighborhood into a thriving cultural hub has yielded an en...
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...