THE SCENE | ARTS
A SCINTILLATING SUMMER AWAITS Local arts community pivots beautifully, creatively BY EMILY SHOFF
Chromasonic — Fluid State
Courtesy of Chromasonic
C
Jason Hicks of Jason and Daris Photography
Telluride AIDS Benefit
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telluride.com | 855.421.4360
ovid might be lingering like a couch-surfing ski bum, but the Telluride arts community has pivoted beautifully and creatively for summer, leading to innovation in everything from theater to fashion to film to visual arts. In other words, get ready for a scintillating summertime arts scene. The local nonprofit arts council, Telluride Arts, for instance, has made great use of its open-air Transfer Warehouse, the historic building at the corner of Fir Street and Pacific Avenue. By reducing capacity from 480 to 135 guests, it has been able to host small-scale films and concerts over the past year. This summer, it plans to continue these, as well as serve as the venue for streamlined versions of Mountainfilm, Telluride Mushroom Festival, Wilkinson Public Library programming, an expanded music series and more. Executive Director Kate Jones says that the need to reduce the size of gatherings has made them more intimate, “mandating something that we want to continue.” In-person audience sizes might be smaller, but local radio station KOTO has plans to live broadcast many of the warehouse’s events, expanding overall reach. Says Jones, “I’m so excited that we’re teaming up with KOTO. This is something we’ve been dreaming about for years.” Telluride Arts also collaborated with the Original Thinkers festival; artists’ collaborative Deep Creek Experimental; Deep Creek Mine, a former mine west of town that is now an arts space; and Studio Chromasonic to secure a National Endowment for the Arts grant. The funding will support two installations, an expanded installation at the mine of Chromasonic — Fluid State, and a new one at the Transfer Warehouse with sculptor and artist Johannes Girardoni and sound artists Orpheo McCord and Joel Shearer combining a real-time algorithmic process with light and sound
