A major highlight in the Contemporary Art calendar for next year, Aspen Art Museum (AAM) will open the doors of its new, 33,000 square-foot Shigeru Ban-designed building on Saturday, August 9, 2014, with a free, 24-hour celebration.

For the past 35 years, AAM has been at the forefront of the International Contemporary Art scene; its central mission to programme the most innovative, intriguing, and important art of our time. The meteoric growth of this non-collecting institution in recent years has seen a 110% increase in annual visitor.

The new AAM is Shigeru Ban’s first U.S. museum and is located on the corner of South Spring Street and East Hyman Avenue in Aspen’s downtown core a few blocks from Aspen’s main skiing/snowboarding mountain, Ajax Mountain. “Designing the Aspen Art Museum presented a very exciting opportunity to create a harmony between architecture and Aspen’s surrounding beauty while also responding to the need for the dialogue between artwork, audience, and the space itself”, says Ban commenting on the design.

Ban’s vision for the new AAM is based on transparency and open view planes—inviting those outside to engage with the building’s interior, and providing those within the opportunity to see their exterior surroundings as part of a uniquely Aspen Art Museum experience. The new Museum features 12,500 square feet of flexible exhibition space in six primary gallery spaces spread over the museum’s four levels—more than trebling the amount of exhibition space in the museum’s current facility. The galleries have a ceiling height of fourteen feet, most infused with natural light.

Visitors will enter the new AAM through a main public entry on the north side of the building along East Hyman Avenue, which allows access to the main reception area, as well as the new AAM’s two ground floor galleries. From there, visitors may choose their path through museum spaces—ascending to upper levels either via Ban’s “moving room” glass elevator in the northeast corner of the new facility, or the grand staircase on the east side of the facility perpendicular to South Spring Street. The grand staircase—an interstitial three-level passageway situated between the building’s woven composite exterior grid and interior structure—is intersected by a glass wall dividing the stairway into a ten-foot-wide exterior space, and a six-foot-wide interior space. The unique passage allows for the natural blending of outdoor and indoor spaces and will feature mobile pedestals where art will be exhibited.

After climbing the grand staircase to the roof deck sculpture garden, visitors will enjoy unparalleled, sweeping vistas of Aspen’s internationally recognized environment. This will be the only unobstructed public rooftop view anywhere in town of the iconic Ajax Mountain. The roof deck will also be an activated exhibition and event space, with a café and bar and outdoor screening space.Shigeru Ban envisioned that visitors would navigate the new AAM the way a mountain is navigated when skiing or snowboarding—by proceeding to the very top of the building and descending from floor to floor. Other features of the museum’s architecture include: “walkable” skylights that will assist in illuminating the single main gallery on the second level; two galleries, an education space, bookstore/museum shop and on-site artist apartment on the ground floor; and, on the new AAM’s lower level, three galleries, art storage, and art preparation spaces.

The Inaugural Exhibitions
[Gallery 1—Second Level] will present four full-scale examples of Shigeru Ban’s groundbreaking designs for humanitarian relief, allowing the viewer to walk around as well as enter these structures. Tomma Abts [Galleries 4 & 5—Lower Level] will explore the artist’s drawing practice, and include new works created specifically for this exhibition. Rosemarie Trockel [Gallery 6—Lower Level] will offer a focused look at the artist’s groundbreaking and multifaceted engagement with the medium of ceramics. Jim Hodges [Street-level Plaza—Exterior of AAM] presents a new outdoor installation called With Liberty and Justice For All in the plaza outside the Museum. And Cai Guo-Qiang [Roof Deck Sculpture Garden] is developing a new project for the AAM’s sculpture garden.

For further information on Aspen Art Museum, visit www.aspenartmuseum.org

For further information on what to do in Aspen, visit www.aspenchamber.org

Connect with Aspen on Facebook, Twitter (@AspenCO), and YouTube

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Note to Editor:

About Shigeru Ban Architects (SBA)

In 1999, Shigeru Ban formed a partnership with U.S.-based architect Dean Maltz that led to the founding of SBA Projects America. Headquartered in New York, Maltz is responsible for all North and South American-based projects. In 2006, Nina Freedman was brought on board as Project Manager for SBA Projects America. Both SBA Project America team members have been instrumental in the day-to-day management and oversight of the New AAM project.

About Aspen Art Museum

Founded in 1979 and open year-round, the Aspen Art Museum is a non-collecting institution presenting the newest and most important evolutions in international contemporary art. It is the only American Association of Museums-accredited institution in the western part of Colorado. The AAM has been instrumental in bringing the city, its citizens, and Aspen visitors the work of such acclaimed artists as Yutaka Sone, Pedro Reyes, Jeremy Deller, Aïda Ruilova, Friedrich Kunath, Mai-Thu Perret, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Jim Hodges, Peter Coffin, Fred Tomaselli, Mark Bradford, Sergej Jensen, Mamma Andersson, Stephen Shore, Huma Bhabha, Slater Bradley, Amelie von Wulffen, Mark Grotjahn, Lucio Fontana, Monika Sosnowska, Rob Pruitt, Hayley Tompkins, and others—many in their first major U.S museum exhibitions or featuring important but lesser known aspects of their artistic practice. The AAM is an admission-free institution courtesy of a gift made by AAM National Council Members Amy and John Phelan. Such private donations make it possible for the Aspen Art Museum to further serve and enrich the community through endeavors such as scholarship programs and widespread collaborations with other community groups, private companies, and cultural organizations.

Opening Hours:

Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., and Thursday’s until 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, noon to 6:00 p.m.

Closed Mondays and major holidays

For further information please contact:
Charlotte Fraser
Tel: 44 (0)7930 370175
Email: charlotte@pilot-pr.com