“That presence of deep thinking and profound experience of music have really shaped the intellectual and aesthetic culture of the town. In Aspen, people are creating and discovering ideas and beauty as well as consuming them.”
the [resort’s Bauhaus-inspired] archi- tecture both inside and out, and you can feel it in the air.We’re at 8,900 feet, and there’s a different kind of lightness of being and a different sense of energy—I mean, you feel more energetic even though biologi- cally, your body is working harder to process oxygen.” Just as the destination is integral to
the Institute experience, the Institute and its events have become central to Aspen’s identity.“Together, I think that presence of deep thinking and profound experience of music have really shaped the intellectual and aes- thetic culture of the town in a way that’s really not true of other resort towns,” Breyfogle said.“Where I think in other destinations people are largely consumers of beauty and reflection, in Aspen, people are creat- ing and discovering ideas and beauty as well as consuming them.” That the destination is part of the
Institute’s name has “certainly given a national and international promi- nence to the town,” he said.“But I think perhaps even more significant is the way in which Paepcke’s ideals are part of the DNA of the town”—the city council, for instance, is actively involved in rethinking how those ideals can be incorporated into the civic community. “I think the town of Aspen has
always understood itself to be acting out a different kind of mission,” Brey- fogle said, “one in which the life of the mind, physical activity, and some kind of openness to transcendence influence what they do.” —Michelle Russell