High Points: Art, mobility, and giving

It’s been a big arts week here in Aspen.

Art Crush, Intersect Aspen, and the new Aspen Art Fair have brought sellers, buyers, artists, and those who support them to town in droves. Why are they all here at the same time? Ask any trout fisherman the best way to catch a trout, and she’ll tell you to go where the big fish are. And for those selling art, the big fish are right here in Aspen each summer.

It must be very gratifying to be a patron of the arts. You get to own something beautiful to you. You have the satisfaction of supporting the arts and those who make it. And for many, given the state of the market, buying art is a good financial investment. Who can blame those with the means for making purchases that click all those boxes?

But there was an article written by Kimberly Nicoletti in The Aspen Times this week that caught my attention and made me question if there might not be a better way for a person of means to make a difference other than purchasing another piece of art.

One of the Roaring Fork Valley’s most inspiring nonprofits is the Bridging Bionics Foundation. For close to a decade now, the organization, founded by Amanda Boxtel, has been changing the lives of individuals who have lost mobility and the ability to walk due to neurological impairment. People who have lost movement are provided with physical therapy, neuromuscular training systems, bionic exoskeletons, and other advanced technologies. Those who can’t walk have regained the power of mobility.

While art galleries have proliferated in Aspen during the past 10 years, Bridging Bionics has bounced from facility to facility — that is until this year, when a generous hand was offered to them by their board members Anne and Michael Spellings. The Spellings’ company, SES Management, secured a down payment and loan to close on a new and permanent home for Bridging Bionics in Carbondale.

This game changer will allow Bridging Bionics to finally have a permanent home where it can concentrate on the care it gives a community that relies on the services it provides and the hope it inspires. Important stuff.

But finding and closing on the space is just the beginning. Bridging Bionics now embarks on a capital campaign to raise funds to exercise an option to purchase the new space from the Spellings Company and to make the move from their previous location.

The hope is to raise a little over $1,500,000. This includes the potential for a $1 million donation for naming rights to the center and other opportunities for donors to secure name recognition on the Gratitude Wall in the new facility.

So, I am thinking there are more than a few art lovers in town who may have the capability to augment their big week of purchasing art pieces by spreading a little money and a lot of love to the community by donating to an organization that makes miracles come true.

Instead of just sending a painting home, how about making a difference in the lives of hundreds of Bridging Bionic athletes who could use a financial hand?

Reach out to Bridgingbioncs.org. Be the big fish.