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Snowmass history: Launching creativity in Snowmass

New art school went 'into orbit' in 1968

Aspen Historical Society
Artists work at the Sam's Knob School of Art in 1968.
Aspen Historical Society, Hiser Collection

“New art school goes into orbit at S-mass,” announced The Snowmass Villager on July 4, 1968.

“’The newest Summer Art Scene,’ as it is called in the brochure, is now happening. Sam’s Knob School of Art at Snowmass-at-Aspen started classes on June 24 and is scheduled to run through Aug. 2,” the Villager reported. “The school is under the direction of Bill Lifton, owner of The Gallery in Denver. Also here as an instructor is Jerry Johnson, an art teacher at the Denver Center of Colorado University. … He says art, like other things in contemporary life, has splintered off, that now there is a need to pull things together, to involve the public as well as the students.

“‘The greatest educational thing we can do here this summer is to see what kind of possibilities these things have. I am happy just to stay in the studio and work,’ he says, ‘but there is such a need for dialogue now, for reaching the people on the street.’ The summer will be devoted to interacting, investigating, testing, sharing, Johnson said, among the teachers, the graduate students and the artists.”

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