Aspen Art Museum

I love the Louvre. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But my favorite little gem is the Aspen Art Museum. It has the kewlest contemporary art. Even the way the art is displayed is entertaining.
Most people head up to the rooftop restaurant with its jaw-dropping views of Aspen Mountain winter or summer. But I head to the basement because that's where the art exhibits start. Each of the four floors before the rooftop features a different artist.
The artwork hangs on the walls. But it's also on the floor. And there are movies too. Most of the exhibits are interactive.
The fourth floor is a rooftop sculpture exhibition. The restaurant is there too.
I have seen almost a dozen different exhibits and they are all radically different from each other. You never know what you will get.
Each floor has a docent who can seemingly answer any question you have about the exhibit or the artist. I know really nothing about art, so it's kewl they can "'splain me Lucy.'"
I also visited during covid. Everyone had to go online to get a specific time to enter the museum. Masks were mandatory.
Oh, did I tell you admission was FREE?
The Aspen Art Museum also has a number of lecture series and a special program for teens.
See if you can attend an artist coffee. They're held every Friday at 4 pm. You get to meet Aspen's local artists and share a cup of coffee. These are held on the rooftop.
The building is a converted hydroelectric plant. The museum opened in 1979. It's 33,000 square feet in the heart of the downtown core.
Whether you visit Aspen in winter or summer, carve out at least two hours and visit this gem.

I live in Aspen part of the time, and I always make sure to visit the Aspen Art Museum when I am in town.

This year, on June 11th two new exhibits opened - one on the rooftop terrace and the other on the 1st and 2nd floors.

The building's architecture is beautiful and modern, with lots of natural light, and the view of Aspen Mountain from the roof garden (which also has a restaurant serving brunch and lunch) is unparalleled.

Vistas from the rooftop cafe are beautiful. When we went, a youth art show was in everything except one small gallery. It sort of felt like an extraordinarily well-funded elementary school hallway. It's a neat place and I'd love to see it when it hosts exhibits by artists over the age of 10.

The art museum is a very nice facility. The views from the top floor and outside patio are really nice and offer some great picture opps of Aspen Mtn. We didn't eat anything from the cafe. The exhibit halls were nice as well. The staff was friendly and offered insight and assistance.

Good place and it's free of cost.. nice display

Love the museum and every time its a beautiful expo

Beautifully designed building with great views of the mountains. Free to visit and had an art exhibit that was inspiring. Learned about an artist and their history from both the helpful and welcoming staff as well from the placards.

This art museum was super cool! My boyfriend and I were just stopping through and had never been here before. We wanted to eat somewhere unique and outdoors and found the free art museum with a restaurant on the rooftop! Super cool. We love the architecture of the building itself and loved finding out that the exhibits regularly change.

They were also taking COVID precautions which is always great to see: everyone wearing masks, arrows on the ground for consistent safe social distancing and moving traffic the same way. They also had hand sanitizer everywhere.

PS the restaurant was DELICIOUS! A+ for presentation, flavor, AND aroma!!! Plus the awesome view of the ski mountains!

A very small but unique museum with its architectural style. They had very interesting displays when we visited. If you are not into modern art, you wont appreciate it. The rooftop's view was breathraking!!!

Sadie is more than lovely, great attentive server!! Thank you. We had 2 different flavored soups - please relate that they both very bland. Almost watery , i feel bad saying this - but there are yummy spices to use. It would be more enjoyable if some more flavorings were added. Thank you!!