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MUSEUM HOSTS TRAVELING EXHIBIT
The Telluride Historical Museum celebrates agricultural life, art and regional traditional artists.

Telluride, Colorado (February 07, 2012) – Harvest of Heritage, Colorado Masterpieces: Celebrating Agricultural Life and Art, an exhibit honoring over two dozen of Colorado’s master traditional artists, will open at the Telluride Historical Museum on February 16 with a special reception for museum members.

The exhibit has traveled across the state and was even displayed at the Colorado State Fair.

Harvest of Heritage includes wheat art, leather and rawhide braiding, Mexican fabric art, woodcarving, Japanese paper art and ornamental iron work. An interpretive display features photographs and information about those and many other art forms including stained glass work, quilt making, painting and weaving. All of the featured artists have links to Colorado’s rich agricultural heritage and their stories bring our state’s history to life.

Having met the highest standards of the Colorado Creative Industries’ Cultural Heritage Program, many of the featured artists have been awarded state grants and fellowships to help them preserve, present, and celebrate their traditional art forms. Two have received the National Endowment for the Arts’ highest honor for our nation’s tradition bearers, and many serve as master artists passing on skills and knowledge to the next generation of apprentices.

The exhibit also includes photos and information about projects—supported through Colorado Creative Industries’ various grant programs—which contribute to the preservation and promotion of Colorado’s cultural heritage.

In attendance for the Exhibit Opening will be Ronna Lee Sharp, the exhibit’s curator and one of Colorado’s three regional folklorists.

Harvest of Heritage is presented by Colorado Creative Industries, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces Program and created and toured by the Museum of Western Colorado.

Harvest of Heritage will be on display until the museum closes at the end of the ski season.

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39 YEARS OF THE SKI RESORT CELEBRATED
Greg Stump’s long-awaited final cut of “Legend of Aahhh’s,” to premiere.

Telluride, Colorado (January 31, 2012) - The Sheridan Arts Foundation, Telluride Historical Museum, Bootdoctors and Travis Julia Presents will celebrate the Telluride Ski Resort’s 39th anniversary, at the Sheridan Opera House, on February 9 and 10 with two nights of special guests and world premieres, including a highly anticipated debut of a Greg Stump original ski film.

The first of the two premieres will debut “Super Cut: 39 Years of Telluride in Ski Movies,” an epic montage of ski footage shot in and around Telluride, vintage commercials and movie scenes featuring locals. Dean Rolley, Telluride’s resident Audio Visual guru, has spent months splicing together footage along with local ski film icon Scott Kennett and Travis Julia.

“We’re going to unveil some really good stuff, including the Winter Olympic Visa commercials; three different beer commercials and an MTV video featuring Roudy Roudebush as a pilot and a cameo from Ruby the mountain lion,” said Rolley.

Films featured in “Super Cut,” include a spattering of Warren Miller classics; “Scrapple,” a fictional story set in Telluride; and Greg Stump’s “The Good, The Rad, and The Gnarly,” “Maltese Flamingo,” and “Blizzard of Aahhh’s.”

Rolley, who boasts an impressive library of his own, received additional gems from the archives of Scott Ransom and Tim Territo.

Kennett, famous for skiing in films alongside his dog Zudnick, and Stump, who helped put the ski resort on the map, will be in attendance to introduce segments.

The following night, February 10, Stump will unveil his long-awaited, semi-autobiographical “Legend of Aahhh’s.”

Stump is best known for his 1988 flick, “Blizzard of Aahhh’s,” which prominently featured Telluride and was voted “Number One Ski Film of All Time,” by the Ski Channel and Skiing Magazine.

Stump’s films are widely credited for moving ski films from the documentary genre and into the action film genre.

“Blizzard of Aahhh’s” started it all!” said Travis Julia. “It was not only the first glimpse of extreme skiing, but a window into the future of skiing movies.”

Twenty five years after his breakthrough film, Stump returns to his stomping grounds to explore the history of ski film—from Leni Riefenstahl’s first ski movie in the 1930's through today’s sponsor-drenched, high-definition thrillers—and document the influence the genre has had on big-mountain skiing, pop culture, and the birth of the extreme sports movement.

With interviews from Warren Miller, Dick Barrymore, Otto Lang, John Jay and Klaus Obermeyer, paired with ski turns from Scot Schmidt, Glen Plake, Mike Hattrup, Lynne Wieland, and others; Stump’s latest film promises to shed new light on the evolution of skiing and ski film production.

And with a soundtrack from Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real—that’s Willie Nelson's 22 year-old prodigal son and his ripping band—Fort Knox Five, and Bran Van 3000, "Legend" is in a genre of its own.

Tickets are $15 a piece per night and benefit the Sheridan Arts Foundation and Telluride Historical Museum. Shows are general admission, and all ages are welcome. Tickets can be purchased online at sheridanoperahouse.com or by calling the Sheridan Opera House box office at 970.728.6363 x5.

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THE ROOTS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION, IN OUR BACKYARD

Telluride Historical Museum and Pinhead Institute offer lecture on Mesa Verde’s Neolithic Revolution

Telluride, Colorado (January 16, 2012) – Perhaps the world’s best documented case of the Neolithic Revolution, which marked the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture—possibly the most important transformation in human history—can be found in our own backyard: southwestern Colorado’s Mesa Verde region.

On Thursday, the Telluride Historical Museum and Pinhead Institute will host a Telluride Unearthed lecture exploring the roots of modern civilization in the Mesa Verde Region.

During the vast majority of our time on earth, humans subsisted by hunting wild animals and collecting wild plants. About 10,000 years ago, people created the first domesticated foods. Agriculture developed independently in places like Papua New Guinea, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, and specifically at Mesa Verde, where maize farming was introduced.

Dr. Mark Varien, Chair of Research and Education at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado, will host the lecture. His work in the Mesa Verde region dates back to 1979.

“The Pueblo Indians are some of the world’s most innovative and resilient societies,” said Varien.

The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center has conducted research into the deep history of Pueblo peoples since its founding in 1983. The origins of Pueblo society in the Mesa Verde region is the focus of the Center’s newest research initiative: The Basketmaker Communities Project, a multi-year excavation project focused on a dense concentration of sites dating to the Basketmaker III period (A.D. 600 – 725).

“We’ll be discussing the era when the first public architecture—great kivas—were invented. These buildings were used for community activities rather than domestic activities,” said Varien.

The Center’s plans include excavations at the Dillard Site, the location of the only known great kiva in the Mesa Verde region.

Varien will speak about the project, share what deep Pueblo Indian history is being uncovered and discuss what the new research tells us about the Neolithic Revolution.

Telluride Unearthed is a collaborative lecture series intended to illuminate history through the lens of science. 2012 marks the seven years of collaboration between the museum and the Pinhead Institute.

The lecture begins at 6p.m., at the museum. Admission is $5. For more information visit telluridemuseum.org.

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CRAWL BACK IN TIME
The Telluride Historical Museum presents a Historic Pub Crawl.

Telluride, Colorado (January 9, 2012)– During Telluride’s most raucous era—around the turn of the last century—there was an unwritten rule that required a woman to enter through the side service door at the New Sheridan where she would then be held, in a waiting parlour, until her date was ready to dine.

Other Sheridan rules—Don’t shoot the Pianist!—were posted in plain site.

Throughout prohibition, it wasn’t uncommon for as much as nine tons of sugar to come through town without any of it making it to a grocery store. Telluride Whiskey, after all, was in high demand, even as far away as New York, or so claimed some proud Moonshiners.

During another infamous chapter in Telluride’s liquid history—the1970’s—the Gypsy Moon Saloon (today’s Fly Me to the Moon) boasted a full bar with a laundry-mat to boot.

On Thursday, the Telluride Historical Museum, with help from Telluride Theatre, will illuminate the town’s liquid history with a four-stop tour of Telluride’s most infamous haunts.

The Crawl kicks off with a free beer at the Telluride Historical Museum. Afterward, revisit the decade that gave birth to the ski bum at the Fly Me to the Moon Saloon; tour the Sheridan Opera House, from the basement bath-house to the top level Vaudeville Bar; and finish at the New Sheridan Bar to discover the sacred and holy battleground of the Western Federation of Miners. All the while, special guests bring to life the long forgotten characters, stories and traditions of Telluride’s pioneer drinkers.

Tickets include a guided tour and beer stein with historic image. Drinks (accept the first one, at the museum) are not included. Hangovers are on the house!

RSVP: 728-3344x2 or email beth@telluridemuseum.org.

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MUSEUM DIRECTOR RESIGNS
Lauren Bloemsma to Move On after Putting the Museum on the Map

Telluride, Colorado (December 26, 2011) – When Lauren Bloemsma came to interview for the Executive Director position at the Telluride Historical Museum, she brought with her a Power Point presentation titled: Putting the Museum on the Map.

That was seven years ago.

This week the museum announced Bloemsma’s resignation, which she tendered earlier this month, and the search for the next director.

In the years since Bloemsma was hired, the museum has seen a 60% growth in admissions; 67% increase in membership; a 200% boost in education outreach; and over 250% more attendees at museum programs.

Bloemsma is quick to demur, pointing to staff, a committed membership, a hard working Board of Directors, even national trends as reasons for the success. It’s easy to see, Bloemsma is modest.

Bloemsma’s hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone principals—her staff knows her to work both late nights and weekends from home—are very likely the source of the museum’s success, but it may also be the driving force behind her resignation.

Being the face of a beloved institution could be an exhausting task even for the most extroverted leader. Walk with Bloemsma down Colorado Ave. and you might note: she knows most everyone by name. She’s often wont to stop and ask a few questions. “Good deal,” she’ll say before turning on her heel toward, more often than not, the museum. It would seem the whole town is her office.

When the ski resort opened in the 1970’s, it brought new blood to town, “Long Hairs,” as they were sometimes called. Tensions from the transitional decade still lingered into 2005 when Bloemsma took on the role of protecting, preserving and sharing the town’s history. Bloemsma is credited with restoring relationships with long-time locals—whose ties to the region go back to the mining era, sometimes four or five generations—and bringing subsequent waves of residents into the fold.

“She’s given so much. It’s such a vital place now,” said Vicki Eidsmo, secretary of the museum Board of Directors and third generation Tellurider. “She’s worked tirelessly to make this organization accessible and open to everyone in the community.

For Bloemsma, What’s Next? could have been the final slide of her PowerPoint presentation. “The museum is today exactly where I envisioned it seven years ago. I’m very proud of our museum, and I’m looking forward to continuing my support as a member. I’m also looking forward to new challenges and more time to explore hobbies and other interests,” she said.

Assistant Director, Beth Roberts has worked with Lauren for nearly three years, “She’s leaving on top. You have to admire that,” she said.

“Whoever we select will have the incredible opportunity of building on the foundation of the many accomplishments of Lauren’s tenure as Director,” said Jim Tharp, head of the museum’s Search Committee for Bloemsma’s replacement.

Those accomplishments include the digitization of the museum’s vast photo collection; the publication of Images of America, Telluride; the research and display of the Telluride Blanket, the museum’s most prized artifact; a documentary movie on skiing; the introduction of seasonal exhibits; Current History projects; exhibits at remote locations; accelerated collection of oral histories; broadened programming; staff growth to include collections, marketing and exhibit specialists; Heritage Fest; and this summer, the unveiling of a new outdoor mining exhibit, Hard Rocks, Rough Lives, and the Amphitheatre education area.

On the desktop of every museum computer is a digital folder, home to a network of files, called “New Regime,” a hangover name from Bloemsma’s very first days at the museum when she was instituting protocol for all procedures and processes. New Regime contains everything from forms, photos, and event planning tools to the attendance database—all organized for optimum efficiency. To museum staff, New Regime seems less a file name than way of life.

“The structure she’s provided the staff has allowed us the autonomy to accomplish so much. Her infrastructure will live on. It’s her leadership we will really miss,” said Roberts.

As for the new, New Regime? Bloemsma will retain her position through March and will aid in the transition. The Search Committee is looking for an energetic, community-focused and creative individual for the position. Preference will be given to applicants holding a degree in museum studies, arts administration or related fields. A minimum five years work experience in museums and or non-profit management is required. The committee is accepting qualified applications through January 23.

More information about the position. The Committee asks for no calls, please.

No matter who the new director is, thanks to Bloemsma, they won’t need a map to find the museum.

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Beth Roberts
Assistant Director
970-728-3344x2
beth@telluridemuseum.org