Letter: Flyover country | AspenTimes.com

Letter: Flyover country

Heads up! People actually read in-flight magazines.

I was flying home to Aspen last night and began reading the new issue of United Hemispheres magazine (monthly readership 3.1 million). The cover even featured Colorado: “Three Perfect Days Colorado Rockies.” I found the article and started reading and was pleased to see that the arts were mentioned in a ski article. Great! I was surprised to hear that the director of the Aspen Art Museum agreed to move to Aspen because there was a Prada store (not the usual thing you hear from mission-driven arts advocates), but maybe I needed to have a stronger sense of humor. Imagine my surprise when I read that the director felt that “it is an anomaly to have this kind of culture in the middle of nowhere.”

Surprised? Offended? Yep. I feel these comments are insulting and help strengthen the stereotype that the arts are for the elite. I am proud to call Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley my home, and it is definitely the middle of somewhere to me.

Susan Casebeer


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