Press Release

Red Brick announces new team member to lead public art program

Aspen, CO – The Red Brick Center for the Arts announces a new position to manage the city of Aspen’s inaugural Public Art Program. Lara Whitley has been appointed the lead of the Aspen Public Art Program for the city, bringing experience and vision to the role. 

Since 2017, Whitley has been developing public art in the Roaring Fork Valley, as a bilingual project manager, curator, program designer and visual artist. Last summer, she collaborated with the Red Brick, managing the city’s pilot art installation by Ana María Hernando at Rubey Park and Sister Cities Plaza. 

Previously, as creative strategy director at the Community Office for Resource Efficiency, she founded Imagine Climate, a month-long public art series exploring climate art and technology. Whitley stepped into the position part-time on March 10 and will be fully engaged next month.

“We are thrilled to welcome Lara to our team as we continue building community through the arts,” said Sarah Roy, executive director of the Red Brick Center for the Arts. “With a strong track record of fostering authentic partnerships across diverse organizations, she brings invaluable experience to our mission. Energized by the overwhelming enthusiasm from the Aspen community for more public art, we are eager to create meaningful art experiences that are truly of, by, and for the community.”

With mass communications and Spanish degrees from UC Berkeley, post-graduate studies in visual art, and a career rooted in nonprofit arts within the Roaring Fork Valley, Whitley is passionate about developing vibrant and inclusive communities through art. 

She is excited to collaborate with city departments, partners and local organizations to launch the Aspen Public Art Program and develop works of art that the whole community can enjoy and interact with for free.

“I believe everyone deserves access to a creative life,” Whitley said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to join the team at the Red Brick to create community by connecting people to each other and to place through art experiences that build upon Aspen’s legacy of innovation, creativity and spirited independence.”

The idea of the Aspen Public Art Program was born as a response to two parallel sources that began to surface in 2023: a community call for more in art in Aspen’s public spaces, as well as city staff’s wish to better manage those public art pieces already in the municipality’s existing inventory.  

The Red Brick responded by convening an Aspen Public Art Plan Visioning Committee and hiring consultants ThereSquared and Stilwell Cultural Consulting to lead a robust, bilingual community engagement effort around public art. The effort included surveys, interviews, focus groups, local events and community conversations. 

The community feedback affirmed that Aspen is a place that embraces and celebrates creative expression, innovation and interdisciplinary engagement. It also revealed that the community would like the city to partner with arts organizations to discover synergies and create collaborative, joyful, stimulating and engaging works of art of all types for the entire community of Aspen.

The Red Brick followed this lead by continuing the Aspen City Hall Exhibition program, creating a demonstration “pavement art” project by artist Chris Erickson in 2023, and Hernando’s pilot project in 2024. During last year’s annual budget process, Aspen City Council approved ongoing budget authority to establish a new public art program and hire a full-time employee. 

The Aspen Public Art Program will officially launch in 2025, working with several partners on projects to be announced for summer 2025. Learn more at www.redbrickaspen.com/aspen-public-art-plan.

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For more information, please contact
Sarah Roy, executive director, Red Brick Center for the Arts
(970) 366-2579
sarah.roy@aspen.gov
Carolyn Sackariason, communications manager
(970) 319-2791
Carolyn.sackariason@aspen.gov