Thursday
17
🎤: Main Stage Talks
🌿: In the Wild
🎉: Parties & Events
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For our early arrivals.
Slow down, close your eyes, and listen. Artist Jamie Kripkie hosts an immersive vinyl listening experience, inviting us to experience music as a shared, intentional act of attention.
Location:
Aspen Collective Gallery
Reserve Your Spot
Friday
18
🎤: Main Stage Talks
🌿: In the Wild
🎉: Parties & Events
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Forget everything you know about conferences.
Start the conference by grounding in place. A welcome to the land led by Skyler Lomahaftewa, a member of the Ute Tribe, invites us to acknowledge the history, presence, and living relationship to the land we gather on. The welcome will be followed by opening remarks from the Aspen Design Conference founders at the historic Paepcke Park gazebo, officially setting the weekend in motion.
Presented in partnership with Red Brick Center for the Arts and Aspen Historical Society.
Location:
Paepcke Park Gazebo -
Is beauty simply a matter of taste, or are there enduring patterns that shape how humans perceive the world? Through striking examples from architecture, biology, and the natural environment, architect Erik Evens explores how the forms and rhythms found in nature have guided human design across cultures and centuries. Drawing connections between natural systems and the built world, from leaves and coastlines to cities and cathedrals, he asks whether beauty is less a cultural invention than a language we instinctively recognize — and what we stand to gain by rediscovering it.
Location:
Wheeler Opera House -
Today’s public conversation about AI occurs mostly in the mediums of text and abstraction: papers, policy briefs, opinion pieces, etc. These formats favor those already fluent in the discourse and tend to produce outputs that constrict rather than broaden dialog. Meanwhile, most people are navigating a more private, partially-formed bouquet of feelings about AI. Glee, dread, confusion, wonder, and all the interstitials. Their perspectives are real and intellectually serious, but the dominant formats give them nowhere to go.
We need forms that invite people to externalize what they know but cannot quite say about AI, to make the partial feel whole enough to share, and to make the frightening feel approachable enough to examine. Enter monsters.
Join Lisa Kay Solomon, Futurist in Residence at the Stanford d.school for an experiential conversation exploring our perceptions about AI, and our agency in shaping our futures.
Location:
Aspen Collective Gallery -
How might we design technology that reclaims our attention, privacy, and autonomy?
This conversation uncovers what it means to build technology that serves human agency rather than exploits it. In a conversation spanning AI, digital infrastructure, and the future of computing, Josh Crumb and Michelle Dennedy examine how we can reclaim attention, privacy, and individual sovereignty — and why the systems we design today will shape not only our technologies, but our consciousness and collective future.
Location:
Wheeler Opera House, Main Stage -
What Are People For? premieres at ADC—a new film exploring the life, work, and ideas of Patrick Whitney, one of the most influential voices in contemporary design. As Dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design, Whitney helped advance human-centered design far beyond products, shaping how institutions approach complex human and social challenges.
Following the screening, executive producer Ashley Lukasik, designer Rick Valicenti, and creative director Andre Nogueira come together to reflect on Whitney’s work, ideas, and enduring influence.
Each brings a distinct creative perspective: Ashley through storytelling and film, Rick through his boundary-pushing practice in graphic design and visual culture, and Andre through his exploration of identity, technology, psychology, and human connection.
Together, they’ll consider Patrick’s legacy, the ideas that continue to shape the field, and where human-centered design might go next.
After the Q&A, join us for a relaxed and intimate conversation on the Aspen Collective Porch immediately following his talk.
Location:
Wheeler Opera House, Main Stage -
Head over to the Paul Jas Center for the high-energy Latin Jazz band, Salsa Brava, for dancing, drinks, and a good ol’ time!
Show times at 6:30 and 9:00 PM.
Location:
Paul JAS Center
Tickets Available Soon -
An intimate evening gathering to welcome our speakers, donors, contributors and friends of the ADC. Hosted at Las Montañas, this dinner offers thoughtful conversation, beautiful surroundings, and a shared table with those helping bring the conference to life.
10 seats available for a minimum contribution of $1,000.00
Location:
Las Montanas, 205 South Mill St -
Let’s boogie!
Location:
Aspen Collective Gallery
Saturday
19
🎤: Main Stage Talks
🌿: In the Wild
🎉: Parties & Events
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Start your morning with a gorgeous hike looking over town with local, Jesse Kahn and co-founder of ADC, Eli Bucksbaum
Meet At:
Koch Park - 120 W Cooper AveLittle Cloud Trail is an easy to moderate hiking loop across the front side of Aspen’s ski mountain. Wear ankle supported, close toed shoes. Bring water, sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses.
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Start the day with a coffee and good company with The Shea Team on the Aspen Collective Porch for espresso, conversation, and a chance to connect with fellow conference-goers before the day gets underway.
Location:
Aspen Collective Gallery - 213 S Mill St -
What can an object make us think about? Artist-maker-gallerist, Sam Harvey and artist-maker-gallerist, Joseph Santiago Dieppa bring a constellation of objects and artworks into a visual exchange — challenging, provoking, and building on each other’s ideas as they move between material, process, craft, function, beauty, and the strange lives objects take on once they enter the world.
Part conversation, part debate, and part sparring match, Thinking Through Things is a practice about looking and seeing— an invitation to see familiar things differently and question what we think we know. Moderated by Sarah Roy of the Red Brick Art Center.
Location:
The Wheeler Opera House -
Join Aspen-based landscape architect Ann Mullins for a guided walking tour of the Aspen Institute’s historic 40-acre campus, a landmark of American design shaped by Bauhaus artist Herbert Bayer.
Designed between 1949 and 1975, the grounds reflect Bayer’s vision of a “total work of art,” where landscape, architecture, and public sculpture seamlessly converge. This immersive experience offers insight into the site of the original International Design Conference in Aspen and highlights the lasting legacy of one of Aspen’s most influential designers.
Location:
Herbert Bayer Center
Reserve your spot -
From the edge of space to the limits of imagination, astronomer and creative Bobby Cabbagestalk and Creative Strategist at NASA David Levine explore how movement, curiosity, and awe can shift our perspective — and inspire us to see new possibilities on Earth and beyond.
Through stories of exploration, science, and discovery, Bobby and David explore why reaching for the unknown isn't just about space; it's about expanding the way we think, create, and imagine the future.
Location:
Wheeler Opera House, Main Stage -
What wisdom do we inherit, and what responsibility do we have to carry it forward?
Across cultures, generations, and creative disciplines, artists and designers are increasingly looking beyond conventional ideas of innovation to rediscover deeper forms of knowledge. Dina Nur Sati,Skyler Lomahaftewa, and Maty Sall examine how ancestral memory, cultural inheritance, and relationships to land, material, and ritual continue to influence contemporary creative practice, asking what it means to carry wisdom forward while designing the future.
Location:
Wheeler Opera House, Main Stage -
What if the future of building begins with one of our oldest materials?
Architect Chad Oppenheim and builder MYXZ come together for a conversation about earth as a building material—and what it can teach us about how we build today. From rammed earth and adobe to contemporary innovations in natural construction, the conversation will explore the beauty, performance, labor, and limitations of working with what is already beneath our feet.
Together, they’ll consider what it means to build with greater awareness of place, material, and resources, and why ancient building knowledge is finding new relevance in contemporary architecture. This is a conversation about dirt, craft, climate, and the possibility of making architecture that feels deeply connected to where it stands.
Location: Aspen Collective Gallery
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What might trees tell us if we learned how to listen? Join environmental psychologist Lindsay Branham for an exploration of our relationship with the living world and the intelligence of the landscapes around us.
Meet at Aspen Collective Gallery at 1:45pm.Location:
Aspen Collective Gallery -
What happens when the boundaries of an artist’s practice disappear? Lucy McRae has built a career across art, science, technology, fashion, film, and speculative research; Magnus Resch studies the systems that shape how artists build sustainable careers and economic value. Together, they examine what it means to make a living — and a life — as an artist today. Who determines value? Can commercial success coexist with creative independence? And in a world where almost anything can be produced, what is still worth making?
Location:
Wheeler Opera House -
Every great creative endeavor begins with an idea, but the path from inspiration to something that moves people is rarely linear. Bringing together producer Jeff Kite, entrepreneur Ben Vardi, and musician Greg Gonzalez, this conversation explores how radically different creative practices share the same challenges: finding a voice, embracing uncertainty, collaborating with others, and knowing when to trust intuition over certainty.
Through stories of breakthrough moments, creative pivots, and lessons learned, the panel reveals what it really takes to build work that endures, and why the best ideas are often the ones that evolve along the way.
Producer Jeff Kite (The Voidz, Cigarettes After Sex) sits down with his colleagues and friends, songwriter Greg Gonzalez (Cigarettes After Sex), and Spin Master co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Ben Varadi, to trace the path from the moment of inspiration to the finished product..Location:
Wheeler Opera House, Main Stage -
Journey up Castle Creek Road to Toklat, a high-elevation mountain setting far from Aspen’s lights, for an evening beneath the stars. Explore the night sky with Bobby Cabbagestalk and David Levine through telescopes, stories, and music — a chance to slow down, look up, and experience the wonder of what’s beyond us.
Meet At:
Aspen Collective Gallery - 213 S. Mill StA maximum of 51 seats are available on shuttles. Please make sure to RSVP.
Sunday
20
🎤: Main Stage Talks
🌿: In the Wild
🎉: Parties & Events
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Learn to identify and harvest wild foods and medicines through seeds and roots as they hunker down for winter. We will learn to identify “skeletons” of summer plants to find nutrient-dense roots and protein-rich seeds, mastering the skills of the late-season harvest.
Meet at:
American Lake Trailhead
Rides will be coordinated based on RSVPAmerican Lake Trail is an easy to moderate hike. Wear ankle supported, close toed shoes. Bring water, sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses, and a water bottle.
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The most important architecture we inhabit isn't a building. It's the living systems within and around us.
From the recurring geometries of the natural world and Amazonian cosmovisions to Michael Levin's research into bioelectricity and psychological models such as Internal Family Systems, we repeatedly encounter health described in the language of design: as pattern, relationship, and coherence. Are these merely analogies, or are they pointing toward something fundamental?
In this moderated conversation, Reality Architect Marisa Hallsted and depth coach and teacher Jeremy Fishertrace this idea from the cellular to the cosmological, asking whether illness might be understood as a design problem within living systems.Location:
Wheeler Opera House, Main Stage -
For centuries, artists and designers have looked to nature for inspiration. Today, a new generation is moving beyond imitation toward collaboration.
Working across sculpture, architecture, environmental research, and material experimentation, Lauren Shapiro, Maura Trumble, Karen Marie Stonely explore what it means to create with living systems rather than simply represent them. From coral reefs and geological time to regenerative architecture and changing landscapes, their work challenges the boundary between the built and the natural worlds.
Together they ask how creativity might become a practice of stewardship—one that embraces adaptation, interdependence, and the intelligence embedded in the environments we inhabit.
Location:
Wheeler Opera House, Main Stage -
Slow down and look again. Join Andy Millner for an informal outdoor drawing session inspired by Aspen’s landscape. No experience necessary — just curiosity and a willingness to look closely.
Location:
Start: Hexton Gallery
End: Aspen Collective Gallery
Reserve your spot -
What if our most important intelligence arrives before we can explain it?
Beneath conscious thought, our bodies are constantly registering subtle information that we tend to override in favor of logic and certainty. In this experiential workshop, depth coach and teacher Jeremy Fisher explores intuition as something that can be practiced and refined. Through somatic exercises, felt-sense inquiry, and experiments in perception with the living world, we’ll learn how to distinguish intuitive knowing from fear, conditioning, and desire, and how to listen more closely when navigating uncertainty, relationships, and creative decisions.
Location:
Red Brick Center for the Arts Lawn
Reserve your spot -
The first generation to grow up entirely online is now asking a question adults rarely ask: Has social media actually made us more connected?
Born after Facebook, these students have never known a childhood without social media. They are among its most-studied users — and among the least consulted about what it has become. Here, they take the lead, reflecting on what social media gives us, what it promises, and what happens when connection becomes a metric.
Moderated by Sarah Beattie, a former Meta employee who spent five years building systems to detect harmful content before leaving to launch The 611, a local community app designed to foster real-world connection.
This isn't a conversation about whether social media is good or bad. It's a conversation with the generation who lived through the experiment, asking what they think we got wrong, and what they want to build next.
Location:
Wheeler Opera House -
What will Aspen’s new airport look and feel like? Architects Charles Cunniffe and Rena Simon take us inside the design of the new Aspen/Pitkin County Airport terminal, sharing the thinking behind its architecture, materials, sustainability, and connection to the landscape and community. A look at the new gateway to the Roaring Fork Valley — and the ideas shaping how we arrive in Aspen.
Location:
Wheeler Opera House -
Gather with the ADC team on the Aspen Collective Patio for final conversations, closing remarks, and an epic group photo.
ALL WEEKEND LONG
🤜 🤛: Collaborative Moments
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Take A Seat is a public art and design project featuring original chairs commissioned from artists and installed at outdoor locations throughout Aspen for the duration of the conference.
Each chair transforms into a destination — an invitation to set aside your devices, pause, sit, and take in Aspen's landscape. Guided by a map, attendees can turn the simple act of finding a seat into a journey of discovery, contemplation, and connection with the natural surroundings. -
Dear, Trees is a public art and tree connection experiment for all ages. We have very special trees in the Roaring Fork Valley and yet it is easy to walk by them. We are inviting you to simply slow down and pay attention to the forest.
The best way to feel closer to nature is to start building a connection! Six trees across Aspen are part of this experience.
View the map!
Dear, Trees will be up from August 19th - September 16th, 2026. Selections will be shown during The Aspen Design Conference at Aspen Collective Gallery. -
What happens when we collaborate with the natural environment to make music? Musicians and bandmates, Eddie Burns,William Corduroy, and Sparklmami capture the energy of the weekend into song, immersing themselves in Aspen’s streams, grasslands, changing forests, and mountains.
This performance will be recorded privately In The Wild throughout the conference.
In collaboration with the artists, the Aspen Design Conference will produce an experimental video post-conference utilizing their improvised set as the score for the entire weekend.
In the Wild programs presented by Studio MAXIMA