The Aspen Idea
The most defining feature of this famous mountain town is not its pristine ski slopes, its miles of trails, its exquisite restaurants, or even its spectacular surroundings. What truly separates Aspen from the rest is the Aspen Idea.
The Aspen Idea was born in 1950, when Chicago industrialist Walter Paepcke and his wife, Elizabeth, began convening intellectuals, artists, and philosophers in the decaying mining town of Aspen for their fledgling Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. It was a high-minded organization which sought to promote world peace and instill humanism in the tense post-war nation and world.