This Week in Aspen: Events & Things to Do

Things to Do in Aspen This November - As we gear up for ski season, the last of the fall colors linger and snow dustings cover the peaks. From shopping to arts and culture events, discover 5 ways to unwind and experience downtown Aspen during this relaxing, quiet time of year. To learn more, click here.

Aspen Chapel Gallery presents FEAST D' ARTE (October 7 - November 11, 2026, Daily, Aspen Chapel Gallery) FEAST D’ARTE, a mixed media show in partnership with HARVEST FOR HUNGER, is on display at the Aspen Chapel Gallery. This is the 270th consecutive exhibition since the Gallery opened 41 years ago. Kathy Honea, curator, asked Mike Campbell, Bill Gruenberg, Lucy Congdon Hanson, Christie Interlante, Brenda Manes, Jessica T Mansor, and Cassidy Willey to join her in exhibiting their art. Learn more here!

Free tour of "Double Take: Recurring Dialogues in the Art of Herbert Bayer" (12:30 PM on Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3:00 PM on Saturdays, Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies) Free tours at the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies offer an in-depth view of the evolution of key motifs in Bayer’s vast output of paintings, drawings, collages and photographs. See works on loan from the Denver Art Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the George Eastman Museum in Rochester. To register, click here.

Steven Yazzie: Visiting Artist Lecture (4:30 PM, Anderson Ranch Arts Center) Join Anderson Ranch Arts Center for a Visiting Artist conversation with Steven J. Yazzie, a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, installation, video, film, photography, and community collaboration. A member of the Navajo Nation and a Gulf War veteran, Yazzie explores contemporary Indigenous experience and connection through a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary practice. Yazzie earned his BFA in Intermedia from Arizona State University and was a founding member of Postcommodity, an Indigenous arts collective, as well as co-founder of the Museum of Walking. His work has been exhibited at leading institutions including the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, the Denver Art Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. He was also selected for the 2025 Sharjah Biennial 16. As a Visiting Artist at Anderson Ranch, Yazzie will engage with the Ranch community through studio work, conversations, and a public lecture. His Visiting Artist Lecture will take place November 10 from 4:30–5:30 p.m. in Schermer Meeting Hall. The lecture is free, open to the public, and available to attend in person or via livestream. To register, click here.

Visit the Aspen Art Museum (Tuesdays - Sundays, Downtown Aspen) Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, the Aspen Art Museum is a work of art itself. It's located in the heart of downtown Aspen and admission is free. During your visit, explore the exhibitions: Adrián Villar Rojas: First Gods, Lost Animals and Kerstin Brätsch: Fossil Psychic Stone Mimicry (Aspen), and check out the rooftop café, Swedish Hill. Learn more here!

Logan Phillips at Explore Books: Reckon (5:30 PM, Explore Books) What does it mean to have been born in Tombstone, Arizona? In Reckon (The University of Arizona Press, 2026), artist Logan Phillips (Poet Laureate of Tucson, Arizona) returns to the fabled site of his childhood to confront the frontier stories he inherited as a boy: outlaw gunfights, Hollywood cowboys, and the racial and gendered power structures that sustained them. Blending poetry, memoir, newspaper clippings, and screenplay, Reckon is a witty and moving examination of sexuality, masculinity, parenting, and the contradictions of loving a landscape built on erasure and “slathered in murder.” With an original, searing voice, Reckon is an essential answer to the tough questions of past and future, inheritance and reinvention, all from the perspective of a boy stuck in the middle. Phillips will read from Reckon, and be joined in conversation by acclaimed poet Natasha Carrizosa of Ft. Worth, Texas. To learn more and RSVP, click here.

Culinary Experience: Autumn Soups (5:30 PM, Colorado Mountain College Aspen Morgridge Teaching Kitchen) Make 2 thick and velvety soups from carrot & cauliflower that can be specialized to your flavour profile & dietary needs with Asian curry, spices, butter, cream or coconut milk, the sky's the limit! No same day registration for this class. To sign up, click here.

Animals Taught Me Everything: A Conversation with Author Pam Houston & Mitzi Rapkin, Podcast Host of First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing (6:30 PM, Pitkin County Library) Join the Pitkin County Library in hosting author Pam Houston, who will discuss her new book, Animals Taught Me Everything, with Mitzi Rapkin, host of the podcast First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing. The event will feature a live recording of the podcast, time for audience questions, and a book signing and sale with Explore Booksellers. Animals Taught Me Everything: What can animals teach us about how to be human? From Icelandic mares and Irish wolfhounds to elephants, leopards, hyena bitches, and a desert-adapted lioness named Charlie, Pam Houston has learned life’s most important lessons from animals. How to play. How to rest. How to love. How to die. How to be present with the dying. How to be present with the living and with the Earth. How to find joy in the least likely places. How to find joy, literally, everywhere. With playful sincerity, Houston finds power and promise in the teachings of our fellow creatures and reminds us that the animals are here for us, every day and everywhere. To learn more, click here.

Cozy Cafés for Fall Days - On brisk fall days, settle into a cozy café with a warm drink in hand. Find a quiet nook to read, linger over lunch with friends, or take in the fall colors from a window seat. Check out our guide to Aspen's coziest cafés.

Explore the Wheeler/Stallard Museum (Tuesdays - Fridays, 12-5 PM, Downtown Aspen) The Wheeler/Stallard house is a Queen Anne style Victorian built around 1887/1888. The first floor of the Museum is interpreted as a Victorian Aspen home and the second floor gallery features rotating exhibitions to explore area history. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the grounds comprise the Ruth Whyte Park. At the Wheeler/Stallard Museum, Aspen Historical Society’s newest – and most rad – exhibition Aspen in Excess: the 1980s explores an infamous decade and a turning point in local history marked by rapid growth, rising wealth, and global attention. The exhibition highlights how ‘80s-era changes in politics and culture–as well as building and tax codes–mirrored national trends and transformed the small ski town, revealing parallels with contemporary culture. Through curated stories, archival photographs, newspaper clippings, and epic playlists, this totally tubular history exhibition will bring the pivotal decade to life, in excess! Join them to relive Aspen in the 1980s, a decade defined by high highs and low lows that shaped the small mountain town into a global hotspot. Learn more here!

Aspen’s Off the Beaten Path Tour (1:00 PM, Downtown Aspen) A scenic guided walking tour through Aspen’s West End neighborhood and trails along the Roaring Fork River. Participants will learn the stories behind Aspen’s Victorian & Modern architecture stitched together with hidden gems of nature. Reservations are required. To sign up, click here.

Aspen's DarkSide Ghost Tour (6:00 PM, Downtown Aspen) True stories of Aspen's tarnished past of Ghosts, Murder & Mayhem from 1879 to today on an entertaining evening walk. This tour visits some of Aspen Colorado’s most haunted places and tells the stories behind them as well as some truly darker happenings. This is a great tour for the whole family or just the adults. To purchase tickets, click here.

An Evening with Emotional Rescue – A Rolling Stones Tribute Band (8:00 PM, Belly Up Aspen) Born out of Alma, CO Emotional Rescue is dedicated to delivering a spot-on tribute to the Rolling Stones. Formed in 2017 by Jr. (Mick) and Dean Misantoni (Keith), the seven-member ensemble reproduces the Stones’ iconic 1970s era with a little 1980s added in as well. Their shows are known for their authentic Stones sound and dynamic stage presence, complete with costume changes that add Qlair to their performances. “Our goal is to inspire happiness and euphoria in our audiences and get them dancing through the music of the Rolling Stones.” says Jr. “I am not a Mick Jagger impersonator but I do incorporate some of his moves and postures into my own artistic expression when I perform.” To purchase a ticket, click here.

Highlights of Aspen Tour (12:00 PM, Saturday & Sunday, Downtown Aspen) Embark on a leisurely stroll through town, where intriguing historical narratives, enchanting storytelling, and fascinating tidbits effortlessly blend together. This 60 minute scenic walk not only acquaints you with the local heritage but also grants you a genuine sense of belonging, acting as a splendid springboard to fully indulge in the abundant wonders that Aspen has to offer. Reservations required by calling 970-948-4349 or visiting www.AspenWalkingTours.com. To register, click here.

The Black Angels (8:00 PM, Belly Up Aspen) 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut album, Passover (2006), a now-classic record that helped define the 21st-century psych revival. To celebrate, The Black Angels – Alex Maas (vocals/bass), Christian Bland (guitar), Stephanie Bailey (drums), Jake Garcia (guitar), and Misti Hamrick (bass) are returning to the road to perform the album in full, along with their greatest hits. Formed in Austin, Texas in 2004, The Black Angels have become one of the most influential bands of the modern psychedelic rock movement. Drawing inspiration from forebears such as Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee, and The Velvet Underground, the band crafts a sound that is both reverent to the genre’s roots and fiercely forward-looking, hypnotic, heavy, political, and immersive. Beyond their own recordings, the band’s impact on the global psychedelic community is cemented by their role as founders of Austin Psych Fest, one of the world’s most important gatherings for psychedelic, experimental, and underground music. Following albums such as Death Song (2017) and Wilderness of Mirrors (2022) on Partisan Records, The Black Angels continue to evolve while remaining unmistakably themselves: a band that channels the spirit of classic psychedelia into a dark, modern, and deeply powerful form. To purchase a ticket, click here.

Leisure Hike (10:00 AM, Saturday & Sunday, East Aspen Hunter Creek) This light hike connects trails, hidden neighborhoods and nature paths east of town along tranquil flowing bodies of water like the Roaring Fork River and Hunter Creek. 2-3 miles • 2 hours • Reservations required. Call (970) 948-4349 or visit AspenWalkingTours.com. To register, click here.

The Carpenters Songbook (3:00 PM, Wheeler Opera House) Few voices in popular music carry the clarity and warmth of Karen Carpenter’s. The Carpenters Songbook: A Live Celebration brings that unmistakable sound back to the stage through a thoughtfully conceived production from the creative team behind The Simon & Garfunkel Story. With a full band and carefully shaped storytelling, the performance reflects the enduring artistry of Karen and Richard Carpenter.Signature songs including “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Close to You,” and “Rainy Days and Mondays” are presented with attention to tone, arrangement, and musical detail. The program traces the duo’s rise and enduring appeal, offering insight into their catalog and creative partnership. Balancing performance with narrative, this concert honors the quiet precision and emotional clarity that defined The Carpenters’ music, revisiting a body of work that continues to resonate across generations. To purchase a ticket, click here.

Aspen's Past to Present Tour (1:00 PM, Mondays & Thursdays, Downtown Aspen) This classic historical walking tour of Aspen tells it’s history from humble mining camp to world famous resort. A casual 12 block stroll through historic downtown Aspen acclimatizes you to Aspen’s energy and possibility. A great experience for both the first time visitor and the regular. This tour visits historic landmarks of Aspen including the Wheeler Opera House, the Red Onion, the Pitkin County Courthouse & the Hotel Jerome among others when accessible. Native Legend, Mining Folklore & Local Tales bring History to life on an entertaining guided walk. 90 minutes long with distance of approximately 1 mile along sidewalks, pedestrian ways and parks of mostly flat terrain. Reservations required - reserve your spot here.

Unplugged Afternoon at Explore Books (3:00 PM, Explore Books) Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Winnie the Pooh with an unplugged afternoon at Explore Books, a screen-free gathering presented by Anderson Ranch, Explore Books, and the Roaring Fork Digital Wellness Coalition. Enjoy storytelling, hands-on artmaking, and browsing beloved books in a relaxed, family-friendly setting. Leave your phone at the door and reconnect through stories, creativity, and the simple joy of spending time together. To register, click here.

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