Summervail

Summervail 2022 and Vail Symposium Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Acclaimed Valley Curtain Installation in Rifle, Colorado

Valley Curtain (1970-72) located in Rifle, CO was one such work and arguably one of the under-recognized installations in the couples’ oeuvre. Fashioned from 4 1/2 acres of orange nylon fabric and suspended between two mountain slopes above Colorado’s I-70 highway, Valley Curtain was conceived as a dramatic environmental intervention in the Grand Hogback Mountain Range. The project took 28 months to come to fruition, yet Valley Curtain’s duration would only last 28 hours, cut dramatically short

In 2020 the Workshop was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. Hosting many different events between July 19-30 in Vail, CO where it all started.

The Summervail Art Workshop ran until 1984. In its 14-year span, Summervail Art Workshop served more than 9,000 students taught by 500 internationally prominent visiting artists like Dale Chihuly, Pulitzer Prize winner Jerry Saltz, Oscar-winner Donna Dewey, Sculptor Robert Arneson, and Painter Ed Ruscha; through 850 different workshops and symposiums. Students came from 15 different nations and nearly every state in the U.S.