What is the Telluride Institute?
Telluride Institute was founded 26 years ago. In that time it has raised some $4 Million towards its charitable goals, millions more in volunteer time, and has played a significant role in giving Telluride some serious cultural and educational identity during the period when the shape of the maturing resort was in flux.
Founded in 1984 to create strong local environmental and cultural activities in our corner of Colorado we're making change happen through freethinking research that has crossed continents, politics, and disciplines, our programs demonstrate innovative and practical methods for building and sustaining healthy communities and environments.
Rocky Mountain News called us "the World's highest altitude think tank". Others have called us a "think-and-do-tank" because of the practical, hands-on, results-oriented nature of our programs. We work both locally and globally.
Locally, we are working to inspire and inform a growing group of citizens and help turn them into stewards who care for and protect their surroundings and do business with the health of the San Miguel Watershed in mind. The Watershed is a one million acre basin through which flows the San Miguel River, from its headwaters in the 14,000 foot alpine peaks above Telluride to its confluence with the Dolores River in red rock canyon country at 5,000 feet elevation. Over 60% of the San Miguel Watershed is public land, including some of the nation's most beautiful and biologically intact landscapes. But there are many pressures on these high, dry, fragile ecosystems, as the Watershed is also one of the two fastest growing areas on the Colorado Plateau, facing tremendous growth and change.
In response to these pressures and to Wallace Stegner's challenge to Westerners to "build a society to match the scenery," Telluride Institute has developed major programs, Sense of Place and Deep West Futures, which act strategically to inform and equip local communities with the institutions and tools to care for these
We have been very successful at being a germinator - turning creative ideas into solid, practical organization that later becomes independent institutions. Telluride Institute is run by a volunteer board of directors known as Trustees.
TRUSTEE MEMBERS
Dan Collins, President - Professor of Art and Technology, ASU
Pamela Lifton-Zoline , Vice President - Founder, Author, Artist
Alessandra Jacobson, Secretary - Founder of Bridal Veil Living Classroom
Elisabeth Gick, Treasurer - Landscape Planner
Art Goodtimes, Member - San Miguel County Commissioner, Poet
Sally Davis, Member - Theater Educator, Artist
Monica Carey, Member - Business Consultant, GIS Networking
Vicki Phelps, Member - Science Educator
TELLURIDE INSTITUTE ADVISORY BOARD
Harley Brooke-Hitching - Business Leader, Investor
Jan Cicero - Native American Art Expert
Darcy Craig - Educator, Former T.I. WEP Instructor
Mary Friedberg - WEP Instructor, Master Gardener
Elizabeth Gick - Landscape Artist, Non-profit Administrator
Kris Holstrom - Executive Director, The New Community Coalition
Peter Lert - Pilot, Musician, ScientistLaurie Lundquist Collins - Environmental Artist
April Montgomery - Programs Director, Telluride Foundation
Leigh Sullivan - Watershed Coalition River Ranger
Kate Tallerday - Educator, Former T.I. WEP Director
John Yankee - Composer
TELLURIDE INSTITUTE STAFF and INSTRUCTORS
Jonathan Barfield - WEP Instructor, Director Watershed Coalition
Suzan Beraza - Video Editor/Producer
Jeb Berrier - WEP Puppeteer
Eileen Cahalane - Co-director, T.I. Watershed Education Program
Teresa Frank - T.I. Mushroom Festival Housing Manager
Laura Kudo - Co-director, T.I Watershed Education Program
Alessandra Jacobson - Founder/Instructor, T.I. Bridal Veil Living Classroom
Ellen Metrick - WEP Instructor, Poet
THE FOUNDERS
John Lifton and Pam Zoline
John Clute, The Science Fiction Encyclopedia. www.johnclute.co.uk
John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, The Megatrends Books, www.naisbitt.com. www.patriciaaburdene.com
Amory Lovins & L. Hunter Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, www.rmi.org