Transportation security issues. Now the new president of the Kennedy Center for the performing arts, Deborah Rutter, outlines her u future plans and emphasizes the importance of arts and education and cultural diplomacy, from the National Press club, this is an hour. Good afternoon, and welcome. My name is myron delkheim, the Washington School of media and Public Affairs and former International Bureau chief with the Associated Press and the 107th president of the National Press club, the National Press club is the worlds leading committed to our professions future through our programming, with events such as this, while fostering a free press worldwide. For more information about the National Press club, please visit our website at press. Org. On behalf of our members worldwide, i would like to welcome our speaker and those of you attending todays event. Our head table includes guests of our speaker as well as working journal iists who are cb members, if you hear applause in our audience, note that members of i would also like to welcome our cspan and public radio audiences, after our guest speech concludes, well have a question and answer period and well ask as many questions as time permits. Now its time to introduce our head table guests. I wou i would like each of you to stand as your name is announced. Elizabeth smith brownstein, a member of the press clubs history and Heritage Committee and a writer of our online newsletters this week in the National Press club history. Doris margolis, president of Editorial Associates and a member of the Speakers Committee. Yasmine el sabowi. Adrian arst, leading arts fila philanthropist who is a major funder of the adrian arst musical fund. Ga chairman of the Speakers Committee and National President of National Press club. Amy henderson, historian emeritus at the National Portrait gallery and coorganizer of this luncheon. Thank you, amy and thank you, nick. Helen lee, henderson. Important filphilanthropist who serves on the board of the Kennedy Center national orchestra, she too is a guest of our speaker. Maria resioresio. Ken melgren, chairman of the board of governors of the National Press club, former chair of the broadcast committee and a retired staffer from the Associated Press broadcast division and michael phelps, former publisher and advisor to news media executives. Please, round of ah applause. A year before his death, president john f. Kennedy spoke on behalf of the National Cultural center that would ultimately bear his name. Quote, after the dust of centuries has passed, he said, we too will be remembered, not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the hue mma spirit, unquote. This year Deborah Rutter became the president of the john f. Kennedy center for performing arts. She grew up in a family that loved music, her father was a founder of the los angeles master correll. Rutter began playing the violin as a child and she said that playing the violin is how i found out who i was. Rutter comes to washington from chicago, where she was president of the chicago Symphony Orchestra association, she said she was drawn to the Kennedy Center for the opportunity to use arts to affect the rest of the world. She wants to develop greater collaborations with other arts associations, including museums, theaters and untraditional groups. She said the Kennedy Center should have a seat at the table in dealing with challenging social and cultural issues. Rutter is a prolific fundraiser known for recruiting top talent. Here she will serve as artistic and administrative leader for dance, Chamber Music and jazz. She will also oversee the national Symphony Orchestra and the national opera. She will be inheriting an ambitious 100 million renovation. Please join me in welcoming the new president of the Kennedy Center, Deborah Rutter. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I think he said it all. So were done now, we can all have a nice afternoon. Thank you, myron for the invitation to be here, thank you, nick, thank you, amy for the opportunity to be here and for your very generous words. Youve done Great Research also. I understand. It is a pleasure and honor for me to be here, when you dont live in washington, d. C. , this place, this place right here, not just washington, d. C. , but this place is a very aweinspiring place. I am really grateful to my friends who are here from the Kennedy Center and who care about the arts and our society. I want to say thank you to adrian and to helen for being my stalwart, theyre side by side. Great friends and a support. Ive been thinking a lot about storytelling recently. Im not exactly sure why. But as i think about it, theres some sign posts perhaps. This has been a year of major transition for me and my family. And as one says farewell to one home, a community and the friends there, it leaves you to reflect to some degree to commemorate your time there. Last spring, i had many, many opportunities to share memories, tell stories and laugh about shared history. Also in moving, you know the trauma of moving. You uncover all kinds of things. And we have come across countless boxes of memorabilia, some recent, some really ancient, all of which jogs ones memories of stories that are told and some untold. Then of course, my daughter who has the same propensity to keep things that her mother has, has child hood storybooks and theyre plentiful, recalling for me the moments of joy and intimacy and wonder in the telling and retelling of those wonderful stories. To perhaps this is why i have a preoccupation with storytelling right now. Arriving in washington has been an adventure for all of us, meeting new friends colleagues, such as here today, connecting with old friends, which has been really wonderful for me. Learning the system of how the city works my daughter finding her new ways around her school and for me, a new place to work, and let me tell you, that is a real study, figuring out out to get around there. Again, stories are plenty testimony, as i introduce myself and hear about the history and the people of our new home. You might say, well, thats what washington, d. C. Is all about. But i would say that this is what our world is all about. Not just washington, but our world. Its about storytelling. Storytelling is the way we share who we are with others. It is a way to reveal ones self, to communicate feelings and ideas. With our stories we share history, get to know one another. Storytelling connects us and represents the draw strings of our lives. All of us are storytellers in one form or another. Some of us are better or funnier than others, some more colorful and creative. Others more liberal and concise, but we are allteling one story or another. Just to make sure i was on the right track i went to the ultimate source and typed in definition of storytelling on my internet browser. The result, storytelling is the conveying of words and images about events as a narrative. Stories have been shared in many instilling moral values. I didnt have to look far to find out exactly what i was looking for in terms of that definition. So with this definition, it argues that journalists are true professional storytellers. Hopefully without too much embellishment or improvisation. Journalists provide the heroic role of documents our collective lives, our shared history, you are the ones we engage with every day, or hopefully every day, every day in my case. Your work provides the recorded history we reflect back on to understand who we are as a culture, what actions were taken, what decisions were made, what we have done as a result of those decisions, how we reached, how the larger world has responded. So i put forth to you that art is just another form of storytelling. It provides the narrative to our lives. A way of advancing as well as preserving our culture. A story as conveyed through artistic express comes in varying forms. Sometimes its literal, sometimes it is obscure or initially beyond understanding. It can be fun and entertaining, engrossing and provokive. No matter the media or the actual story, it is always making one think and feel. Theater, opera, dance, music, film and the visual arts, all of these are telling us stories. Sure, often there is just Pure Entertainment to be enjoyed as well. Who doesnt need that . Maybe now more than ever. But an evening of socalled Pure Entertainment is also likely a time when other information and ideas are bubbling inside. I saw avito with my daughter and her friend. It will be fun. But the truth, yes, great music, wonderful actors, telling a story, what is that story about . The struggle of lower class to break out of its cycle of poverty. Overwhelming narcissism, greed, consuming power that bringing down the not just a woman and a family, but a whole country. Yes avita is a story about history using the theater to convey, not just the details, but emotions, insights and values. The performing arts highlight all of the emotions of our world. Shine a spot light on topics we sometimes dare not to debate, stories th stories that force us to feel feelings we want to brush aside. Yet experienced individually in our heart and our mind. With avita, we look back on an era of a country, its history. In the case of tony cushners angels in america, we are faced with the reality of life experienced by another part of our society. That epic play changed the way we talk about gay life and aids. While it was perhaps shocking when it premiered in its format, dialogue and frank treatment of the issues, it was ultimately one of the first and most perfect expressions on that topic, using the theater again as a way to explore social issues. So think about swan lake, reflect on the rite of spring, consider backes st. Matthews passion, which i love so much. All are stories to be told using the performing arts to communicate beauty, perspective, thoughtfulness, spirituality. They also challenge us as we sit in that darkened theater, to understand ourselves, consider our society and our environment. My argument, art is certainly for arts sake, i really agree with that statement and i support all who utter it. But i also fervently believe in the concept of art for lifes sake, that we cannot live or share this World Without art. Art is the way we tell the stories of our lives, to offer commentary on the world we live in, to provide a sanctuary for personal, spiritual reflection, an opportunity to state more boldly those ideas that may feel too difficult, too dangerous for whatever reason, too personal or socially challenging. Or better yet, the eye and the exultation of life. The examples of bach and st b i want to tell you now of quite a different example. When we announced in chicago that ricardo muti would become our tenth music director, he surprised us not for the first nor the last time, i should say, by announcing at his Introductory Press Conference that he wanted to take the opera to all parts of chicago, especially those without access to music, even to prisons. He and i spoke often of his interest in sharing the music making of the orchestra, but prison was a bit of a challenge for us. We took the challenge and developed a really special program. We chose to go to a juvenile Detention Center. Every week, every week, two members of our chorus go to the Illinois State Detention Center in warrenville, working side by side with theater teaching artists developing stories and lyrics written by the girls, the inmates themselves. Their stories. Stories that are hard to tell, stories hard to hear. After four months of preparation like this, the cso compose you are and residence, also goes to the center for residency and works on developing songs for the girls, they write the tunes and she helps orchestrate it. These songs are then performed by members of the cso, who ultimately perform with the girls their original musical theater peace. The performances for the other girls in the center and all of their families. An incredibly powerful experience, telling the stories that are often unhold, hidden, locked away. You can imagine the powerful emotions that fill the library of that Detention Center. I have experienced it a couple of times as a guest. Some of those families have never heard their daughter or sister or niece or grand daughter communicate so directly. They didnt know that she had the power to share that story which is untold and therefore unknown. That hour of performance changed the lives of those girls, those families for me, forever. Thats what i mean by art for lifes sake. [ applause ] thank you. The followup activity that includes ricardo muti usually takes place after four to six months. I must say i was rather skeptical about his participation before i went to warrenville with him. He requested a piano, and the two singers, the chorusters, twice each year, he does this, he goes and spends about 90 minutes with about two dozen girls from the center. And you probably think this is just as crazy as i did, but in fact, performing opera areas, with the women that they knew so well was offering a mirror for these girls lives and an in inspiration, where else do you hear such stories . Opera. Somehow muti knew that and he nye exact knew exactly how to convey that to them, to have someone of that renowned care about two dozen girls in a Detention Center in a small town in illinois. Imagine what that means and imagine how that is so affirming in their lives. Art for lifes sake. At the Kennedy Center, we overflow in the sharing and telling of stories. You probably know all of the programs and so many of you i have met here today have told me about how you attend programs at the Kennedy Center. But i suspect there are a nib of programs that you dont know about, because i didnt know about them much and im paying pretty close attention and until i got here, i didnt know about them. So in addition to the daily free millennium stage performances, the six productions of the Washington National opera, the nearly 30 weeks of subscriptions and pop concerts of the national Symphony Orchestra, the extraordinary range of ball lay offerings, cutting edge dance and theater programs, blockbuster musical theater offerings, we produce and present so much at the Kennedy Center, but but also have perhaps the most extensive local and National Educational ufrings in the country. Im particularly interested in this for some personal reasons that my ron already told you about. But im still going to say them if its okay. So standing before you is the prub product of primarily a Public School education. In the third grade, my elementary schoolteacher opened the classroom cabinet and said what instrument will you play . Not the you wafbnt to play, but what will you play . And aam here today because i had the opportunity to find myself through music. He got the story right, didnt he . That teacher and that Public School gave me the first tools and the curiosity and the passion to find myself, to write my story here in the arts. I believe fervently that every child, every individual in this country deserves the find themselves, whether it is in academics, athletics or the arts. Arts education has been diminished to such a degree, that generations now have lost the opportunity for even a basic education in the arts in their school day, Arts Organizations across the country are desperately working to supplement program that do exist but there are just truly insufficient resources to ensure that all children have that experience in the classroom. The work we do through the Kennedy Centers Education Department supports teachers, students and families in their discovery of themselves through the arts and im enormously proud of these programs. As i said, i didnt know all of them before i came to the Kennedy Center and im still getting to know all of them because theyre so multitude nice. But i would like to share just some of the ones that i do know about with you now. Did you me that the Kennedy Center spends more than 1 million annually in its work with schools in the district of columbia, through such programs such as the d. C. Arts programs. Did you know that more than 35,000 teachers participated in 730 professional learning programs provided by the Kennedy Center . Were teaching teachers not just how to teach the arts, but how to use arts in the classroom to teach other subjects, such as math and science and history. Did you know that the Center Provides lesson plans, audio and video podcasts, student games and the how 20s for teachers to use the arts in their classrooms, and in this past years, more than 8 million interactions through the kennedy website and t website. Theres a need, theres a hunger for this. Did you know that in 2014 did you know that the ken dpi center worked directly with 657, not 658, darrell, 657 college and University Theater departments across the United States as a part of our American College theater festival . Through its education efforts, the Kennedy Center directly, directly toughs 11 Million People every year, this excludes the 2 million who come to events and performances who visit the Kennedy Center every year, and who watch the Kennedy Center and all of the other broadcasts, 11 million through the Education Programs. The Kennedy Center Education Department has done a remarkable, creative program, targeting ageal specific targeted programs for young people often without getting much recognition for that work. In the past 10 years, the Kennedy Center has commissioned or cocommissioned 26 new works for audiences, addressing issues that children are experiencing. We have countless stories of alumni participating in various types of training programs, whether its instrumental or theater and they go off and do great things, you finding them on opera houses and in theaters. What an achievement. The Kennedy Centers Education Programs are delivering on a promise, a promise to excite Young Audiences to support teachers, and perhaps most importantly to encourage young aspiring artists. Additionally, we provide thousands of patrons we want to support the storytelling of the future and the future of art for lifes sake. In our next decade, i expect to grow on the achooeievements of last 40 years of programming and service. As you heard a little bit about already, we have a new expansion of the approximate Kennedy Center which will open in less than three years. The new spaces that we will find in that expansion will be for creating and experiencing the performing arts which will further our promise of keeping artists central to our Cultural Dialogue and break down the boundaries between artists and audience. We hope to cultivate a sense of discovery and stimulate investment in creation and innovation, risk taking and adventure. We break ground on this new campus south of the existing center on december 4, note that date, december 4 of this year, nearly 50 years to the day when the ground was broke on on the Kennedy Center. What an auspicious day. A new generation, a new era, but remaining true to the remarkable individual for whom the memorial was created. President kennedy is quoted so often, and he had so many quotes to share that were meaningful. To further the appreciation of cultural among all the people. To increase respect for the creative individual, to wide on participation by all the processes and fulfillments of art. This is one of the fascinating challenges of these days. What drew me to come to the Kennedy Center, was not just the vastness of the Program Offer i believe that storytelling of our lives will happen with passion and creativity of artists and the audiences who engage with them. We will seek to fulfill president kennedys noble mission, one story at a time. Thank you. [ applause ] picking up on your last comment, how can you assure that the Kennedy Center can many of the quotes by john f. Kennedy . The work that we undertake at the Kennedy Center and as arts administrators and artists around the country, is one that takes passion, drive and belief. And the good news is that there are people like our patrons who are here who have joined us and a adrian and helen and all of you who care, that we can get this work done, but it cannot be done easily, it cannot be done in a gratuitous way, we have to recognize and believe, like missionaries, that art is really important in our lives. And candidly, thats why we need these opportunities to talk about it and you need people like ricardo muti to speak so elkwenltly and to give so generously. As i think about my time here in washington, i really want to support the programs that you have heard me speak about in terms of offering access but more so, opportunity to participate in the arts, so this expansion project is a really big piece of that. Without even realizing the opportunity initially, we have in discussing this project, really come to understand the value of having reform spaces where artists and those of us who aspire to be artists or appreciate the art creators will have a better contact with one another. So this space, is new expansion will be about connecting people to the art and to the artists, even more than they have, to break down the barrier that sort of exists tween where we sit in the audience and where they stand or sit and perform. And yet, well have the traditional spaces as well as the new and informal space, so well be able to celebrate all of it. But its about providing access and opportunity to participate. And that takes mission and the works of all of us. Thank you. Are there any types of programs, concerts, performances that you would like to see more of at the Kennedy Center . Thank you to the people mo a who are writing these good questions for me. I glue up loving you heart me say that i love the st. Matthew passion of bach. I also love stravinskis passion of spring, but i also love the work thats being created today. And we need to have more work thats being created by artists today, so one of the great things is that we have the little dancer, which is a production, a musical theater production that will be opening soon at the Kennedy Center, and it is about artists who are creating today. I think we need to expand on that, i theink we need to have other types of creative art its, i these we need to take a few more risks, bring our audiences along to understand and appreciate that. I keep being told that washington, d. C. Is much more conservative in their tastes. But im going to push you on that and hope that youll follow along, that we will promise to be trust worthy guides in that process. But lets have a journey. You know, beethoven wrote some pretty experimental work, and it was very experimental at the time. So lets find who those artists are of our day. What is the future of the Washington National opera . Well, the the Washington National opera is really old. Its been around a lot longer than the Kennedy Center has. So its really about nurturing and encouraging and continuing to develop it as an artistic ensemble, an artistic organization, you cant ever stop supporting the growth of arti artists. You can never say, well that orchestra is a really great orchestra or that Opera Company has done everything. It is a constant support. You need to offer opportunities, stretch, grow. We will continue to stretch and grow and the future of the Washington National opera is great. [ applause ] thank you. Some of these question s migt have an obvious answer, but we like to hear it from you. So i ask, will ballet and dance continue to have a place in the Kennedy Centers programming. Why . Or why not . The real attraction to an individual who has spent 36 years going toal multiple performances every week, is that i get to do all this other stuff as well. And ballet and dance are just as important in our work. I think that in fact, being in a place where we have all of these art forms under one roof and actually the opportunity to look outside to the rest of the country to see what other art forms are not yet fully represented in the Kennedy Center is really important. Its fun, its exciting to have all of these art forms and they build and grow because of the synergy of being there in one place. So i think that is an obvious question, but im happy to answer it. Are you happy with the National Symphony . What will it take for the National Symphony to take a leap so the word maesticaestro ac means teacher. Every orchestra needs to be motivated, led, guided by teachers. And they often need different kinds of teachers. One teacher will offer one kind its like the science teacher, the math teacher, et cetera. Christian bach is an extraordinary musician, we need to continue to elevate the quality of music making and the experience for both the aud audience and the orchestra. Its really pofrlt important for you to know that the eaudience member is offense as it is to be grate performers on the stage. Because it is about the relationship between the performers and the audience. You can feel it. I can feel you. You feel whats going on in the audience and so your role as audience members are as important for the development of an artistic ensemble as anything else. So i need your help by being a part of our community that supports and nurtures the orchestra as it continues to grow as well. Orchestras in minnesota and atlanta have in recent years been beset by labor strife, do you have any worries about that happening in washington . Well, after six weeks on the job, im an expert on everything. One of the first things i have wanted to do is to get to know all of the people in the building, including the performers, whether in the nso or the opera house orchestra. And it is vital to have an open, honest dialogue around the hopes and aspirations, realities and future plans for your institution. We dont always agree with one another, and im not saying that about the Kennedy Center, im saying that generally about perform evers and those of us who support the performers. But if we have open dialogue, honest, supportive communication, you can work through problems. And sometimes you have those moments where you hit heads, but the idea is if you talk enough, if you communicate, if you mostly listen and listen for understanding, you can get through that. And so im expecting that we will listen for understanding within all of the parties at the Kennedy Center. The audience for Classical Music and the other arts featured at the Kennedy Center is an old one. What are your ideas about attracting younger audiences to the Kennedy Center . Its amazing how the same question has been asked for 36 years. And i only say 36 years because before that i was. Aware of those questions being asked. But for the last 36 years, people have been asking the same question. So either we are dorian gray and were getting younger and were still is same audience. Or people are still coming. And people are still coming. Think about how many people are coming to performances all the time. The Biggest Issue that we have is that there are so many opportunities to engage in so many p different types of art forms. It used to be that there were only a few. That there were only a few theaters, there was only an orchestra or one or the other in a city. And now there is such proliferati proliferation, theres so much diversity of music and creativity performing arts taking place in our lives that we who may have used to attend all 30 subscription concerts have too many opportunities and were spreading ourselves thin. So i actually believe its about growing audiences, you have to wochbtd are there future audiences coming to whatever it is youre going to do the audiences are not necessarily getting older. In fact in chicago, the audiences in the time that i was there went from an average age of 63 to 49. So its about how you talk about it, how welcoming you are, what the experience is like, what the experiencing is outside of the Performance Space, as well as inside the Performance Space, how the artists communicate with the audience, how you spochbtd and have a dynamic relationship with audience, the audience is there. I read a really wonderful, wonderful statement that was in a review of a can concert recently, and it was a young woman who had never been to a concert before. And she made the same that said, its much better to go to a Live Performance because in the Live Performance, you have all the other people and youre having that experience together. And thats the point. We can always listen at home or in our headset or another place, but its about the shared experience of the Live Performance that is irreplaceable. And Everybody Knows that in the end. So i think its about making sure we provide the invitation to participation, and that the experiences as rp present day and important to audiences. Do you plan any outreach for elderly adults in such institutions as Nursing Homes or senior Retirement Homes . This is actually one of the unsung, Untold Stories of what institutions like ours are doing. Because sometimes good news doesnt get out. This is a great opportunity for me to make a pitch for good news doesnt always get told. But going into places where the individuals dont have the ability to get out into a concert hall or Performance Space is really important. Its also really important sometimes to provide the transportation to come in for those free programmings programs that do exist. And its really important for us to honor those who have been attending for many years and then for whatever reason cant attending any long ever. As i look at all of the programs we have to offer, i am looking at where we may have gaps or where we may have an overinvestment and u i look to calibrate those so that we serve the very the broad continue yum for the first person who can fall in love with an art form at a young age, as those who can walk into a Performance Space to celebrate their life and their love of the performing arts. How will the Kennedy Center use its future outdoor video wall thats part of the plan extension by architect steven hall. Stay tuned. Thats not a good enough answer. This is one of the great things about the work that were doing with steven hall architects is that they are really pushing us to imagine the things that we havent yet necessarily dreamed of. And certainly there are some great examples of simulcasts from inside theaters to outside walls like the one that is being designed. But u i have, in talking to my colleagues on the artistic programming staff at the Kennedy Center have a lot of really exciting ideas about all kinds of things that can be filmed up there or opportunities for improvisational dance in front of beautiful backdrops, or opportunities for performances to take place that are sort of spontaneous as well as the ones that might be a film series or a simulcast from the theater or a rebroadcast of a program, but it gives us huge flexibility to do all kinds of new things, its really exciting. Whats the future of the the millennium stage. Thats a really great question. The millennium stage is 14 plus years old now. And it was new and innovative and when i heard that it was being announced, i thought, how in the world are they going to have 365 days of performances and lo and behold, they have 365 days of performances, its really impressive and you can see it at the moment, or you can see it on our website, so thats really great. As with anything thats innovative and new, as is with art forms that are hundreds of years old, it needs to continue to grow and evolve and we dont have any specific plans, we will still always offer that programming, that free programming every single day. But as we have a new expansion to the south campus, were likely to have new for mats for the millennium stage as well. Today is the last day of hispanic heritage month. Yet the Kennedy Center honors has only recognized four hispanics in its history, and none this year, according to this questioner. How do you feel about the recognition of diversity in the honors. As much as i would like to recognize that the honors is probably the most known event that takes place at the Kennedy Center, at least around the coin try, throughout the country and the world. I would like to reenforce also the fact that which do so much programming at the Kennedy Center and i was trying to share just a tidbit of that with you here today. And the programming that we offer is so diverse. And i and its even greater than i ever knew, as somebody who i thought was paying attention to what was going on in the arts, especially in the nations capital, but it is a very symbolic thing to receive a Kennedy Center honor. Thats why the process was changed a couple of years ago and an Artistic Committee that is highly reveered and recognized for its role in the arts, its diversity and its art form and its diversity in back ground. I think that we can correspondent to refine that process and, while certainly we dont want to be dealing with quotas or have to do this or must do that, i believe that the symbolic nature of the honors is really important and i look to continuing that and strengthening that into the future. Do you feel that cultural diplomacy is a tool that could be utilized more effectively . And if so, what role do you envision the Kennedy Center playing in this International Arena . Ultimately, first of all, i think you all have heard me say that the arts are a way of communicating with one another, in a way that words cant. And so i think that the performing arts and art, the visual arts are a way for us to understand one another in ways that politicians elected officials, individuals and groups who have strong positions may not be able to do so well. When you sit side by side and you make Music Together or you perform together in a theater group, you build a rapport that transcends any kind of conversation that you can actually have. So i think cultural diplomat esi is really vital for us to explore and for those of us who are in this world, for us to push forward and to support even greater than perhaps already has. I have had a really fabulous opportunity to tour the chicago with the chicago Symphony Orchestra around the world and we have used a program that we call citizen musician as an opportunity to provide a forum for bringing people together, to going to Nursing Homes, to going to rehabilitation centers, orphanages, to help Young Musicians aspire and train to become performers as well. And those perhaps are the most meaningful experiences that i had in all those years of touring and traveling to the great places with great concert halls around the world. Concert halls around the world. So, i really believe that cultural diplomacy maybe is not the right word for us to use, but as an act of giving back to think about citizenry and sharing artistry. And i think that if we can be a role model in offering that, the nso did this for a number of years through the american Residency Program and they would go to those states that dont have as much music or large orchestra and those kinds of programs and they would go out the musicians would fan out into the state and go into schools and Community Centers and libraries and offer their programming. That is some of the most exciting ways in which artists can share their art with others. And i would love to have us take an even greater role in doing that. Of course, one of the Central Missions of any arts executives these days is fund raising. Do you find that Fund Raising Environment more challenging in washington than in chicago . And what is your central pitch to prospective donors . You have a big audience. [ laughter ]. Sign on the dotted line. First of all, every city likes to think that its easier to raise money somewhere else. So in chicago, they said it must have been so much easier to raise money in seattle because all those hightech people and they have all that new wealth and in seattle, they said, you come from los angeles and its so large. Every city thinks the same. And washington says the same. Oh, chicago, theyre so philanthropic, and they are and so is washington, d. C. And every city is ultimately very fill anthropic to the degree that they can give. In the case of the Kennedy Center, we actually reach across the country and around the world which gives us a really great opportunity because of our International Programming and the reach of our performs. The most important pitch is the one i just gave you, i believe, which is art is for lifes sake and without it our lives are nothing. Theyre nowhere near as interesting, it isnt a way in which we can communicate and share and come together. So, in the end, its about finding people who love the arts, who give back, who believe in sharing, and who want to share their passion just as much as we who are administrators love to share the passion. And theres nothing so rewarding as seeing young people participating in the arts or seeing something that you didnt know could happen happen. Whether its on dance stage or in the opera or with an orchestra. Its an incredibly rewarding act to give, to give to whatever you care about, but when youre giving to create art that is then shared with so many others, its not just about your own pleasure but its about sharing that pleasure with so many others. Its an extraordinary feeling. How much interaction have you had so far with figures of the Obama Administration and on capitol hill and how interested are they in the Kennedy Centers mission . I think it was the first week on the job that i went to visit with valerie jarrett. And she has attended several activities with us and she and her team have interacted with us quite actively. Ive been on the hill a number of times already, in fact this afternoon i have a meeting with the secretary of education. Its important for me to have a relationship with everybody here and to make a personal contact and make a personal invitation, even though theres active participation at the Kennedy Center through performs and events. And we are really indebted to the obamas for their commitment, their on going commitment to the Kennedy Center and participation in so many ways. This weekend we have the mark twain prize. And well have well have interaction with the bidens. So, im feeling really good about it. Thank you. What would be your best advice to young women arts administrators who one way want to run an Arts Organization as you have done . Nothing worth working for is worth it if you dont put in lots of energy, lots of commitment, lots of sweat. I have dedicated my life to this work and it has reaped dividends beyond what i could ever have hoped for. It is work that requires a true commitment because it is not easy work. It looks glamorous. It sounds interesting. But you dont get as many rewards as you think you get along the way, but those stories of the young women in the Detention Center, the joy of walking into a theater and seeing hundreds of people enjoying something and you wonder, where did all these people come from . Isnt this great . The joy of sharing is the motivation that takes you through everyday. You just have to keep your nose up and keep going because you do feel like youre changing peoples lives for the good and thats the greatest reward that we could ever have for the hard work that it takes to do this. So far what has surprised you the most about washington in general and the Kennedy Center in particular . [ laughter ]. Well, you know, when you dont live here and you only come to visit for work, you dont know how beautiful this city is. You see the monuments, you see the museums, you see the Kennedy Center, you know about the river, you dont know how beautiful it is and this city is so beautiful. People are so welcoming and i dont mean that to sound like its a bad surprise, but i just didnt know for sure until i got here. And it is really, really a special place. That said, its really hard to find your way around the Kennedy Center. You know, those long hall ways with the red, thats only the beginning of what its like to work there. And i cant tell you how many times ive found myself in the wrong place without the wrong access code, so its still a little bit of an adventure for me. Thank you. Were almost out of time, but before asking the last question, we have a couple of housekeeping matters to take care of. First of all, i would like to remind you about our Upcoming Events and speakers. Next monday, october 20th, we will have thomas perez, the secretary of labor. And the next day, on october 21, well have bob osbee, commissioner of the big ten conference. And on november 7th, a few days from november 11th, veterans day, we will have robert mcdonald, the secretary of veterans affairs. Next, i want to present our guest with a Traditional Press club mug as this is her debut at the National Press club. It will be her first but i hope you will come back to receive more as you give us progress reports and the progress im sure youll do. Thank you. Thank you. [ applause ]. For our last question, we had a few questioners ask the following the statue the bust of jfk in the Kennedy Center hallway many feel makes him look like hes had really bad skin. Is there anything you can do about that . Youre supposed to give me good questions. He has the craig gi good looks and thats how were going to leave it. Good answer. [ applause ]. I was going to say how about a round of applause for our speaker, but you did it spontaneously. [ applause ]. Thank you all for coming today. I would also like to thank once again, amy and nick for organizing this lunch. I give you credit for the intro. And i would also like to thank National Press club staff including its Journalism Institute and Broadcast Center for also facilitating and organizing todays event. Finally, here is a reminder that you can find more information about the National Press club, including upcoming lunches that we are just now finalizing for the rest of the year on our website. And if you would like to get a copy of todays program as im sure many of you do, please check out our website as www. Press. Org. Thank you all. Thank you again to our guest of honor. We are adjourned. [ applause ]. Campaign 2014 has one outstanding race yet to be decided. Louisiana senate. Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu is up against republican bill cassidy. Thats live at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on our companion network, cspan2. Congress is in recess for the thanksgiving holiday. When they return, lawmakers will work on extending government funding past december 11th when the current spending deal runs out. In the house, members will consider how to proceed on immigration after the president s executive action. In the in the senate, votes are scheduled on nominees beards to argentina and hungary. And work on a spending deal to continue funding the government. Live coverage when Congress Returns monday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, the house on cspan and the senate on cspan2. This thanksgiving week, cspan is featuring interviews from retiring members of congress. Watch thursday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. I was elected in 1980, came in in 81. If you look at my newsletters from 81 to 84, theres no mention of human rights and religious freedom. Congressman, tony hall, who was a democratic member from ohio who is my best friend in the congress, weve been in a little group together for 32 years. He asked me to go to ethiopia during the famine. And i went up there. I just got on the appropriations and said, can i go to ethiopia, they said sure. It was a very bad famine. And i got in a camp up at alamata run by world vision and the embassy didnt want me to spend the night. I said i want to spend a night. The guy said if you spend the night, ill spend the night and right next to his camp was a camp run by mother theresa and we spent the night, in a little hut. And it rained the next day and a plane couldnt come back. It was a lifechanging experience. We saw i mean in the morning people died and we saw things that just that trip i mean, in 85, tony took me to romania to chel ches ka, evil, bulldozing churches and i saw people persecuted for their faiths. Those two trips were bookends, human rights the poor, the hungry and religious freedom. Since that time and also on thursday, thanksgiving day, well take an American History tour of various native american tribes. Thats at 10 00 a. M. Eastern following washington journal then at 10 30, the Ground Breaking ceremony with formers secretary of state. And Supreme Court justices clarence thomas, Sonia Sotomayor at 8 30 p. M. Eastern. Thats this thanksgiving week on cspan. For our complete schedule, go to cspan. Org. Up next, a look at the politics and history of how tourism developed in the colorado rockies, along what is now interstate 70. William philpott is a university of denver history professor and author of vacationland tourism and environmental transformation in the high country. From the History Colorado Center in denver, this is just over an hour. [ applause ]. Thanks, sean for that introduction and thanks to all of you for being here. I am really sincerely really o honored to be speaking here at history colorado. I have a strong personal attachment to this place that goes all the way back to the days in the old dust pan shaped building up on 13th avenue. Just a real quick story if you can indulge me here. Many years ago i was looking for a summer job. I got the genius idea of wandering into the old colorado Heritage Center one morning and asking the first random person i saw who was the lobby Security Guard if there were any internships available. And obviously i had no clue going about doing this. The lobby and Security Guard said, why dont you go up to the Manuscripts Department and see if they need any help. Thats how i first met the cure rater, unforgettable character and unbelievable storehouse of knowledge and enthusiasm and fun surrounding colorado history. For the rest of that summer and over the next several years stan did more than i can ever say to help get my resorj on colorado history off the ground and ultimately my wider career as a historian. Now, sadly stan has since passed but i would like to publicly dedicate this evenings talk to him and express my deep gratitude for all he did to help me over the years. Also like to thank everybody at history of colorado for all the work that you do at history colorado to build greater awareness and concern for the heritage of our state and preservation of our heritage and thank all of you for being here and taking time out of your week to talk Vacation Land with me today. So, ill get started with that. Vacationland, the book that sean mentioned that ill be drawing the material for tonights talk from, its a history of tourism and Recreational Development in the colorado high country in the decades after world war ii. Mostly focussing on the period 1945 to the 1970s. It tells a story of how part of the southern rockies, a few decades a very short pierd of time, remote and little visited back water to one of the most celebrated and heavily visited vacation destination in the United States. One core question i asked in the book, how did the high country come to become a vacationland, but much more broadly the book is an effort to get much bigger issues, ones that go way beyond high country and colorado. Its an effort to figure out how when tourism became such a big business in the decades after world war ii, when americans came to seek out and value landscapes like the colorado high country for lee sure, personal fulfillment, for pleasure and when they on some level or another bought into the way these landscapes were being marketed to them and packaged for them, what implications did all of that carry for the ways americans related to place, environment, nature. When so many people learned to consume recreational landscapes and depend on them as a fundamental part of their lifestyle, really what consequences did that carry for American Environmental politics, popular environmental culture. In the broadest sense then what vacationland is to ruminate on the environmental consequences of mass consumer culture, not just how our acts of consumption have ic have physically changed the land but also how theyve changed our minds. And in terms of teaching us without our really even realizing it to think in new ways about nature and place. So, i thought i would give you a taste of the book tonight by focussing my talk on what was really the centerpiece of Tourist Development in the high country and that was a development of modern paved highways culminating in interstate 70. Ive kind of loaded the dice here by really jacking up interstate 70 on this map. This is the region that i focus on in the book. High country is a vaguely defined term. But i use it basically to focus on the areas west of denver that could have been and eventually did become the interstate 70 corridor. Hopefully it will be clear what i mean in just a moment. Im going to begin by focussing on the very first section of interstate 70 to be built west of denver. And that was the fourlane bypass above and around the old mining town of Colorado Springs. Bypassing Colorado Springs was something that state highway officials was eager to do. It had become a notorious bottleneck. U. S. 6 and 40 were forced together in this narrow valley where Idaho Springs is located and forced to go right through the middle of town, past all the caves, past the motels, past the gas stations, people turning on and off the road really slowing traffic down where it became known as the turtle route and known to truckers and travelers as one of the most congested stretch of highway in all of rural america. State highway planners determined to build a fourlane limited access bypass, which i showed you before, on the Mountain Side just above town on the south. The construction began in late 1957 and in february 1958 with the bypass almost completed state highway officials led chamber of commerce types on a tour of this new road. The Business Owners were pretty excited about this spanking modern road with its smooth sweeping four lanes and controlled access on and off ramps and its big signs pointing to Idaho Springs, they were excited until they actually got up there on the bypass and looked down at their town and were completely horrified by what they saw. With the old turtle route i showed you before, you know, with the highway 6 and 40 running right through the middle of town, Business Owners had learned to attract tourists by sprucing up the fronts of their buildings and lots. So, restaurants had flower boxes, motels had a little patch of lawn and maybe some flowers and bushes and the like, but up on the new bypass the locals found themselves looking down on their town from a totally different perspective and it was not a pretty sight. They realized that tourists passing through this valley would not see the fronts of the their buildings anymore but their backs. They were unplanted, unpainted, piled high with old junk. It made Idaho Springs look like an old ghost town in the process of decay. This was not a good First Impression for unsuspecting visitors. For small town boosters and Business Owners trying to capitalize on the exploding postwar automobile vacation industry, it would no longer be enough, now they had to take a touristeye view of their own hometown to consider what kind of landscape and atmosphere would be needed to attract vacationers and to compete with other communities that were trying to do exactly the same thing. So in short, already with this very first stretch of i70 to be built up in high country, we can already see a hint of how large scale post Tourist Development would change peoples view of the land the way people related to place and the ways they saw fit to take care of it. So, ill dive into this story now as sort of a condensed version of the story i tell in vacationland about how tourism came to be in this region. Really, making the high country seem like a great place for a vacation would mean fundamentally changing how most people thought of this region. If that sounds weird to you because of the ways we think of this region now, then keep in mind that before the postwar period, the high country was a pretty obscure place. It was a mining region, a region of extremely rugged, daunting topography of very severe climate especially in the winter, not the kind of place most people would think to take a vacation. Now, of course, there was tourism in colorado in the late 19th century and you might know for example colorado gained a reputation of the quote switzerland of america and the like. There were people coming to railroad resorts, mineral spas, scenic excursions on railroads and so forth. The key thing to keep in mind is that for the most part very few of these tourists were venn dhuring deep in the high country and if they were, they werent spending very long there. They werent lingering. As of world war ii, those high ranges as i mentioned before in the middle of state west of denver was, as i said, a remote very little known, very little visited part of the United States. Now, i spent part of the book explaining how many different groups in colorado worked in their own ways to change this impression. State and local efficieofficial railroads and airlines, game and fish department, the state publicity bureau, american automobile bureau and not least, skiers, mountain climbers, fly fishers and their various clubs and organizations all of them working not together i wouldnt say but sort of at the same time in their own ways to revamp the popular impression of colorado high country so it would seem like a natural place for vacations. They started doing this by trying to fashion a vacation friendly image and they did this by using the eyegrabbing graphics of really colorful vivid colors and language of modern advertising. Not that they were doing anything remotely original. They were borrowing the stock and trade of modern advertising, the emotional appeal the bright colors, the slogan like colorful colorado or ski country usa. In particular, the photographs, these brightly colored photographs, extremely cliched photographs over and over showing similar views of high Country Meadows of alpine lakes of craigy often snowcovered peaks again and again and again as a form of cliches reproduced in over and over different things, postcards, magazine articles and so on and so forth until they became logos instantly recognizable for the standing for the state. The cover of my book is a scenic cliche of this. At the same time, all of these different groups of people working at the same time for their own purposes, not together, were working to develop tourist friendly infrastructure. That can include everything from motels, to resort villages, campgrounds and not at least mechanical chair lifts which were very rare before world war ii but came to dominate the ski landscape after world war ii. The classic example of what i mean by packaging the landscape. Some sort of facility, physical inf infrastructure make it easier, more convenient, more comfortable that gave tourists newfound access to scenic or remote or wild areas nature at a minimum of difficulty or risk. If you think about it, thats exactly what ski lifts did. So, in effect, the inf infrastructure served to package the high country forever larger numbers of tourists to consume. But, the single most important way of packaging high country landscapes or any landscapes anywhere in america for tourists was to link those landscapes up to a network of modern paved highways. Paved highways had an extraordinarily powerful channelling effect on the flow of tourists because by mid century american tourists were traveling by car overwhelmingly. By the freedom of automobiles, they were confining themselves to paved roads. There was even a saying among highway planners that tourists will drive 100 miles out of their way to avoid 5 miles of dirt road. At a time when many rural western roads including many in colorado were still dirt or gravel, local boosters lobbied endlessly to channel tourists their way. Delegations would make this ritual trip to denver to bow down before the state Highway Commission, to present their wish lists of projects of highway improvements that they wanted funded for that year. And if you read the Highway Commissions records, you discover that again and again the explanation these local delegations from the high country gave for why they so urgently wanted highway improvements was that they wanted to foster tourism. Now, before i move on, let me back up for a moment to talk a little bit about what the highway geography of the high country was like before world war ii, before the war. It was u. S. 40, as you can see, did not take a direct route west of denver but took a crooked route more or less to the northwest before heading off into utah. It did this to skirt basically the high itself mountain ranges and to take advantage of several River Valleys along the way. By contrast, the route directly west of denver where i70 now runs didnt exist. It just simply didnt exist. This is a strip map from the book. And what im trying to show here is how, if you wanted to get from denver to either of the counties the high country counties that are directly west of it beyond clear cleek, Summit County and eagle county. Summit county is about 55 miles or so from denver as the crow flies. Before world war ii, to get to Summit County, you had to drive about 100 miles and you had to go over a couple passes along the way. This pass here and free mont pass before you dropped down into brackenridge and into the blue river valley. To get to eagle county which is 70 miles away from denver, you had to drive about 170 miles. And you had to go over again, several very high passes along the way, hoosier pass, freemont pass, Tennessee Pass before you get dumped down into the eagle river valley. So, the obvious reason for this kind of very indirect route were those very high ranges. Ill go back to this map because it really emphasizes how high those ranges were, running north and south directly west of denver that basically deflected highway routes to the north and south rather than letting them cut directly west. This is another picture i think is interesting. This is a picture of the upper end of the creek valley, this is where vale is now located. Back in the 1940s, as you can see, what would later become interstate 70 was an oiled gravel road and the range basically was an impassable wall almost that walled off eagle county from Summit County on the other side and from denver beyond that. So, topography is an obvious reason why these counties were so remote and why there wasnt a direct route to them from denver, but it wasnt just geography it was also history. Summit and eagle counties were mining counties, yeah, but they were never as big a deal as some of the other mining counties. They were never as prosperous as ledville. When railroads built or aspen, when railroads built up into the high county, they built into the biggest, most prosperous mining towns. When the first Road Builders come along to the early 20th century, oftentimes they would start out by following more or less the railroad routes. They didnt emphasize eagle or Summit County so neither did the early Road Builders. It was not just daunting topography but historical precedent that kept a street route west of denver. If you look at this map, this is from about 1925, if you look at this map, look directly west of denver and you will see hardly any hint at all of the future path of i70. Hardly any hint of a major highway corridor. A map like this is a reminder that there is nothing natural and nothing historically inevitable about an interstate highway trance seconding the high country. The earliest precursor to interstate 70 was a pie in the sky proposal hatched in the 1920s for a highway that would basically go more or less directly west of denver to this area here, to red cliff called the holy cross trail. This scheme was hatched by a newspaper editor in red cliff which by then was a very depressed stagnated old silver mining town and he hoped that having a trail, a road that went directly from denver to red cliff would help red cliff book again as a Tourist Destination capitalizing on scenic desire to see mount of the holy cross. The Highway Department never obliged, never provided any funding whatsoever for the holy cross trail, but they did from the early 1930s on begin bypassing those roads that i showed you before, the roads let me go back to this one here. Those roads looping to the south around the southern tips of mountain ranges, one after another they started to cut those loops out by building roads that bypassed them, that went directly over the mountain ranges. The first three examples of this were kben the map i just showed you is on the top. This strip is what it looked by 1937. Loveland pass where there was a dirt road built in 1931, shrine pass dirt road built in 1931 and then vail pass a paved road built in 1940 with deal public works funding. So, by the time you get to that bottom map, you can really very clearly start to see the precedent emerging for interstate 70. You can see the path its going to take but there was still, still nothing historically inevitable about it. In 1937, this route, right, go to this map here, from denver sort of directly west became part of u. S. Highway 6. But u. S. 40, the one running up higher on the map there farther north was still the main route through the high country. Highway 6 was less improved than highway 40. Many stretches were still gravel and dirt and less promoted and thus very much less traveled. U. S. 6 boosters became desperate that they started trying some really Desperate Measures and maybe the most desperate one of all and ridiculous was the effort in 1956 to create an attractive brand for their route by giving it a cartoon mascot. And this is what they came up with. The sublimely ridiculous sidney 6. This brochure, which i find by dumb luck on ebay, this brochure had sidney 6 frolicking along the highway 6. Of course the brochure urged tourists to follow in his path to stick to 6 with sidney 6. Kind of sad, right . Really amateurish, clownish. It showed just how desperate highway 6 boosters were to generate some sort of interest, some sort of brand anymore recognition or tourist cachet for their little known little traveled route. This is proof, by the way, that no matter what evil manipulative emotional geniuses seem like they are, advertising doesnt always work. Sidney 6 flopped on this one brochure and never again. So, so much for that idea. But at the same time, they were engaged in this failed and rather ridiculous branding campaign, highway 6 booster were engaged in another desperate measure, to get it named an interstate highway. An interstate really would have the power to attract and channel tourists in enormous numbers. It would have the power to make this part of the high country into vacationland. In 1956, this effort to get interstate highway designations seemed every bit as doomed as sidney 6 and that was because as plans for the interstate highway system nationwide stood as of then, there was not even going to be an interstate through the colorado rockies. If you look at this map, this is one of the earliest sort of tentative ideas of what the interstate highway system might look like back then called the interregional highways, 1939 and if you look there you see an interstate snaking across the plains from kansas into denver and stopping. The final interstate highway map 1947, same exact thing, it dead ends in denver. The obvious reason once again was the high ranges of the high country, which had always seemed to stand like walls in the way of east west travel. They were the same reason, by the way, that the trance continental had shunned the highway. And now the planners of the federal interstate system planning the biggest public works project in Human History were planning to shun the colorado high country, too. So once again, we see that there was nothing natural, nothing historically inevitable about interstate highway through the high country, in fact, we see that all historical precedent weighed against it. Now, once again i should mention here, it was more than just simple topography that caused federal interstate planners to reject the idea of an interstate going all the way through colorado. Postwar highway engineers werent really daunted by any topography at all. They were full of sort of a hue brisic belief that they could conquer any landscape, any. There were even proposals at one point to use Nuclear Detonations to clear mountains away that were in the way of an interstate in california. So these were not people who were daunted by topography. But in this case, they calculated, they were engineers and they calculated that there simply wasnt a utilitarian rational, a cost benefit analysis that justified blasting an interstate through this particular topography. There just werent enough people up in the high country and there just wasnt enough economic activity. Highway planners, highway engineers, professional training taught them to build major highways, most importantly the interstates, where there was existing demand. They were not in the business of building interstates to create demand, to try to spur Economic Development where it wasnt already going on. And that, of course, was a major problem for boosters of colorado in the high country because they wanted the interstate exactly to stimulate Economic Development above all as i mentioned before to stimulate the development of tourism. Putting an interstate through the high country they figured out would put the high country right on the main line for growing hordes of automobile dependent in the postwar. They had to get these stubborn federal highway planners to change their minds. Now, taking the lead in the struggle to do this was governor Edwin Johnson as everyone knew as big ed. He was kind of a buffoonish man. He was really the most important political figure although largely forgotten, not sort of big name as many other colorado political figures. But he was really the most important political figure. He spent two terms as governor in 1930s and went to washington for three terms in the u. S. Senate and returned to colorado for a one final term as governor in 1955. To big ed fell this awkward challenge of selling federal highway officials on an massive tourist boosting scheme by somehow not making it seem like a tourist boosting scheme. He somehow had to persuade federal officials that building an interstate highway through this rugged terrain of the high country made utilitarian and cost benefit sense. I wont go into detail here because it would go too long. For the utilitarian argument, he made the case that the high country contained many minerals, other Natural Resources that were crucial to National Economy and security and there could be an interstate to help get those things out of there. To make the engineering case for the interstate, big ed hatched a wildly audacious idea to have the state build a tunnel under the Continental Divide to dispatch for once and for all this ideaed that the high rockies were an inpenetrable barrier to travel. Big ed was convinced that federal planners would see the engineering problem eliminated and they would see fit to approve the interstate. Now this tunnel proposal that big ed championed set off a fire storm of controversy. Some coloradoens were excited. Others were really not. For many it depended on br the tunnel was going to go. So boosters and Business Owners along 6 loved the idea of building a tunnel that would channel traffic along 6 but hated that it would channel people along 40. 40 people saw it the other way around. The most serious criticism of the tunnel proposal, though, came from those who felt the tunnel would simply be too expensive for too little benefit. In other words, they made that cost benefit utilitarian calculation that highway engineers did. The chief engineer of the state hoid department at the time, a guy named mark wattress proved skeptical. Thats him on the left and thats big ed looming over him to intimidate him on the right. Wattress sited engineering studies that the kind of tunnel would only slightly reduce the altitude. Big ed responded with absolute fury. He unleashed his supporters to mercilessly attack wattress as a scrawny pencil neck, a wimpy little geek and hid behind engineering statistics to avoid doing a realmans job of just taking on the mountains the way the pioneers had done. The language unleashed did portray him in this unmanly weak willed way not like the hardy pioneers that we descend from. So, big ed won the popular debate. It wasnt that hard to do that over uncharismatic highway engineer and he finally managed to bluster and bludgeoned enough to approve the tunnel in 1956. The state Highway Department signing off on the idea. When will it be built . Where will it be built and where is the money coming from and are the feds going to actually give us an interstate even though we now decided to build a tunnel, are they going to give us an interstate . The proposal would still have to go through both congress and the federal highway. Congress as part of the 1956 act, did approve a 1,000 mile expansion of the interstate system, but the question was still where are those extra 1,000 miles going to go . It was still up to the federal highway planners to decide that. To make a long story short, after sweating it out for another whole year, colorado boosters and so forth political leaders finally got what they wanted in october 1957 when the federal highway planners did indeed a lot 547 of those 1,000 miles to allow the interstate to be extended west of denver as you can see on the map there through the colorado high country and on into utah. Now, some of you might have heard it said that president eisenhower personally ordered this extension of interstate 70 because of his love of fly fishing in the high country. Theres no question that eisenhower was a frequent vacationer in colorado. He was known for his very long summer visits in colorado, golfing in denver, fly fishing and oil painting up in the mountains especially at the ranch of axle nielson up near frazier. The story is told that ike through his weight behind the interstate extension or perhaps ordered the interstate extension because it would make his annual trip up to the mountains much more convenient. I looked at a lot of correspondents between eisenhower and his staff and axle kneelson and big ed johnson and another governor dan thornton and others and i did find that big ed appealed pretty shamelessly to ikes recreational interests. He would write letters to eisenhower saying that you of all people, mr. President , know just how much traffic is up on that drive to frazier and wouldnt it be great if there were a multilane interstate there. But i did not find any evidence to be honest that ike was receptive to these appeals. I found a lot of appeals that eisenhower and his staff were repeatedly brushing johnson off and basically trying to get him to shut up. I also found that axle nielson, i found him refusing basically to use his personal friendship with eisenhower for political purposes including and especially on the interstate issue. I should also point out one other thing while im dispatching this story and that is by the time that the extension of interstate through western colorado was finally approved in october 1957, eisenhower was no longer vacationing in the high country. As many of you probably know, he suffered a heart attack in denver and went through a very long convalescence after that in september of 1955. His doctors banned him from ever vacationing at altitude again. He approved this interstate is sadly you might say one of those colorful colorado myths that turns out to be not quite true. Its hard to know for sure, but it appears that the single most decisive factor in these federal highway planners decision to capitulate and to extend the interstate through the high country turn out not to be any of the arguments that big ed made or any of the other coloradoens were making but instead the armys purposes. That helps explain why when the interstate planners granted this interstate extension, they baffled, they shocked, they surprised everybody by not having it go from denver to salt lake but instead from denver down to a point in southern utah called cove fort which nobody had even heard of before. And even utah officials were like, we didnt ask for this, right . But the federal planners were angling interstate 70 down to hit interstate 15 which then as you can see goes to the southwest on its way to los angeles. So that desire for a quick route, a direct route more or less from denver to los angeles for National Defense purposes appears as far as i can tell, there probably are more sources to look at if they can ever be opened up to researchers, but it appears from the sources that i was able to find that that was the most decisive factor. In any case, though, the announcement that colorado would be getting its high country interstate was cause for jubilation in the state as coloradoens felt sure it would do wonders to foster a high country tourism. Now, that said, it was still to be decided exactly where the new interstate would go. The federal planners had only fixed the end points, denver on the east, cove fort on the west. How would the interstate get from point a to point b . This became the next cause for furious debate in colorado in the late 1950s as boosters and partisans insisted the highway should go their way and highway 6 boosters argumented. Big ed successor, a much less blustery named steve mcnickels called in an new york Engineering Firm and decide from an Expert Engineering perspective which would be the best route. This new york Engineering Firm studied no fewer than eight possible routes including seven different proposed tunnel sites. On this map here, the ones highlighted in red are the sort of last two routes that this Engineering Firm narrowed the possibilities down to. You can see that one sort of arcs up and follows along u. S. 40 for part of the way and the other follows roughly along u. S. 6. But besides those two that sort of were the finalists, there were six other routes, including ones that ran along the Colorado River and ones that went across the Williams Fork mountains across the blue river drainage. Again a map like this shows you that there was nothing historically inevitable about the path that i70 ended up taking. But in 1960, the new york firm recommended and the state Highway Commission ruled in favor of the interstate mostly following u. S. 6. So that bottom red line there. More or less from Idaho Springs directly west from summit and eagle county were two of the most remotest, most obscure lightly populated in the high country and into Grand Junction and on into fort couch. This is how it followed the route that it did. There can be no question that interstate 70 more dramatically than anything else packaged. And because of this it spurred much more investment in tourist businesses and tourist infrastructure along the route. And it began to have this effect, i think this is important, even before its actual construction when it was still in the planning stages. Perfect example of this is a development beginning in the early 1960s of vail whose founders used the promise of future interstate access, the access wasnt actually there yet but the promise to be in the future. They used that promise to sell investors on the vail enterprise. So they went around the country with a map like this that basically highlighted the location of vail and emphasized that it was located on future interstate route 70. So theres no question that it did that interstate 70 even before it was built would have that spurring effect on Tourist Development. But besides its doing that, i also want to return to an idea i mentioned earlier, how interstate 70 changed peoples views of the high country, particularly by making visitors feel closer to high country nature. Now, to be sure, theres real irony here, of course, because interstate 70 buzz not itself remotely natural. It was a massive artificial intrusion into the high country. It would take heavy handed modification of the natural landscape to shoe horn this giant superhighway into the rugged terrain of colorado. Interstate highways had all sorts of design specifications of how wide the shoulder had to be, how curves couldnt be too sharp because it would slow cars down too much and inclines couldnt be too steep because that would deter from the smooth flow of traffic along the interstates. So there were all sorts of design specifications and Design Standards that were utterly against it. Amputating the toes of mountains and this example is then bandaged up in steel mesh to keep the rocks from crashing down on to the highway below. It required draining wetlands, required relocating river channels. The most dramatic intrusion of all the eisenhower tunnel, undercutting the Continental Divide. So the two now westbound lanes they opened in 1973, the two eastbound lanes called the johnson tunnel after big ed, you can see they havent been built yet but they would open in 1979. But the interstate for all of this art fish yalty, all of this really heavy handed modification of the high country landscape ended up enhancing the experience of nature for many visitors. I70 made it much easier to access the forrests and slopes, rivers meadows, peaks of colorado. It made visitors feel closer to nature. It really did make the high country in many peoples minds a natural place for a vacation. Among other things it created new vantage points. It opened access to new landscapes. It freed people from the former difficulty of traversing this very rugged terrain. I like this picture because it shows how i70 ended up providing sort of this scenic viewpoint of the snowy peaks there and also i70 became part of the scenery itself. Im not saying you have to like that or that i necessarily do, but it certainly its sort of insinuated itself into the landscape the way it curved with the on the tours of the land. Or this picture where the eisenhower tunnel, this most forceful intrusion on the high country topography, nestles into the natural setting like it belongs there. The tunnel and i70 have become integral to the high country. We have a hard time now managing our movement through this region without it. Now, the more inviting the high country in particular this u. S. 6 interstate 70 corridor became to leisure seekers, the more flocked there. People planning longer stays, seasonal or second homeowners and growing numbers of permanent new residents. Ever larger number of people began permanently relocating. The denver metro allure was the easy access to the highlights of the high country. The ideas of proximity and easy access were utterly premt premsed on the improvement of highways. More and more people came to colorado again to live close to recreational bowmar, 1947 portrays the mountains as being right in your backyard. More and more people bowmar. Not quite. More and more people came to colorado to live a tourist way of life. To consume the Recreational Amenities of the high country on an on going basis, not just on vacation but every weekend or even everyday if they wanted to, to live near those Recreational Amenities or even amidst them so they can have convenient access to them. So these vacationers or i should say the vacationers way of consuming nature could not become the basis for a permanent lifestyle. If you look at a promotional brochure like this urging you to move to Jefferson County, its got as many images of sort of touriststyle recreational actives as it does of sort of everyday life like the Shopping Mall or the church. So its really holding up Jefferson County to live this tourist way of life. People who picked up on this promise, on this hope essentially rearranged their entire lives and lifestyles and careers and livelihoods and personal identities around the high country. They were people who had become very deeply personally invested in the high countrys recreational settings and that leads me to another critically important way that tourist infrastructure including i70 changed peoples way of relating to nature. Because when people became deeply personally invested in recreational settings in the high country, it kindled in them a fierce desire to guard those settings against perceived threats. So, in short, as Tourist Development fostered these powerful personal attachments to landscape, that in turn ended up fostering the rise of popular environmentalism. We saw a very early form of this in the story i told earlier toward the beginning of the talk how in 1958 the people of Idaho Springs suddenly realized how ugly their town looked from this new bypass and in this case there was a business or profit making incentive to clean up and spruce up the place for the sake of attracting tourism. As the interstate continued to take shape and as more and more visitors and also seasonal and permanent new residents became to flock to this Vacation Land that the interstate was opening up, popular Environmental Concerns began to deepen and take on more dimensions and very interestingly the interstate itself increasingly became the target of these Environmental Concerns. Somewhat ironic, as identify been saying, the interstates existence was crucial to the vacationlands very existence, its very emergence but now that interstate was becoming the target of more and more Environmental Concerns. Theres many examples i can give you from the 1960s and 70s, the single most revealing one was the enormous popular outrage when the state Highway Department made plans to cut a south ward loops to make the interstate more direct. It was the biggest such loop left and biggest such loop on i70 along its entire length through the entire country. Its this loop here where interstate 70 curves around the southern tip of the gore range over vail pass. State highway planners proposed to bypass this loop just like they bypassed all the earlier ones by boring a tunnel directly west beneath the gore range. It wo go here from silver thorn through the gore range through a tunnel and out on basically east vail on the other side. This proposed tunnel became known as the red buffalo tunnel because it cut between Buffalo Mountain and red peek on the Summit County side. Now the Sticking Point was here is a schematic map that the sierra club put out this map. What you can see is the Sticking Point. That greenshaded area, that was a wilderness area. Thats the eagles it was then called the eagless nest primitive area. This place was supposed to be off limits to road construction. But in this particular case, there was actually a clause in the wilderness act of 1964 that landmark which landmark act that created the wilderness designation, it has a clause in it exempting this one wilderness area, the clause empowered federal officials to withdraw wilderness protection from this one area so the interstate tunnel could be built underneath the gore range. There was no other wilderness that had a clause like this in the wilderness act. Red buffalo this proposal became a major state and brief moment a National Controversy in 1966, 1967 around in there and became a rallying point for the environmental organizations, really their first Great Success when and again im making a long story very short, they managed to defeat this proposed tunnel in 1968. What i think is especially interesting, though, is the coalition that lined up to do this to defeat red buffalo. On the one hand, the environmental organizations that fought against the tunnel were overwhelmingly organizations of Outdoor Recreational enthusiast, the Wildlife Federation made up of hunters and the new colorado open space coordinating council, a coalition of smaller groups almost all of which were organized around one Outdoor Recreational pass time or another, fly fishing, these Outdoor Recreational enthusiasts, people who had been so deeply personally invested in Outdoor Recreation that they made it the basis for organizing themselves and taking political action, these thank yenthusiast the charge. Goes back to the profit making perspective. These were tourist boosters. Tourist Business Owners for whom the scenic and wild and Recreational Amenities had become a matter of economic value, of profits, of prosperity. Business interests on either end of this proposed tunnel spoke out against red buffalo. So they were going away from the old booster approach of the more direct and higher volume the interstate access is the besttt for us. The less direct, the better for us. The argument is that to put the interest or state throuintersta would remove a tourist attraction from the region. It would cut into their business. People in vail took the lead on this. Vail town council made a powerful statement against the rough buffalo proposal. The marketing director was one of the leading voices against the red buffalo proposal. His rational and also the Vail Town Councils was that putting this interstate through would jeopardize lifestyle interests and vail businessowners business interests. This combination of interests, really for a brief time potent alliance of recreational lifestyle and business interests, this was what launched colorados Environmental Movement to political prominence by the early 1970s. Again, i wont go into detail. But the movement would have smashing successes in the early 1970s. Most famously, the state wide vote in 1972 to reject the 1976 Winter Olympics which had been granted to denver and when the committee then started spraying out venues around the state. This map i think this is a bit of the Olympic Organizing Committee literature in which they show where the venues are going to be. As you can see, they were counting heavily on interstate highway access. I70 access to make the olympics work. Environmentalists in the state and many others as well rejected this in 1972. They voted to deny state funding for the Winter Olympics and caused it not to happen. Other success came just two years later, 1974, when the leader of the antiolympics movement and the most vocal environmentalist man was elected governor. This alliance of recreational business interests and recreational lifestyle interests became the basis for Environmental Movement that was very short lived, because that combination of interests saddled the movement with some how would i put it . Lethal internal contradictions. And what i would argue, serious logical limitations and blind spots. For one, what do i mean by this . The promoters of tourism and the consumers, they might be able to agree on marginal things. But they parted way on bigger issues like the Winter Olympics. The defeat of the Winter Olympics convinced many tourist boosting interests that popular environmentalism had gone completely mad, had gone totally out of control. When many coloradans voted support for land use reform which was the talk in the 1970s, the citizens hoped that the land use reforms would protect against small and environmental degradation. But the business interests, including the tourist interest, used their lobbies muscle to defeat the reforms or water down land use reforms to the point where they were almost meaningle meaningless. It was not just the opposition of business interest that brought the heyday of environmentalism to a crashing halt. It was hesitation. I would argue an uncertainty and conservatism among colorado ra s s themselves. People who felt invested and the tourist way of life were usually not inclined to seriously challenge the system that had promoted and packaged all of those same recreational landscapes and amenities and activities that they had reshaped their lives and identities around. Consumerism is not really a very good recipe for radicalism. So i will briefly mention one final controversy over interstate 70 to illustrate the point. That was the debate in the later 1970s and early 1980s over building the interstate through Glenwood Canyon. Environmental groups, many others got involved in trying to save Glenwood Canyon from interstate uglyfication. Some proposed to design the passage through the canyon in a more environmentally responsible way. Notice that both of those proposed alternatives exceeded to the viewpoint that somewhere or another a super highway should or would go through. Very few environmental organizations dared to propose that maybe there didnt need to be a super highway uninterrupted all the way through. Maybe a twolane road was okay. The small minority who raised this possibility that maybe it could stay two lanes for part of the high country most notely a small group led by john denver, they were mocked and marginalized as unrealistic dreamers at best and at worst as enemies of the public interest, because they were standing in the way to oppose a fourlane road was to oppose safe, convenient automobile friendly access to Outdoor Recreation. Given that was a form of recreation that most colorado outdoor love hrs had invested i most laughed at john den fver a their fight and settled for more limited goals like building the inn interstate in a more sensitive way or according to a more environmentally sensitive design. Instead of joining the fight to try to stop interstate construction, that seemed unrealistic, out of beyond the limits for them. They settled for the limited goal of making the interstate look nicer. What in the end can we learn from stories like this and the other stories i told about interstate 70 . As i argued before, they show how packaging and promotional of recreational places, landscapes for tourists to consume could reshape peoples ways of connecting to nature and place. For even as we often tend to dismiss consumerism as something shallow, it would seem from the kinds of stories i have been telling that consumers were able to forth quite strong personal connections to the recreational places that they were con assuming. At the same time, that kind of environmentalism that grew from the consumer attachments had limits that are equally important to notice. Consumers learned to care about their Favorite Places but not necessarily about any others. That was a recipe for an Environmental Movement that was fragmented, local and provincial more than holistic. It was a recipe for a movement that was fairly conservative. The consumption of places, the consumption of recreational landscapes was too rooted in the culture of endless growth and entrepreneurialism to pose a really serious challenge to them, even if or when such a challenge was needed. Then again, even as consumerism constrained environmental protest, it was a reason why many protested at all. Connecting to certain settings as consumers into ecologists. But it did spur many of them to care. On some level, in some way about Environmental Issues that they wouldnt have given a thought to before. That leaves us with an important and troubling question or set of questions as we grapple with the difficult issues of growth and sustainability, including the debate over what to do about congesti congestion. I will throw out a couple of the questions. On the one hand, can environmental sensibilities rooted in recreational consumerism ever really point us toward more sustainable ways of living and doing business . But on the other hand, if not for consumerism, would popular concern for Environmental Quality be as widespread or would it exist at all . Those i think might be unanswerable questions. I think they are worth pondering. I will leave you with them. Will take any questions you might have for me. Thanks very much. [ applause ] make sure you hold the microphone close to your mouth. My question about the tipping and the balance in 56 or 57 on the decision of creating the interstate through the mountains, besides ed johnson, it sounded like the military was the decisive factor. Was there ever a military transport on i70, eisenhower was famously part of the military transport of 1919. Obviously, using lincoln highway mostly. Was there ever an event like that . Not that im aware of. There were there was the movement of missile parts along that interstate from time to time. But im not aware of an actual
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