The Aspen Institute’s Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies Receives $10 Million Gift from Lynda and Stewart Resnick

Significant gift grows endowment to empower the Bayer Center to expand its programming and reach as the first facility dedicated to the legacy of artist and designer Herbert Bayer.

Aspen, CO, June 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yesterday, at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Aspen Institute President and CEO Dan Porterfield announced a $10 million gift from Lynda and Stewart Resnick, co-owners of The Wonderful Company, and their foundation, to the endowment of the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies, which opened in 2022 thanks to a founding gift from the Resnick family and their foundation.

Lynda Resnick’s commitment as a longtime trustee of the Aspen Institute is reflected in this latest campaign gift, bringing her, and her foundation’s, total lifetime giving to more than $46 million. This new investment comes at a pivotal moment as the Aspen Institute marks its founding 75 years ago, when Chicago industrialist Walter Paepcke and his wife Elizabeth established the Institute and partnered with Herbert Bayer to design its celebrated campus. Over the next five years, the Institute hopes to raise an additional $20 million in endowment resources to support the ongoing operations of the Bayer Center—which is free and open to the public.

The Bayer Center is located on the Aspen Institute’s campus in Aspen, Colorado. The center celebrates the works and influence of Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), a brilliant artist, designer, and multi-media visionary of the twentieth century who studied and taught at the Bauhaus before emigrating from Germany to the United States in 1938. Upon relocating to Aspen in 1946, Bayer supported Aspen’s postwar revitalization, shaped the Aspen Institute’s early artistic and programmatic vision, and designed the organization’s campus.

“The Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies is a cultural institution like no other. I am deeply grateful to Lynda and Stewart Resnick for their vision in establishing the Bayer Center and for this generous investment in its endowment,” said Dan Porterfield, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. “As we mark the Aspen Institute’s 75th anniversary, it has never been more important to celebrate and expand the extraordinary artistic legacy of Herbert Bayer, whose genius impacts us every day in our built heritage and in the values he embodied. Lynda and Stewart’s support ensures that the relevance and impact of his work will be honored for generations to come.”

“Art and design have always inspired Stewart and me for their power to shape the world and elevate the human spirit,” said Lynda Resnick, vice chair and co-owner of The Wonderful Company. “Few embodied this more than Herbert Bayer, whose vision transformed Aspen and the Aspen Institute into living works of art that celebrate nature, creativity and community. We are honored to help preserve Bayer’s legacy, ensuring that his bold ideas and the enduring spirit of the Bauhaus continue to inspire future generations as they make their own contributions to art and society.”

The endowment gift from the Resnicks and their foundation will provide critical resources to support the operations of the Bayer Center. It also supports the Center’s ongoing commitment to creating new exhibits that showcase the work and legacy of Bayer, whose multifaceted work represents the fullest expression of the Bauhaus movement in America. Importantly, the Bayer Center also helps to tell the origin story of the Aspen Institute and the city of Aspen’s growth in the wake of World War II.

The Center’s newest exhibit, which opened in June, is Sculpting the Environment: The Three-Dimensional Art of Herbert Bayer. The exhibit focuses on Bayer’s outdoor sculptures and land art, bringing together more than one hundred works by Bayer, including drawings, paintings, photographs, models, and maquettes—many on display for the first time. Bayer’s fondness for Aspen, where he was given free rein to sculpt the Aspen Meadows into a gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art, is highlighted throughout.

The new exhibition is co-curated by the artist Koko Bayer, Herbert Bayer’s granddaughter, and Adam Thomas, PhD. Koko Bayer will also participate in a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival on June 28, exploring the evolving legacy of land art through the lens of Bayer’s vision of the “total environment” with artists Pedro Reyes and Paul Hobson, and Storm King Art Center Executive Director Nora Lawrence.

The Bayer Center is led by Executive Director Lissa Ballinger, and continues to raise funds for new exhibits and programming. Designed by Jeffrey Berkus Architects and Rowland + Broughton Architecture and Urban Design, the center is situated holistically within Bayer’s original campus plans, which include a series of outdoor artworks and buildings designed between 1953 and 1975. Comprising nearly 8,000 ft2 of museum-grade gallery, storage, and archival space, the facilities anchor the Aspen Institute’s campus arts program, which includes over 10,000 ft2 of indoor gallery space.

For media: Press materials for the Bayer Center are available here. To learn more about the center, to donate, or to arrange a tour, please contact Sarah Shaw: sarah.shaw@aspeninstitute.org.

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society’s greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, DC and has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners.

Jon Purves
The Aspen Institute
jon.purves@aspeninstitute.org

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