In the year that Aspen Thrift Shop is celebrating 75 years, it will also host its 10th annual art sale.

Following on the heels of the 21st Annual Downtown Aspen Art Festival and Aspen ArtWeek 2024, the art sale will be held in the Red Brick Center for the Arts’ rehearsal studio from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

“It’s wild and wonderful,” said Katherine Sand, art sale creator, longtime Aspen Thrift Shop volunteer, and board of directors member. “You know, we get such very lovely, eclectic, interesting stuff, and we want to show it. This is a way for people to see it all in one day.”

A preview will also be held on Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. No purchasing or reserving will be allowed, but people can come take photos of their favorite items, mark where the items are in the studio, and ask questions.

Items that will be at the sale include art, books, decorative pieces, and vintage items, as well as designer clothes, bags, and shoes, collectibles, textiles, and jewelry.

“And this year, we feel like we have better art than we’ve had in the last 10 years. I think we have more Aspen vintage,” Margie Throm, co-president and co-treasurer at the thrift shop said. “We also have a Jim Hayes silver belt buckle. Jim Hayes belt buckles are very valuable, and they’re also really sentimental. He was an Aspenite for years and made the cool Aspen leaf belt buckles.”

During the art sale, items of higher value will be available during a silent auction. These items include rare pieces by Tom Benton and Lloyd Schermer, vintage Aspen posters, books signed by Hunter S. Thompson and John Denver, and African art. The silent auction will close when the art sale does at 2 p.m.

Art for the sale is collected throughout the year and stored in various storage units around Aspen. Sand, whose favorite pieces are the Aspen-centric ones, said she currently has four filled to the brim.

“People actually sometimes call me during the year and say, ‘Would you like something for the art sale?,’” she said. “And I think part of what I love about it is there is a degree of messy vitality that makes it very Aspen. And also, what’s fun about it is we’re a volunteer organization. We’re not sitting around pretending to be an art gallery. We want to share all these beautiful donations with everybody.”

All proceeds from the art sale go to Roaring Fork Valley nonprofit grants and scholarship funds. In the past, grants have gone to organizations like Aspen Chapel Gallery, Carbondale Community Oven, Basalt Elementary School Parent Engagement, and Roaring Fork Conservancy. Scholarships go to Aspen High School, Basalt High School, and Roaring Fork High School.

Sand said anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 is made from each art sale. The deadline for the 2025 grant application is Sept. 30, 2024. The scholarship deadline is March 1, 2025.

We make a lot of money. We made $50,000 last year from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” Throm, who has been an Aspenite for more than 60 years and on the board of the thrift shop for 10 years, said. “Can you imagine making that much money in such a short amount of time?”

Aspen Thrift Store, an all woman organization, and the same age as the Aspen Music Festival and School, will also hold a firesale in October for the items that are not sold at the art sale. The items will be sold at a discounted price.

After the firesale, a 75th anniversary celebration for the thrift shop and a 10th anniversary celebration for the art sale will be held.

“The whole of Aspen is really represented by the thrift shop community,” Sand, who moved to Aspen from London 23 years ago, said. “One of the things, especially one of the things, I love about the art sale is because it sort of reflects how eclectic we are and international and people that are very well traveled. They buy interesting art and objects on their travels. So, it’s a fantastic kind of medley of the Aspen experience.”