Featuring Reina Katzenberger and The Project Shop
In the summer of 2026, Aspen Public Art and the city of Aspen presented Mall Fest 50, a public art celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Aspen Pedestrian Mall.
Constructed in 1976, the Mall transformed busy streets in downtown Aspen from car corridors into a vibrant pedestrian park. To celebrate this milestone, we created the Mall Fest 50 Art Parade, an artist-led, people-powered procession of costumes, contraptions and performances that traversed the Mall and Aspen Saturday Market on June 27.
This exhibition tells the story of 50 years of the Mall through banners, photos, and the Silver Queen parade float, created by artist Reina Katzenberger, founder of The Project Shop.
Artist’s Statement
We present a re-imagining of the Silver Queen sculpture from 1893 that showcased what mattered to Aspen at the time. In an earnest attempt to keep the value of silver tied to the US currency, upon which Aspen's economy was dependent, locals created and sent the sculpture to the World's Fair. Today in 2026, in celebration of our community we take a look again at what we value, what we want to value, and what actually has the most value. The Mall Fest 50 Parade is a people-powered procession and celebration of "What we love about this place!" While diving into the project we wondered what if the Silver Queen wasn't an object in a boat, representing a commodity we were mining from the land but rather she became the vessel that carries and cares for the things we love and are privileged enough to enjoy about this place and to honor the natural world that long came before us. She is made only of reclaimed materials, saved from dumpsters, donated by friends, scrounged from collections... An exercise in creative problem-solving and resourcefulness. She is a collective piece made possible by and inspired by the community – by artists, educators, adventurers, thinkers, scientists, caretakers, farmers, and doers who have come before us and are growing up in our midst.