vailsymposium

Randy Milhoan is an artist/designer who lives and works in Minturn, CO. Milhoan received his BFA in Education from the University of Nebraska in 1968. He moved to the Vail Valley in the late summer of 1969 and served as Director of Colorado Mountain College from 1971 to 1985.

In the summer of 1970 over beers with college buddies Dan Telleen and Jim Cotter, Milhoan floated the idea of starting some sort of summer arts program as a way of attracting artists to the area as well as boosting the local economy. One year later, Summervail Workshop for Art and Critical Studies debuted. In its 14-year span, Summervail Art Workshop served more than 9,000 students taught by 500 internationally prominent visiting artists like Dale Chihuly, Pulitzer Prize winner Jerry Saltz, Oscar-winner Donna Dewey, Sculptor Robert Arneson, and Painter Ed Ruscha; through 850 different workshops and symposiums. Students came from 15 different nations and nearly every state in the U.S. Participants from the workshop even got the opportunity to work under Christo and Jeanne-Claude during the second installment of the “valley Curtain” project in 1972. The Summervail Workshop had projected Vail and the Upper Eagle Valley as a leader of arts in the United States.

Milhoan has been President of Milhoan Studios in Minturn, CO since January 1985. He also worked in Sales for International Marketing & Media in Denver and served as Dean of Academic Affairs at the San Antonio Art Institute. Milhoan is well known throughout the art community in Vail for his significant contributions to art in public places, including the eclectic paintings in the Lionshead parking structure, the children’s mural under the westbound bus stop in Vail Village and serving as Director of Minturn Market for over a decade. Milhoan is a Founder, Summervail Art Workshop and President and Executive Director, Summervail Art Workshop Legacy Project.