Organization History
by I*M Founder Wesley Pouliot
Intrinsic Mind traces its origins back to 1971 when, while working in television production and living a hectic city life, I was sent on assignment to record parts of the International Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado. I caught my first glimpse of the recharging, personal energy that retreat or wilderness experience could contribute to the creative process. Years later, seeing that even in an idyllic mountain town known for winter skiing and summer recreation, local artists were shown only if their work fit into commercial gallery strategies, I brought together and helped organize a group of people with pioneering spirits to bring artists into regional, public facilities for nonprofit exhibitions. Incorporated as Aspen Visual Artists (AVA) in 1976, we established monthly, non-juried art exhibitions for photographers titled “Second Sunday.”
After two years of active duty, AVA was recognized as a charitable educational institution qualified to receive tax-deductible contributions under section 501 (c)(3) of the IRS code. Over the next few years AVA energy joined with that of other artists, collectors and educators to champion a regional, non-commercial arts community. For the next three years, I also served on a board of directors which planned, funded, and in 1979 opened the highly respected Aspen Art Museum, which continues today exhibiting international art work.
While serving as the Aspen Art Museum’s first vice president for three years, I also went on to help expand AVA to sponsor media-literacy classes for children and adults, college accredited video apprentice workshops, art film screenings and public service communications, under a broader non-profit umbrella, the Rocky Mountain Center for Cinema & Television Arts. Within a few years we sponsored the production of several documentary and public-service videos for local and regional uses; most notably Real Times, a 40-minute color video history on the opening of the hard rock mining economy and neo-Renaissance culture into the 19th Century American frontier through the application of innovative Industrial Revolution technology.
Over 14 years the organization continued through several project cycles with financial support from hundreds of private individuals, corporate donors, grants, in-kind help from other public and government institutions, and earned revenue from event admissions and class tuitions. During this time I have continued to believe in that dream of mine: that artists could benefit creatively from wilderness experiences in solitude. It had been the motivating force in my relocation to Colorado´s mountains in 1975, and after seven years in Aspen it became clear that my initial effort was short of realizing that dream?and the final result must be more focused: the only goal.
In 1984 I moved to Boulder in order to study in detail, and experience the Eastern traditions of contemplation and spiritual retreat at Naropa University, a Buddhist inspired liberal arts college founded by Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. I completed a Master of Arts degree in Contemplative Religion, while immersing myself in the relevant livelihood of managing and editing an already well-respected international Buddhist newspaper, the Vajradhatu Sun, which became the Shambhala Sun, today the Lion’s Roar. I also taught several classes and we sponsored the development of two short educational videos: one for Naropa University’s recruitment office and another documenting a Boulder sister-city visit to Lhasa, Tibet.
The Autumn of 1988 saw the initial draft of this idea for Intrinsic Mind (under the working title Artists Retreat Trust) which outlined the tasks at hand and the steps necessary to establish and maintain a series of retreat centers for artists in mountain and desert places of North America. These proposed facilities are to be dedicated to creative solitude for individuals in short and long-term retreats guided by the expression of contemplation as integral to the process of creativity and inspired action.
My intention is that the long-range legacy of I*M’s retreat centers will be a growing land conservancy composed of the wild-land acreages withheld from continuing cycles of development. In fact, the more successful that Intrinsic Mind is at providing members and customers with real value in contemplative retreat, the greater the number of centers that will be opened. This will maintain the necessary low density balance for meaningful creative solitude at each center as well as enlarge the overall land trust withheld from expanded enterprise development.
Wesley Pouliot
Saint Cloud, Colorado, July 2012
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