HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
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KATRINE & BILL FORMBY TEDxTellurideLive Producers Hot Shot Photo Contest Creators Owners/Restorers of the Nugget Building, Heart of Telluride, Bell Building First Visit to Telluride June 1988 Katrine’s Favorite Hike Jud Wiebe Bill’s Favorite Hike Hope Lake Katrine’s Favorite Ski Run See Forever Bill’s Favorite Ski Run Lookout, Bushwacker Favorite Restaurants Chop House, Rustico
PHOTO BY ASHLEY FINKE ©
A BEAUTIFUL LOVE for telluride By Kingston Cole
I HUNG UP the phone with Katrine Formby and wondered if it would just be better for all of us if Bill and Katrine moved to Telluride permanently. We could hang out in their penthouse atop main street’s Paragon Sports before meandering downstairs to catch a movie next door at the Nugget Theatre. Afterwards, we could sit around and chat about various TEDx Talks or even the subject of photography. Heck, given enough time we might even be able to settle the pronunciation of the word “balustrade” – something about which we could not agree. Alas, that is but a dream, for we all have to make a living and it so happens that the Formbys make theirs in Austin, Texas. There they co-own a development on Lake Austin which includes a boating facility, rental properties, Mozart’s Coffee Roasters and the Hula Hut restaurant. So if they make a living in Austin, then surely they just vacation here in Telluride? Not so fast. They do a lot more than simply vacation in Telluride. Bill and Katrine Formby have been an integral and much loved part of the community since 1999 when they purchased the Nugget Building. These days it houses not just the movie theater but also Sunglass HQ, Telluride Truffle, the Telluride Yoga Center and other businesses. When they bought the landmark building, it wasn’t in good shape. But thanks to the couple’s painstaking, lengthy and continuing restoration work, the structure, originally built in 1892, is once more sound, as well as beautiful. “I do personally have a passion to make things beautiful,” Katrine says. “It’s been a dream to work on a project that has such beautiful bones.” 64
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It was inside the Nugget Theatre itself that Bill and Katrine were going to hold their first simulcast of the TEDx Talks, the TED program that screens TED Talks videos in towns and cities around the world. But there was so much enthusiasm, so many willing Telluride viewers, that they had to move it to the Michael D. Palm Theatre that very first year. That was 2010. Bill and Katrine have been putting it on, along with refreshments, at the Palm ever since. The pair have made Telluride’s main street prettier, saved the Nugget Building and helped sharpen minds and promote debate through TEDx. Anything else? In fact, yes. Every year, the Formbys sponsor the Hot Shot July 4th Photo Contest, with organizational support from the Ah Haa School for the Arts. The contest receives over a hundred submissions each year before a panel of judges selects winners who receive cash prizes. The motivation for the contest came from a photography class that Katrine participated in. The class finished with a contest, she recalls. “I remember getting so excited. There was no money, just lots of joy. The photos were beautiful [and] I like looking at beautiful things. I thought, ‘I could do a contest [in Telluride]’ … It ended up just being a lot of fun. I love it.” The Formbys may not be here full time, but it is clear that for them Telluride is very much where their hearts are – and Telluride is all the better for it. a