Durango Open Studio Tour

On Saturday and Sunday, October 17 and 18, 2026, bright yellow yard signs stand in front of homes and studios across Durango. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days, the artists behind them keep their doors open to anyone who walks in. The tour’s own pages count 22 studios for the 2026 Durango Open Studio Tour, and a Durango events calendar puts the number at about 25. Admission is free and no reservation is needed. Visitors find their way with a printed brochure map or with the tour’s Google map, where a red finder icon and a “Directions” link lead to each studio. The information booth stands at the Durango Creative District, 1135 Main Ave.

Out the county roads

The studios fall under five headings: Painting & Drawing, Glass, Jewelry, Mixed Media, and Ceramic Arts. On County Road 141, J. Milton Beens shows oil and watercolor landscapes in modified impressionism, along with pottery. Marie McCallum paints classical-realist oils at 32221 Highway 550 North, reached by a driveway across the street from Hermosa Creek Grill. At 227 Hermosa Acres Drive, Yvonne Holland’s Fiddling Potter Studio holds functional stoneware and pastel landscapes painted on site. Visitors who park at the house walk a short trail down to the studio. Deb Anderson makes kiln-formed glass at Waterfall Glassworks on Waterfall Lane. John Modesitt has named his studio on Albrecht Lane The Museum of Impressionism. Barbara Tobin Klema paints studio and plein air watercolor at Wild Sage Studio on Ptarmigan Lane.

Past tours have used whatever room the artists had. The tour’s pages show one artist who set up a tent outside her home studio for more display space and another who hung work in her kitchen, living room, and bedroom. One worked in a tiny storage-unit studio, and two shared a second-story studio on Main Avenue. Yvonne Holland gave demonstrations in her home studio. The tour reports that some visitors reached 6 to 12 studios in a day, and many see half on Saturday and half on Sunday. Anyone who visits at least eight can enter a drawing for one of two gift baskets valued at over $300. A blue “H” on the artist page and the brochure map marks the studios that are handicap accessible. The organizers ask patrons to bike, carpool, or ride public transportation. Each artist sets their own prices, and all of the sale money goes to the artist.

The ArtRoom in the Smiley Building

Ten of the 2026 listings carry one address, 1309 E 3rd Ave, the Smiley Building. Its former auditorium now holds the ArtRoom Collective, a working studio that also serves as an informal gallery. Painters, jewelers, photographers, and ceramic and textile artists rent space there. In 2023 the collective counted 22 artists. Sharon Abshagen paints oils of southwest scenes in ArtRoom #6. Alison Heavirland works in metal and enamel jewelry in #10, Joe Schafer in mixed media on sheet metal in #13, and Kathleen Keene Jones in abstract ceramic sculpture in #19. Amy Hewitt, who does nature journaling, collage, and watercolor, shares Studio 105 with the multimedia painter Cate Smock. Heather Freeman shows colorful abstract paintings in ArtRoom #14. Cindy Atchison, who organizes the tour, works in #17.

The 2026 tour opened early, at the First Friday exhibition on October 2 at the Durango Creative District, where each participating artist could hang one piece. Calendar listings say the exhibit stays up through October. The same weekend as the tour, the 2026 Animas Valley Balloon Rally runs October 16 to 18. The tour’s site suggests watching the 8 a.m. mass ascensions at Hermosa Meadows, then driving on to the studios.

Studio 17

Cindy Miller Atchison studied graphic design and fine art at the University of Cincinnati, graduating in 1991, and worked in Albuquerque before settling in Durango. For more than three decades she worked as a designer and painted in the time left over. A month after her twin sons left for college, the ArtRoom opened, and she moved into Studio 17. Denise Leslie, publisher of Arts Perspective magazine, wrote in 2026 that Atchison could spend part of a day on a design project and then ride her bicycle to the Smiley to paint. She works in acrylic and oil, mostly from the Southwest Colorado country she hikes, bikes, skis, and paddleboards.

Leslie tells how one of those paintings began. Atchison was riding across the pedestrian bridge near Durango High School when she stopped for a cloudscape reflected in the Animas River. Four strangers had stopped too, and for a few moments they stood together smiling at the same view. The canvas is titled “A Shared Joy.” Atchison describes the purpose of her art with the phrase “Pursue beauty.”

She also designed the tour’s logo, promotional materials, and website. In September 2023 her painting “Incoming Storm” hung in the Newman Building window at 8th Street and Main Avenue to advertise the tour.

Durango Open Studios, 2009 to 2013

The tour has an earlier life under a slightly different name. Crystal Hartman was born in Durango in 1983 and raised in her parents’ turquoise jewelry business. According to her biography, she founded Durango Open Studios, “a tour of working art spaces,” in 2009. Her CV lists her as founding director from 2009 to 2011 of what it calls a catalogued studio tour and exhibition. Leslie writes that Arts Perspective magazine produced Durango Open Studios from 2010 to 2013. Hartman later turned to carving wax and making turquoise jewelry, and she has kept a studio in Urbana, Illinois, since 2018.

The Durango Herald covered the fifth annual tour in October 2013. That year 22 artists opened studios in Durango, Bayfield, and Ignacio, including Lorraine Trenholm’s home studio in Ignacio. In earlier years the roster had neared 40 artists, too many to see in one weekend. “This year, we limited the number of artists to allow for folks to complete the tour in one weekend,” said Leslie, then the producer. Artists demonstrated paintbrushes, cameras, pottery wheels, kilns, and fabrics. Maps could be picked up at the Durango Welcome Center, the Durango Arts Center, and the Dancing Spirit Community Arts Center in Ignacio. The kickoff was “Open Doors – A Taster Exhibition of Durango Open Studios” in the Arts Center’s Barbara Conrad Gallery. The plein air painter Jane Mercer had shown in every one of the tours. “I’ve found that people really want to understand our process and how we create art,” Mercer said.

The tour comes back

Atchison and her friend Heather Freeman both leased studios in the Smiley Building. Leslie writes that the two “seemed like the right people to revive the idea.” On her own site Atchison writes, “My Tour partner and I brought the Tour back after ten years of absence.” The Durango Telegraph has called her the tour’s co-founder.

The revived tour’s roster for 2022 included three student artists from Animas High School. Older names returned as well: Jane Mercer, Jan Goldman, and the potter Nick Blaisdell had all been on the 2013 list. In 2023 the tour ran September 23 and 24, with the info booth at the Smiley Cafe. Atchison’s newsletter that month counted 31 artists, while the Telegraph later put the 2023 count at 29. The 2024 tour fell on October 5 and 6. In 2025, 30 artists took part, and the opening exhibition moved to the Durango Creative District.

Atchison and Freeman ran the tour together for several years. For 2026, Leslie reports, Atchison leads it alone while Freeman turns to other projects. Barbara Tobin Klema, who opened her studio for the 2013 tour, is on the 2026 list.