Drop City | |
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| Coordinates:37°13′21.69″N104°29′23.15″W / 37.2226917°N 104.4897639°W /37.2226917; -104.4897639 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Colorado |
| County | Las Animas County |
| Founded | 1960 (1960) |
| Dissolved | 1979 (1979) |
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| • Type | Commune |
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Drop City was acounterculture artists' community that formed near the town ofTrinidad in southernColorado in 1960. Abandoned by 1979, Drop City became known as the first rural "hippie commune".[1]
In 1960, the four original founders, Gene Bernofsky ("Curly Benson"), JoAnn Bernofsky ("Drop Lady"), Richard Kallweit ("Larry Lard"), andClark Richert ("Clard Svenson"), art students and filmmakers from theUniversity of Kansas andUniversity of Colorado, bought[2] a 7-acre (28,000 m2) tract of land about four miles (6 km) north ofTrinidad, in southeastern Colorado. Their intention was to create a live-in work ofDrop Art, continuing an art concept they had developed earlier at the University of Kansas. Drop Art (sometimes called "droppings") was informed by the "happenings" ofAllan Kaprow and the impromptu performances, a few years earlier, ofJohn Cage,Robert Rauschenberg, andBuckminster Fuller, atBlack Mountain College.
As Drop City gained notoriety in the 1960sunderground, people from around the world came to stay and work on the construction projects. Inspired by the architectural ideas ofBuckminster Fuller andSteve Baer, residents constructed domes andzonohedra to house themselves, using geometric panels made from the metal ofautomobile roofs and other inexpensive materials. In 1967 the group, now consisting of 10 core people, won Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion award[3] for their constructions.The Firesign Theatre folks had a commercial—"kids, tear the top off your daddy's car, and send it, together with 10 cents in cash or coin, to Drop City, Colorado..."
The community grew in reputation and size, accelerated by media attention, including news reports on national television networks. Gene "Curly" Bernofsky later wrote that nationwide attention contributed to the commune's demise.[4] The peak of Drop City's fame was the Joy Festival in June 1967,[5] which attracted hundreds of hippies, some of whom stayed on. Matthews writes that Bernofsky hid in his dome throughout the Joy Festival, and quit, disgusted, the very next day.[6] With the complex of eight domes and geometric buildings constructed, Curly and Jo, the only official owners of the property, signed it over to a non-profit corporation consisting of the entire core group (then about a dozen). The deed stipulated that the land was "forever free and open to all people".[7] But tensions and personality conflicts were already a problem within the group, and soon became unbearable.[citation needed] By the end of 1968, some of the original occupants of the community had moved toBoulder, Colorado, to start an artists' cooperative, "Criss-Cross", whose purpose, like Drop City's, was to function in a "synergetic" interaction between peers (no bosses) to create experimental artistic innovation. Among the innovative endeavors to evolve out of Drop City are:
At Drop City,debris and building remnants from the original settlement remain at the site today, though it is not inhabited. By 1979 it was abandoned, and the members of the non-profit who were still in touch decided to sell off the site to the cattle rancher next door.[8] The last of the iconic domes was taken down only in the late 1990s, by a truck repair facility which now occupies a portion of the site.[citation needed]
By 1970, manyintentional communities had developed in Southern Colorado and NorthernNew Mexico, some of which were inspired by Drop City. Libre, north ofGardner, Colorado, was founded by several ex-"Droppers", and was among the more well known. Some communities continue to exist in some form today (notably in theTaos, NM area).
In 1971, author, and Drop City resident,Peter Rabbit's memoir "Drop City" was published.[9]
In 1993, an Indie Rock band from Sydney, Australia formed using the nameDrop City. In 2007, a different, Denver based, Indie Rock band formed with the same name.
In 2003, authorT. C. Boyle's novelDrop City was published.
In 2010, inspired by the Drop City commune, COMUNE opened a Drop City gallery space in the Los Angeles area.[10][11]
In 2012, the documentary Drop City was released, directed by Joan Grossman.[12]
In 2014, the indie rock bandUltimate Painting released its first album.[13] The band and its eponymous first album are named after one of the paintings made by the Drop City community.[14]
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