Telluride Association (TA) is a left-of-center educational organization that promotes and instructs students on critical race theory and critical race theory-associated topics. ¹

Telluride Association’s Summer Seminar (TASS) work focuses on the study of history, politics, and cultural experiences of people of African descent ² through two areas of studies: critical Black studies and anti-oppressive studies. ³

In its 2022 summer seminar, TA’s critical Black studies programming included workshops on the thought and activism of lifelong radical-left and Communist Party USA activist Angela Davis. ⁴ In 2020, TA  distributed far-left author Ibram X. Kendi’s critical race theory-inspired book How to Be an Antiracist to its staff.  ⁵

History and Leadership

Telluride Association (TA) was founded by industrialist and entrepreneur L.L. Nunn in 1911 with 110 members who were alumni of Nunn’s institutes and projects. TA received tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service in 1951. ⁶

Telluride has tracked liberal values since the 1950s, when its house in Ithaca, New York, was known as the most liberal living space on campus. ⁷ In 1954, TA launched the Telluride Association Summer Program (TASP) at Indiana University for high school juniors. ⁸

In 1993, TA launched its TA Sophomore Seminar program, which was one of the first summer programs in the nation to focus on the critical race theory-influenced concept of critical Black studies. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the sophomore seminars and summer programs were superseded by the new Telluride Association Summer Seminars, which premiered in 2022. ⁹

Amina Omari is the executive director of the Telluride Association. ^{10 11}

Activities and Funding

Telluride Association is a left-of-center educational organization that offers residual full room and board scholarships for university students and residential summer programs for high school students. ¹² In 2021, TA spent $1,091,045 for its houses in Ithaca, New York, at Cornell University and Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the University of Michigan. ^{13 14}

TA says that its educational objective is to prepare and inspire promising students to lead and serve through free, transformative educational experiences rooted in critical thinking and democratic community. ¹⁵ Telluride Association Summer Seminar (TASS) work focuses on the study of history, politics, and cultural experiences of people of African descent. ¹⁶

Notable alumni of TA programs include Georgia politician Stacey Abrams (D), George W. Bush administration Deputy Secretary of Defense and former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, and political commentator Francis Fukuyama. ¹⁷ Former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) is also an alumnus. ¹⁸

TA values include the critical race theory-influenced concept of equity, democratic self-governance, and intellectual inquiry. ¹⁹

Following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent growth of the far-left Black Lives Matter movement, TA rechartered its summer programs to have an explicit role of combatting racism and anti-Blackness. ²⁰ In 2020, TA also distributed far-left author Ibram X. Kendi’s critical race theory-inspired book How to Be an Antiracist to its staff. ²¹

Programming

Telluride Association hosts six-week summer seminars for high school juniors to take college-level courses and are typically administered by TA program alumni. ²² Students set their own rules and set guidelines through democratic self-governance throughout the program. The first Telluride Association Sophomore Seminar was first held in 1993. Since then, seminars have taken place at Cornell University and the University of Michigan. TA also ran Telluride Association Summer Programs (TASP) until the program was reorganized into its current Telluride Association Summer Seminar (TASS) structure in 2022. Current TASS programming focuses on the humanities and social sciences and on two areas of study: critical Black studies and anti-oppressive studies. ²³

Students set their own rules and set guidelines through democratic self-governance throughout the entirety of the program. ²⁴ More than 1,000 students have participated in Telluride Association programming since its launch. ²⁵

TASS programming has included a seminar on “Race and the Limits of Law in America.” ²⁶ In 2022, TASS’s critical Black studies students lived and studied separately from other students. Programming included workshops on the thought and activism of lifelong radical-left and Communist Party USA activist Angela Davis, the critical race theory-influenced concepts of transformative justice and anti-racism, and white supremacy. ²⁷ TASS students also voted to expel a former Black studies professor from the program due to so-called microaggressions. ²⁹

Funding

Telluride Association primarily receives its income from the investment income of its $70 million endowment. ³⁰ The organization also solicits donations and recurring gifts via the left-of-center Network for Good donor-advised fund. ^{31 32}

In 2021, Telluride Association reported revenue of $5,715,825 and expenses of $2,057,509. In 2020, the organization reported revenue of $5,944,308 and expenses of $2,603,004. ³³

1. “Executive Director Job Posting.” Telluride Association. April 2022. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220408-Final-Head-of-Staff-Job-Description.pdf.
2. Quinn, Holly. “Three TeenSHARP students win prestigious Telluride scholarships.” Technically. May 25, 2018. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://technical.ly/diversity-equity-inclusion/three-tennsharp-students-win-prestigious-telluride-scholarships/.
3. “Our Programs.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/our-programs/.
4. Lloyd, Vincent. “A Black Professor Trapped in Anti-Racist Hell.” Compact Magazine. February 1, 2023. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://compactmag.com/article/a-black-professor-trapped-in-anti-racist-hell.
5. “Tweet.” Telluride Association. Posted May 29, 2020. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://twitter.com/TellurideAssoc/status/1266374643226513410?cxt=HHwWhMCgoenBiJMjAAAA.
6. “Telluride Association Inc.” GuideStar Candid. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/16-0870219.
7. Lloyd, Vincent. “A Black Professor Trapped in Anti-Racist Hell.” Compact Magazine. February 1, 2023. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://compactmag.com/article/a-black-professor-trapped-in-anti-racist-hell.
8. “History.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/about-us/history/.
9. “History.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/about-us/history/.
10. “Amina Omari.” LinkedIn Profile. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/amina-omari-4318988/.
11. “Telluride Association Inc.” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990). 2021. Part I. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/160870219/202242639349300214/full.
12. “Executive Director Job Posting.” Telluride Association. April 2022. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220408-Final-Head-of-Staff-Job-Description.pdf.
13. “Telluride Association Inc.” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990). 2021. Part III. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/160870219/202242639349300214/full.
14. “Our Offices.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/our-offices/.
15. “Telluride Association Inc.” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990). 2021. Part I. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/160870219/202242639349300214/full.
16. Quinn, Holly. “Three TeenSHARP students win prestigious Telluride scholarships.” Technically. May 25, 2018. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://technical.ly/diversity-equity-inclusion/three-tennsharp-students-win-prestigious-telluride-scholarships/.
17. Lloyd, Vincent. “A Black Professor Trapped in Anti-Racist Hell.” Compact Magazine. February 1, 2023. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://compactmag.com/article/a-black-professor-trapped-in-anti-racist-hell.
18. “Tweet.” Telluride Association Twitter. Posted February 9, 2021. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://twitter.com/TellurideAssoc/status/1359123098956611587?cxt=HHwWhoCy9b3QydwlAAAA.
19. “Executive Director Job Posting.” Telluride Association. April 2022. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220408-Final-Head-of-Staff-Job-Description.pdf.
20. “Executive Director Job Posting.” Telluride Association. April 2022. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220408-Final-Head-of-Staff-Job-Description.pdf.
21.  “Tweet.” Telluride Association. Posted May 29, 2020. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://twitter.com/TellurideAssoc/status/1266374643226513410?cxt=HHwWhMCgoenBiJMjAAAA.
22.  “About Us.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/about-us/.
23.  “Our Programs.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/our-programs/.
24. “About Us.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/about-us/.
25. “Past TASS Topics & Faculty.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/about-us/history/past-tass/
26.  Berkowitz, Roger. “Waking Up.” Hannah Rendt Center for Politics and Humanity at Bard College. February 19, 2023. https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/waking-up-2023-02-19.
27. Lloyd, Vincent. “A Black Professor Trapped in Anti-Racist Hell.” Compact Magazine. February 1, 2023. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://compactmag.com/article/a-black-professor-trapped-in-anti-racist-hell.
29.  Berkowitz, Roger. “Waking Up.” Hannah Rendt Center for Politics and Humanity at Bard College. February 19, 2023. https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/waking-up-2023-02-19.[/note

    In response to this development, TA made several institutional changes to its institutional policies, including amending TASS to incorporate educating participants on issues including social differences, and issues pertaining to race, gender, and class in historical and contemporary ways. ^{28 [1]} “Newsletter.” Telluride Association. 2021 Winter. Volume 106. Number 2. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/106_2_2021_Jan.pdf.

30. “Executive Director Job Posting.” Telluride Association. April 2022. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20220408-Final-Head-of-Staff-Job-Description.pdf.
31. “Support Us.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/support-us/.
32. “Support Us.” Telluride Association. Accessed June 11, 2023. https://www.tellurideassociation.org/support-us/.
33. “Telluride Association Inc.” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990). 2021. Part I. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/160870219/202242639349300214/full.