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Spotlight on the Arts: Ann Fellin
Ann Fellin, the new executive director of the Wright Opera House in Ouray, said she plans to focus heavily on fundraising to ensure sustainability for the 135-year-old historic venue. Erin McIntyre — Ouray County Plaindealer
Feature
By Gabrielle Porter / Special to the Plaindealer, on November 29, 2023
New Wright director focused on fundraising for historic venue
Spotlight on the Arts: Ann Fellin

When Seattle native Ann Fellin moved to Ouray a little more than a year ago, she had a vision for her life: A peaceful few years of teaching yoga, the perfect capstone to a lengthy corporate career.

But when Fellin heard the Wright Opera House was looking for a new executive director, she couldn’t help herself. She had been to a performance at the venue, and had fallen in love with it.

“I just thought this place was so cool and so vibrant and so beautiful and such a gem,” she said. “I remember saying to one of the gals (at the event) … ‘I just want to get to know this place and I want to get to know everyone here.’” Fellin applied, got the job, and officially started the new role Nov. 1.

“I feel honored to be taking the helm here,” Fellin said in a recent interview. “I’m really just so excited.”

Full circle

Taking the reins at the nonprofit is a return to Fellin’s roots — in more than one way.

Fellin “basically grew up in nonprofit,” immersed in the halfway house that her father and mother — a public school teacher and an administrative assistant — helped found. The family also regularly volunteered at a center that provided services for people with cerebral palsy, where Fellin’s cousin lived.

“I had really good parents,” Fellin said. “They really taught me to just care about the world around me.”

Fellin was also an arts enthusiast and dancer who performed in school plays and musicals in grade school and high school, and a singer even through her adult life. During her senior year, she was the lead in her school’s production of “Crimes of the Heart.” The role gave her a chance at a potential big break, after her drama teacher’s parents — talent agents in New York — came out to see her perform.

The couple told Fellin that when she graduated, she could come stay with them and they would help her find acting work. It was a chance Fellin never took, however.

“My parents thought that was a really bad idea,” Fellin said, laughing. “They were my parents. They did their best to ruin a lot of my good times.”

Fellin went on to a long career in the mortgage industry, as well as stints serving as a major gifts officer and as an executive director of a senior center.

She raised three daughters and, about five years ago, started dating her now-husband Tom Fellin, a school counselor who was born in Ouray and who always wanted to move back to the area, where his parents live. They started spending a month in the area every summer, and finally moved out in August 2022, just a few months after getting married.

Plans for the Wright

Fellin is taking over from outgoing executive director Brooke Easley, who Fellin credits with “so much groundwork for getting this place in the black.” While Fellin will be involved in every aspect of life at the Wright, she said she plans to focus heavily on fundraising to create sustainability for the historic venue, which was built in 1888.

“We have a really active board … and they have a really clear vision of where they want to take the Wright,” she said. “… We have a lot of capital improvements that we want to make, and we have a lot of improvements and additions we want to make in programming.”

Fellin said details on plans for capital improvements haven’t been finalized, but will be forthcoming. Programming- wise, she said she’s hoping to expand the theater’s wedding and special events business — and especially its live music offerings.

“That’s one thing the community has asked for and we have heard them,” Fellin said.

Fellin said ultimately, she wants to find ways to let the Wright keep doing what it does.

“It’s a place for people to expand their horizons and their visions of the world through art,” she said. “It’s a place where everybody can come.”

Smoke blankets Ouray County as wildfires burn in region
News
Smoke blankets Ouray County as wildfires burn in region
By Mike Wiggins 
July 11, 2025
Heavy smoke and haze choked Ouray County for a second straight day Friday as a series of wildfires churned through tinder-dry trees and brush in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. The Colora...
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Signs of trouble in Ouray
Main, News...
Signs of trouble in Ouray
City halts production after public backlash over size, appearance of wayfinding signs
By Mike Wiggins mike@ouraynews.com 
July 9, 2025
Ouray business owners and residents threw up a symbolic stop sign in front of the city council on Monday, urging city leaders to pause or altogether abandon plans to install dozens of new wayfinding s...
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Go Fourth and celebrate
Main, News...
Go Fourth and celebrate
July 9, 2025
The crowd cheers as a fire department tanker truck sprays the wet side of the street during the July 4 parade in Ouray. Ouray Tourism and Destination Marketing Director Kailey Rhoten said cellular dat...
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Main, News...
County scrambles to pay for road repairs from rockfall
Leaders pull from multiple sources to cover $300,000 tab, look to replenish emergency fund
By Lia Salvatierra lia@ouraynews.com 
July 9, 2025
Ouray County is scraping together money to pay for emergency repairs on County Road 361 while looking for ways to replenish its emergency fund in anticipation of other disasters. During a work session...
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News
Hot Springs moves forward with upgrades
Council OKs bathhouse design contract; pipeline replacement, heat exchange system on tap this fall
By By Lia Salvatierra and Mike Wiggins lia@ouraynews.com mike@ouraynews.com 
July 9, 2025
A series of much-anticipated upgrades to the Ouray Hot Springs Pool is coming together, with the city beginning infrastructure replacements this fall and searching for ways to pay for building a new b...
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News
Foyster named to Planning Commission
By Plaindealer Staff 
July 9, 2025
Pam Foyster of Ridgway has been appointed to the Ouray County Planning Commission with her term ending April 30, 2028. Foyster, a semi-retired nurse, also serves on the Ridgway Planning Commission. Bo...
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Woman rescued from Ouray Via Ferrata
By Plaindealer Staff 
July 9, 2025
A 42-year-old Denver woman was rescued on July 3 after she fell and broke her leg while climbing in the Ouray Via Ferrata, according to the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team. The woman was climbing the upstr...
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County pauses changes to event center fee schedule
By Plaindealer Staff 
July 9, 2025
Fees to use the Ouray County 4-H Event Center and Fairgrounds will not change for now. Ouray County commissioners decided Tuesday to hold off approving a new fee schedule until they better understand ...
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Sex assault trial reset for January
By Plaindealer Staff 
July 9, 2025
The trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in 2023 has been rescheduled for January. Seventh Judicial Chief District Judge Cory Jackson scheduled an eight-day trial to begin ...
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County OKs relocation of Log Hill mailboxes
By Plaindealer Staff 
July 9, 2025
Ouray County commissioners unanimously approved a plan Tuesday to relocate a series of mailboxes for Fairway Pines subdivision residents on Log Hill Mesa. The board approved a memorandum of understand...
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A patriotic way to celebrate the Fourth
Columns, Opinion...
FROM THE PUBLISHER
A patriotic way to celebrate the Fourth
By Erin McIntyre 
July 9, 2025
"Are you the newspaper? Are we gonna be in the paper?" These are questions I hear when people see me taking photos at parades. I usually shrug my shoulders and smile, because the truth is I don't know...
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