Skip to main content

Sid Cutter: Man Above Town

On view April 8, 2022 – April 24, 2023

A title graphic for the Sid Cutter exhibition featuring a black and white headshot of the man against a cloudy blue background and the text "Sid Cutter: Man Above Town".

 

 

Most locals know how the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta® got its start: KOB Radio approached Albuquerque resident Sid Cutter about inflating his hot air balloon at their 50th-anniversary celebration, and instead, he proposed a balloon race. The rest, as they say, is history.

But fewer people may know much about who Sid Cutter was as a person. The exhibition at the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, Sid Cutter: Man Above Town, gives visitors an insight into Sid Cutter’s life both in and outside of hot air ballooning.

The exhibition draws on photos and personal items from the Sid Cutter Estate, as well as interviews with the people who knew Sid, to show another side of the “Father of Balloon Fiesta.” Visitors can also see the Olympic torch that Sid carried in his hot air balloon in 2002, in Albuquerque.

The Man Above Town opened Friday, April 8, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the very first Balloon Fiesta, which took place near Coronado Center with 13 balloons. This exhibit showed how hot air ballooning in Albuquerque got its start with Sid Cutter and the first Balloon Fiesta.

 

Photo courtesy of the Sid Cutter Estate