Art from Ashes Board of Directors announces a celebration of Catherine O’Neill Thorn’s legacy upon her impending retirement.
(Catherine’s personal message, a photo gallery, and a place for comments below)
A Very Special Announcement
Today, our hearts are filled with gratitude as we celebrate one very special member of our team: founding executive director Catherine O’Neill Thorn. After 19 years with Art from Ashes—and 30 years of service to the community—Catherine has announced that she will be retiring this summer.
It is because of Catherine’s powerful vision, relentless creativity, and heartfelt dedication that Art from Ashes exists today. Thanks to her leadership, we have been able to serve more than 15,000 young people, guiding them along a path to personal resiliency and self-determination. Today, we celebrate that incredible impact as we honor the tireless work Catherine has put in to make it happen.
Many of you know Catherine personally, but for any who don’t, we’d love to share a bit of her story as we celebrate her journey. Catherine’s background is in youth poetry and spoken word workshops, going back to 1992. She spent years working in juvenile facilities, including residential and day treatment centers, probation departments, and schools, and notably, ran three years of weekly poetry sessions starting in 1999 for students impacted by the tragic Columbine shootings.
When statewide budget cuts in 2003 deeply impacted youth organizations and art programs, Catherine started Art from Ashes as a way to continue serving young people in Colorado through the arts. “It wasn’t a rational gamble on the surface,” she says, “I started a youth arts agency when all funding for youth and the arts had been cut. I bought everything on my credit cards. There were no contracts, no donors, no volunteers, just me and a friend who wanted to help where he could.”
Now, almost 20 years later, the organization continues to grow, and has served more than 15,000 young people over the years, winning both local and national awards.
“I believe so strongly in our program and its incredible impact,” Catherine adds. “Our society has changed a lot since we started, but there are constants: youth voices continue to be disrespected and discounted; young people who feel disconnected and unheard are more likely to commit violence against themselves or others; most young people don’t realize how much creative power they have and that it can change their lives.”
And, change lives it has! Catherine, as you head into this next chapter in your life, we hope you will always remember the profound and everlasting impact you have had here. We will miss your presence dearly and are embracing the future knowing that your legacy will live on with us for the years to come.
Please join us in offering a heartfelt congratulations to Catherine and help us celebrate this incredible milestone in her life!
What’s Next? With Catherine’s spark, wisdom, and legacy as our guide, the search is already underway for a new Executive Director. If you are interested or know someone who would be a good fit, please contact board@artfromashes.org for more information. We’ll send your information to The HR Shop when they’re ready to review them.
A personal message from Catherine
In 2019, the board and staff thought it would be a lovely idea for me to have a part-time sabbatical in my home country of England, where I would stay with one of my very best friends. This was after my two-year battle to survive cancer, during which I worked A LOT to keep the agency in service to the community. I was so excited! I left for my sabbatical in January of 2020…yes, THAT 2020. Not much sabbating happened that year or the next.
Rather, we all at AfA have spent the past two years “pivoting,” which is a euphemistic way to say whirling. Because it takes constant pivoting to transform a highly personal, interactive program into an online experience. We all did it together, and we did it virtually, and we did it well. Whirling can be exciting, but it does take its toll, and we bless those who kept this agency active and accessible to youth during the past two years before moving on, and welcome those stalwart souls who recently joined the crew to keep us glowing. And of course, so much gratitude to our board of directors and volunteers and long-time advocates, supporters, and hard workers who stuck with it through it all: Jessica Jarrard, Fundevelopment Coordinator and Grant Writer Suprema, Bridget Hofstadter, Volunteer Coordinator, and John Thorn, Office Assistant and Caretaker.
And after a lot of prayer, consideration, and discussion with people who know me well, I (and my forgiving human body) have decided to take some deep breaths and retire. It’s been 19 years of wild rides and tearful nights, raucous laughter and tender moments of joy. It’s been passionate and it’s been transformational.
AfA has grown up in a loving community that accepted a new way of offering poetry—a chance for young people to engage in a dialogue with the creative subconscious using the language of metaphor. We have held space for tens of thousands of youth to experience their creative genius through the power of words—words that have helped elicit true change in their hearts, minds and attitudes.
AfA will be 20 years old next year (how is it almost 2023!!?), and I have the comfort of leaving the agency in a place of stability and strength. For a couple of months now, the board and staff and I have been preparing to welcome someone into my position by the end of June, and we’ve partnered with the well-known local company The HR Shop, headed by the awesome team of Dr Nita Mosby Tyler and Rene Hays-Gallegos, to help us find the best person possible.
If you or anyone you know would be interested in applying to be Executive Director of one of the scrappiest, most powerful nonprofits on the planet, doing an awesome job for young people with an incredible team to work alongside them, stay tuned. The HR Shop will be accepting applications shortly and we’ll post the position here as well as on local job boards.
Meanwhile, if you have any old photos, stories or well wishes, we’ll be opening up a special place to post them, or you can just use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or TikTok.
The message of love and acceptance and grace we give the youth has also been given to me over the years by so many of you. And it kept me going. Thank you for all you’ve done to support our program.
(donor) Catherine, Congratulations! Martha Everett
Thank you so much, Martha! ❤️