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2021 ANNUAL REPORT

The Salt Tree Charitable Trust

A Message from Our Trustees

2021 Seasonal Highlights

Building Our Digital Presence

We continued to cultivate our virtual community in 2021, with:

Digital festivals like our Midwinter Celebration, which featured stories and art around the four ecology topics of our Brings to Light project);

Creative series like artist Cherie Chalouhi’s Patti and Paul the Plants (you can watch the video shorts on Salt Tree Art’s IGTV page);

Online outreach events like the Salt Tree Art virtual table at the 2021 NYC Earth Day Fair & March for Science;

And so much more!

We’re thrilled to be able to connect with a global audience through our virtual work, and look forward to continuing to leverage the opportunities that our online platforms offer.

Growing Our Youth
Education Initiative

Our Earth to Sky environmental learning resource provided the foundation for a range of youth education programming, including an Earth Day call for video submissions from families using the Earth to Sky curriculum, and remote teaching workshops from Salt Tree Art with schools from New York City to Montana.

Returning to In-Person Programs

We were so excited that the 2021 season allowed for the revival of some in-person programming!

Salt Tree Art brought eco-art to community outreach events like the NYC Compost Carnival;

We created some eco-advocating art, like fruit sticker voting placards (to encourage removing stickers from produce scraps before composting);

And we began producing live classes and shows, like our shadow puppetry class and a preview performance of Selene, a new work focused on climate change and animal habitat.

As circumstances allow, we hope to continue a gradual return for our direct programs for the 2022 season!

Eco-Puppetry Festival

Our Eco-Puppetry Festival has become an annual event that highlights artists from across the country with sustainably constructed puppets and ecology-focused puppetry performances! This year’s festival included a dozen puppeteers presenting from a range of puppetry styles and ecological topics.

Wear We Are Going

In our largest project yet, Salt Tree Art launched Wear We Are Going, a nationwide eco-fashion design contest. Partnering with nonprofit VenturaVie in San Francisco, the project created a platform for innovative concepts that demonstrated creativity and hopefulness in addressing global ecological challenges. After a call for submissions throughout the summer, the competition culminated in a virtual fashion showcase with celebrity host Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht.

2021 Financial Snapshot

Sources of Support

Salt Tree Art is proud and grateful for its strong community of support, with 81% of our revenue coming from the generosity of our board members and individual contributors.

Use of Funds

Salt Tree Art continued to apply much of our revenue towards the capital campaign project now underway in 2022. As a volunteer-led, program-focused operation, administration remains a minimal portion of our expenses.

Thank You to Our Community of Support

Board of Trustees

Mike Hollis

Liz McCabe

Brian Soliwoda

Advisory Board

Lauren Alzos

Jordan Benke

Cherie Chalouhi

Nicholas Enna

Nora Fitzgerald

Jennifer Jurek

Ashley King

Steve Krauss

Graham McCarty

JT MGuinness

Kristen Terrana

Supporters

Art Bookout

Corey Buttry

Gail Cassilly & Joan Newman

Max Cassilly

Leanne Costantino

Dustin Curtis

Francesca Domenico

Michele & Charles Hollis

iHeartMedia

Valencio Jackson

Eileen Jurek

Kerrie Keller

Matthew McGloin

Deric McNish

Niles Norton

Michael Perlman

Doug Plummer

Mike Purvis & Stacey Soliwoda

Heidi Rugg

Sarah Schmidt

Margaret Sheehe

Bryant Sterczala

Sue Truman

Penelope Winkler

New Horizons for 2022

Salt Tree Art was born from the vision of a permanent physical space dedicated to the environmental arts. We are thrilled to begin realizing that vision in 2022 with access to land in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. The land provides Salt Tree Art with a foothold in the Berkshires artistic community, as well as a physical space which can be leveraged for the production and performance of environmental art.

Salt Tree Art will maintain its home and its programs within New York City, but will also begin expansion this year by developing new projects and partnerships in Western Massachusetts. We look forward to sharing more information about the land and the ways in which the Salt Tree Art community will have access to and use of the space.