Special Programs

PlatteForum, Denver’s premier nonprofit arts and youth organization, is seeking 15 individuals, businesses or group of individuals to donate $1500 each to support 15 ArtLab youth involved with PlatteForum.

Among the challenges ArtLab youth face are homelessness, teenage parenthood, recent refugees, family violence, substance abuse, gang membership, cultural clashes and being wards of the state. The students come from low-income families (80% free and reduced lunch) and are enrolled in low performing, unsatisfactory-progress high schools. ArtLab uses the creative process as a means for youth to rise above these challenges.

It can be said without a doubt: the youth involved in the ArtLab program personally grow by leaps and bounds. They gain an understanding of their sense of self, enhance their life skills, learn critical thinking and experience a tremendous growth in personal assets.  ArtLab students learn to value a depth of character comprised of integrity, rigor and consistency.  They know from their shared experience at PlatteForum they can always strive higher, farther and deeper than they have in the past. They see each other as true comrades in every sense of the word and become a family. An understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses enables them to rise above and accomplish more than they ever thought possible.  PlatteForum encourages student success through a multitude of projects completed over the year.  ArtLab students acknowledge they experience invaluable changes because of the program.

A Critical Element
ArtLab youth are paid a stipend during the school year and wages in the summer intensive.  They would not be able to participate without this income support. ArtLab youth must help contribute to expenses at home. This is a reason youth drop out of school and do not see college as a possibility.  In addition, communities of color and those living in poverty are bearing the brunt of high unemployment.  It is critical to keep kids in school and provide them with personal and professional development opportunities.

Grad Nation(Feb 2008) reports that compared to high school graduates, high school dropouts are eight times more likely to be in jail or prison and twice as likely to slip into poverty.  Of all 50 states, Colorado has the highest achievement gap. Students of color and high-need are least likely to graduate from high school. A 2008 study ranks the dropout rate in Denver Public Schools as one of the worst in the nation with 47% graduating on time(America’s Promise Alliance).

At PlatteForum, ArtLab youth are hungry for every opportunity to help achieve their dreams. Through your support you can make a profound impact on their lives.

To donate contact: Trish Thibodo, Executive Director, 303-893-0791
For more information about the youth and this program

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PlatteForum's Urban Garden:  The Before


PlatteForum has the benefit of being in an amazing location in the heart of downtown, a vibrant urban community.  In the summer of 2007 we moved into a larger location that included the addition of a courtyard.  When we moved in we had visions of creating a warm and welcoming extension of what was happening indoors into the courtyard. Currently, the front courtyard is a relatively blank canvas, with little in the way of interest, color and warmth—all hard surfaces and harsh lines. The cold and practically bare courtyard certainly isn’t a reflection of the warmth and creativity waiting inside PlatteForum.   

Enter Ebi Kondo and Mark Fusco (Senior Horticulturalist with the Denver Botanic Gardens) with an idea of transforming the courtyard into a dynamic urban garden. They were quickly joined by landscape architects Courtney McRikard and Lori Catalano of Three Sixty Design, Michael Catalano of Siteworks, Nancy Locke and Suzanna Serna of EDAW, artist Joshua Wiener (who was be a Josh Wiener in spring 2009), volunteer Amy Schneider, and Eagle Scout Candidate, Tim Topper, whose Eagle Badge Project culminated in the construction of three large-scale hypertufa planters. When completed, the courtyard will reflect and enhance the creation and transformation that takes place at PlatteForum.  It will included stadium seating, a worktable, moveable large sculptural planting containers, a warm mixture of plantings, and sculptural entrance with a commitment to environmentally responsible choices in material and practices. All designed and built by volunteers. A special thanks goes to Concrete Express and Arvada All-Rents. To be involved in the garden project, please contact Trish Thibodo as spring planiting is coming!

Ponderosa Pine            200-250 years old
On Friday, May 1, Ebi Kondo, Senior Horticulturist from the Denver Botanic Gardens, planted an incredible Ponderosa Pine in one of our sculptural planter in our courtyard. The tree was harvested from the Colorado foothills by Denver Botanic Garden volunteer and donated to PlatteForum by Larry A. Jackell. The Japanese term for this characterpine is “yamadori” which means harvested from the mountains. Although it resembles a bonsai with its twisting forms and small size, it is a true Ponderosa Pine. Mr. Jackell received a permit to harvest it from the foothills where it was growing in a crack between two granite rocks. Thus its tortured look resembling a bonsai. The Japanese translation of bonsai is: bon: tray; sai: planting. Where western gardens favor the leaves and flowers, Japanese gardens value the trunk, branches and roots.

December 1, 2009: PlatteForum has received a grant from the Colorado Garden Show, Inc to support the continued growth of our garden this coming summer. Yes!

Ebi Kondo installs a Ponderosa Pine donated by Larry A. Jackel in one of the new hypertufa planters.