Meet the Team: Nicole Danti

Tell us a little about yourself. What did you do before joining the Thoma Foundation team?

Prior to joining the Thoma Foundation, I spent much of my career working with nonprofit organizations and running my own design and marketing business. I have worked with national and international organizations, small businesses, and arts institutions developing communications, digital marketing, and content marketing efforts. My education and training as an artist, with both a BA and MFA, allowed me to teach art and design courses at UNM, and spend a great deal of time contemplating and conveying color, line, and form through my painting, sculpture and installation work.

Can you explain a little bit about the type of work you do at TAF?

At TAF I will be implementing and overseeing strategic communications and marketing efforts to expand engagement and exposure for the Foundation. This includes promotion and publicity for our collection loans, grant making efforts, and exhibitions at our Santa Fe spaces, as well as social media and digital marketing plan execution, expansion of our website, and advertising and graphic design.

The Foundation has a wide variety of initiatives and programs we support in the art fields in which we collect. What has been the biggest challenge so far in working with such diverse initiatives and programs? The biggest reward?

The Thoma Foundation takes a comprehensive and deep approach to engagement and education, so there is a lot of information to take in, assimilate, and apply to the communications role. My colleagues are incredibly knowledgeable in their fields, and their willingness to answer my questions and share their knowledge has been essential to my understanding and to the execution of my work in conveying the Foundation’s message.

Do you have a favorite piece of artwork in the collection?

There are so many incredible pieces in the collections. Pressed to choose, I can narrow my current favorites down to two: Offset Circles – Yellow Flowering Tree Against Blue Sky. The purity of shapes in this work and the soft engagement of slow color transformation is both peaceful and exciting. Saint Catherine of Siena speaks of a similar calm/energy in combining simple forms and blocks of bright color.

You are a recent Colorado transplant. Where is your favorite place to see art in Colorado?

A lesser known collection located in a Victorian era hotel and gambling hall in downtown Denver, the Anschutz collection. Despite bearing the moniker “The American Museum of Western Art”, the collection reaches far beyond traditional cowboy art to include American regionalist landscapes and incredible Taos Society paintings. Precious gems of history and beauty of the region are found in this collection.