Board of Directors
Cary A. Thrall | Creative Executive Director | Lead, SD
Cary A. Thrall is an artist, educator, and changemaker who has aligned her passions and skill sets to develop community artworks that weave people and places together. Her work demonstrates how interconnected we truly are. Cary seeks community members to work with each time she connects with a town. In her process, she mentors those individuals as they become part of a team. Cary also works with emerging and professional artists with her projects. Her work spans communities throughout the Black Hills and Central South Dakota. During each project, Cary coordinates with communities to tell their story by working with unique groups. She collaborates with participants during multiple touchpoints that create a series of engagement events culminating with a final showcase work. She always focuses on supporting people, deep and wide.
Maria Grosek | Board Chair | Colorado Springs, CO
Maria Grosek was born and raised in the beautiful Blacks Hills of South Dakota. During her undergrad experience at Gonzaga University and yearlong volunteer endeavor with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, she realized her passion for social justice and working with children and adults with developmental disabilities. For the past 15 years, Maria has worked as an occupational therapist where she strives to empower and guide families to embrace and support their children’s unique developmental journey. In addition, Maria has volunteered in her community by decorating bags and delivering food to individuals with terminal illness. She is an active member of her local church and volunteers in religious education youth programs and provides meals and fellowship to homeless families. Maria lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and three children. She loves spending time with her kids and attending all their activities as well as hiking, camping and backpacking. Maria is honored to be a part of this organization and its vision.
Sarah Anderson | Board Co-Chair | Spearfish, SD
Leveraging her expertise in grant writing, Sarah works with local, state and federal governments and nonprofits to seek and secure both public and private financial opportunities for projects that protect and restore natural resources and revitalize communities. Sarah received her B.S. in environmental science from Colorado and M.S. in biography from South Dakota. A native to the Black Hills of South Dakota, Sarah has traveled the world to explore different cultures and landscapes. She values sustainable outdoor recreation and community connectiveness.
Passionate about natural resource sustainability, Sarah represents the interest area of State, County, Locally Elected and Appointed Offices in Wyoming on the National Forest Advisory Board, which provides advice and recommendations on programs and projects that may have forest-wide implications, such as USFS Forest Plan revisions and amendments, travel management, forest health, monitoring and evaluation, recreation fees, and site-specific projects. Sarah also serves on the Black Hills Christian Academy Board where she provides guidance and recommendations on educationally based initiatives and helps identify grant funding opportunities to better equip students to impact the world for Christ. Sarah joined the Creative Explorations team to help bridge connectivity opportunities amongst communities and to augment funding prospects.
Rachel Lovelace-Portal | Secretary | Queensbury, NY
Rachel Lovelace-Portal is a museum professional with a passion for caring for museum collections and making them accessible to the public. She is the registrar and collections manager at The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York, where she manages the museum’s art collection. Before that, she held positions as curator of collections for Deadwood History, Inc. in Deadwood South Dakota, and curator at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She holds a B.A. in English and History from Southern Adventist University and a M.A. in Public History from Appalachian State University. She also previously served on the board for makeSPACE in Spearfish, South Dakota, where she has assisted with grant writing and planning equity focused book study groups. While not a professional artist, she enjoys many creative hobbies including embroidery, crocheting, painting, block printing, and sewing. Over the past few years, Rachel has been cultivating a more holistic lifestyle including hiking, exercising, meditation, and cooking healthy food.
Casey Burrus | Treasurer | Burke, SD
Professionally, Casey is not an artist. She brings with her fourteen years of experience working in county government in the County Equalization Office as a Certified Assessor Appraiser and also filled the role of County Planning and Zoning Administrator for 8 years.
Personally though, Casey is an active member in her community and has helped Burke Business Development write and obtain grants to provide websites for businesses, as well as sat on the board for Burke Business Development to help businesses obtain funding and support. She was one of the founding board members for the Burke Daycare and is currently the sec/treas of the daycare. While employed by the county, she obtained a grant to build the Gregory County website.
Casey is active with South Dakota Specialty Producers and is on the Executive Team as the Secretary. The organization promotes local foods and specialty crops and educates potential producers on how to succeed in the specialty crop market. Casey has written block grant applications to help fund the organization's goals. Casey is also a Bush Foundation Change Network Member and has worked to obtain grants to help fund art and community projects within Gregory County. This undertaking has included musical events, speakers, and bringing in an artist to work with locals in the community to create an art installation.
Casey loves rural living and has dreams of bringing more art and culture to the small towns and communities to help bring people closer together.
Celeste Lee | Board Member | Lead, SD Chadron, NE
Celeste is the owner/operator of a small painting business in Chadron, Nebraska who has spent a lifetime serving the communities of which she has been a part. Currently she is serving as a volunteer with the Red Ribbon Skirt Society (RRSS) providing support services to families of MMIW and educational outreach to impacted communities. She is a support team navigator for Completing the Circle, a project of the RRSS, concentrating on strategies to reduce runaways in the Greater Black Hills. Her previous service activities include the following: co-founding Maasai Development Project, a Kenya-based NGO, focused on literacy and reducing the scourge of childhood marriage and FGM, among members of the Maasai ethnic group; founding Abundant Life Ministries, a non-profit, providing education on health and wellness through outreach via public presentations, production of written materials and broadcasting; and serving, as a judge, on a SD Arts Council panel evaluating arts-related grant proposals. In 2020, she graduated from Chadron State College, with a BA in Communications and a minor in Nutrition and Wellness.
Celeste loves to create. In her business, she collaborates with owners, to transform the spaces she paints into works of art. She has authored a published book and a number of pamphlets on health/wellness. And she has spent countless hours creating various artisanal crafts.
Celeste grew up in the Southern Black Hills and now splits her time between Chadron and the Northern Black Hills of South Dakota.
Creative Explorations honors our friend, mentor and former Board Chair Stan Goodshield Hawkins. It is with deep sadness that we share Stan made his voyage to the spirit world in June, 2023.
Stan was an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He operated his creative company, Black Hawk Creations from the Racing Magpie Studios in Rapid City, SD. He created Native regalia, jewelry and wooden pieces. Black Hawk Creations products had become a known regional brand. The experience and inspiration Stan had from prior vocations were all combined to make products of the highest caliber. Stan produced art that he considered a traditional style. That's left room for interpretation to add his ideas into the design. Stan made Native American art while honoring Grandmother Earth.
Research, honoring elders and fellow artists was part of his construction process. Stan took great care in his work. It has been recognized in arts showcases and events. Stan’s work placed first in Native Pop, an annual Rapid City, SD arts and culture showcase. Stan was a mentor and teacher and had offered several demonstrations at Oglala Lakota College He Sapa center over the last several years.
December 23, 1952-June 21st, 2023
Stan Hawkins | Former Board Chair | Rapid City, SD
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
~Margaret Mead