Kathleen Thorne has had a hand in just about every meaningful program in the humanities on Bainbridge Island for the past decade. Starting out as a volunteer at BPA, Kathleen continued to create, direct, present, coordinate or promote humanities programs and events for virtually all our cultural organizations. Her list of accomplishments is both long and breathtaking in its variety: Art News (now Currents), Artists Speak! Roundtable, Arts Walk, Bainbridge Island Chautauqua, Bainbridge and Beyond Reads: Three Cups of Tea, Celluloid Bainbridge—and that’s only through the C’s! If it helps connect Bainbridge with the its past, its future, the world around it, and the times we live in, you can be sure she has been instrumental in it.
In program after program Kathleen has stimulated us to challenge and reassess our opinions, to put our personal values and concerns into a more balanced perspective, and to examine our history and heritage so we can laugh at our parochialism while cherishing our unique shared biography. Because of her we are better able to address the challenges we face within our community and beyond.