Celia Kutz

Celia’s art is relationships, life and leading by being. She found herself at Arts Letters and  Numbers mid-pandemic through the woven web of old relationships revived when she wanted to leave her previous home of Philadelphia, PA. Her work focuses on the facilitation of groups of humans as they attempt to move through mess with desire, dreams and demons. She is a Core Trainer with Training for Change, nourishing the capacity of social justice organizing and is coordinator of a new project, the Rensselaer Youth Outdoors. Her work today focuses on weaving local threads of past, present and future to make possible a resilient and just community that’ll survive the incoming floods. 

Celia grew up on the land outside of Brockport, NY where she learned how to plant peas, count tadpoles, protect pine trees and nurse baby bats who had fallen out of the nest. Surrounded by small family farms and neighbor-owned forests, she learned a deep respect and reliance on what nature offers so generously. At age 20 she hiked the Appalachian Trail and learnt to love and respect her body’s natural strength and beauty, values she struggled with as a young girl. Soon after she interned with  Sue Morse, one of North America’s top wildlife trackers, and encountered the incredible  influence of citizen science. She also got to meet and learn from a powerful woman who was  leading in the field of environmental conservation.  

Since then Celia has become an experienced facilitator and mentor for young activists and  social justice groups. Committed to listening to all voices, she brings to RYO a passion for  supportive positive change in the community and knows that everyone has something to give.  She’s been fortunate to hike many more trails, study and make plant medicine and is learning  how to responsibly care for the small forest she stewards in the Adirondacks.  

Having lived in a wide range of places – cities, small towns, in the country and in the woods –  Celia chose to work at RYO because she values urban and rural youth and wants to help build  the future where we all can live.  

“Transitioning out of the intensity of COVID, I’m eager to get creative with teachers and to  figure out how RYO can support youth’s well-being in Troy and throughout the county. Now I  have a chance to help other young people develop a deep relationship with nature and the  strength and self-determination that come with it. ”