Many of us can remember an idea we half-jokingly started with a group of close friends over a couple of drinks, but many fewer can say they germinated and grew that idea into a thriving nonprofit that contributed to the rebirth and boon of an entire community.

Uriah Donnelly is one of the few to do just that.

“I had no idea what we were doing, and none of us did,” said Donnelly, who founded The Collaborative with friends Adam Tracy and Jeff Danielian, on Monday. “I had never worked in a nonprofit before, so we didn’t really know what we were doing or what it could do. There wasn’t really a map or any long-term goals or plans. It was just, let’s start this thing and see what it can become.”

Eight years later, The Collaborative has become a household name in Warren and the East Bay region as a place where local art comes first, no matter what kind, how technical it is, or who it comes from.

“We just wanted to do cool things and give people a place to showcase the cool things that they do,” Donnelly said. “We hardly ever say no to something creative that someone wanted to do. We’ve never juried art or censored music or did anything to censor someone who wanted to do something creative. I think that was one of our biggest assets.”

While Tracy and Danielian had full-time jobs at the time of The Collaborative’s founding, Donnelly was working part-time as a bartender and adjunct professor at Rhode Island College. Through natural inertia of having the time and energy to take it on, he became the group’s leader. And as the years accumulated, so too did the number of projects The Collaborative took on — from the smallest art galleries featuring work from local students, to the massive Folks Fest that recently rocked 30 Cutler St. earlier this month.

The group recently closed its original gallery location at 498 Main St. to set up shop in its 4 Market St. location, with the hopes to procure a larger space more conducive to the kinds of shows and events they regularly put on.

Throughout its growth as an organization, the Town of Warren has similarly sprang to new life, with an infusion of highly-rated restaurants popping up along its main corridors, fueling a wave of tourism that found the artistic vibe that was being actively cultivated charming, inviting, and worthy of more attention.

“The Collaborative had a big role in drawing attraction to the town and its artistic coolness,” Donnelly said. “I think we started at a time when this town was very different. I think we were part of a change that was naturally happening and helped, in a lot of ways, the town get a sort of newer identity and grow to its potential.”

Stepping down, and finding a replacement
But as the cliche goes, if you really something, sometimes you have to know when to let it go. Donnelly announced he was stepping down as The Collaborative’s executive director in an email to supporters on Monday morning.

“It’s sort of an amalgamation of lots of different things,” Donnelly reasoned. “Maybe the more diplomatic reason is that I feel like I’ve taken the Collaborative to as far as I can take it. I think that with fresh ideas and fresh eyes, it could go even farther and grow more than it would if I sort of stayed with it.”

While Donnelly would never say that his passion for the organization has gone entirely, a recent health setback and the pressures of running the group — combined with the recent opening of his other business, the book shop and snackery located next to The Collaborative’s Market Street home that he operates with his wife, Janet Moscarello — has accumulated into a situation where he felt he wasn’t putting his best foot forward any longer.

“There’s a cliche that goes around in our sector that good leadership knows when to step aside,” he said. “I could continue to do this, but I just don’t feel it. It’s definitely time.”

The Collaborative’s Board of Directors unanimously agreed that Sally Turner, the board’s chairperson since 2019 and the long-time development director for the Steel Yard, a nonprofit industrial arts group out of Providence, would become the new executive director starting in November.

“[Sally] has immersed herself in the Warren community as both a champion for the arts and as a member of the Warren Arts and Cultural Commission, where she serves as Secretary,” Donnelly wrote in his farewell email. “Sally’s Warren roots go back many generations. Once upon a time, she owned and operated a media company here in town, and was one of the early folks helping to organize the Warren Holiday Festival, where she continues as an active volunteer.”

Turner said on Tuesday that she was excited to take on the challenge of growing the original vision for The Collaborative, which she believes in strongly.

“I intend to stay at The Collaborative until I retire,” she said, stating her short- and long-term goals are to find a larger space in Warren to expand programming opportunities, find more artistic collaborators (especially young people through better connections with local schools), grow the group’s Board of Directors, and continue to keep providing an open and accessible space for creative minds of all backgrounds.

“I’m looking to expand the knowledge of what the Collaborative is and what it does to a broader community. And that takes time, it always does,” she continued. “The foundation and ideology behind The Collaborative is sound. I think it’s greatly appreciated, it’s just ready for its next step, and I’m very excited to be able to do that. I’ve been around for a long time and for me, it’s a fun challenge. I love the place, and it loves me back.”

For Donnelly, it is evident in speaking with him that the transition is one that took a lot of soul searching.

“I’m incredibly proud of where The Collaborative is today and I am confident that I’m leaving the organization in great shape,” he wrote. “We’ve certainly come a long way since Adam, Jeff and I sat around a whiskey bottle imagining what something like The Collaborative could do.”
“So, it’s with bittersweet reverence that I say goodbye.”