Celebrating Beauty, Generosity, and Friendship: Hunt Slonem in the Giving Tuesday Spotlight
During this Giving Tuesday celebration, Thrive For Life Prison Project, a national Catholic prison ministry, is honored to recognize the extraordinary generosity, vision, and friendship of Hunt Slonem, the world-renowned neo-impressionist artist, whose life’s work has brought beauty, joy, and wonder into spaces across the globe.
Hunt’s generosity toward Thrive For Life has been nothing short of transformative. Through his artistic brilliance—his paintings, his signature bunnies, birds, and butterflies, his furniture, and his interior sensibilities—Hunt has made beautiful the Houses of Studies entrusted to Thrive For Life Prison Project throughout the country. These residences serve highly committed, motivated individuals who want to continue their education post-release, and the environments Hunt has helped shape have become places of dignity, inspiration, and hope for men rebuilding their lives.
This impact has been deepened through Hunt’s cherished friendship and collaboration with Judy Miremont-Vitanza, herself a devoted philanthropist and partner in mission. Both Hunt and Judy are generous supporters of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and together, they have become major donors and ambassadors for Thrive For Life Prison Project. Their shared love for the Church, their artistic and philanthropic partnership, and their friendship with His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, have helped propel Thrive For Life’s national mission forward in remarkable ways.
Because of Hunt and Judy’s collaboration, their commitment to Cardinal Dolan, and their capacity to galvanize a remarkable community of partners and supporters, Thrive For Life has been able to take a bold step forward with the launch of The Cardinal’s Café at Thrive For Life’s Abraham House in the South Bronx. The Cardinal’s Café will be far more than a space for coffee—it will be a center for job training, workforce development, and life-skills formation for justice-impacted men and women returning from incarceration. It will serve the local neighborhood as a place of welcome, formation, growth, and service—helping each participant grow into “men and women for others” through vocational training and pathways into the trades.
A sampling of Hunt’s beautiful artwork, some of which Thrive For Life has the privilege of displaying in our houses of study.
The launching of the Cardinal’s Café, like the beautification of our houses of studies, has been made possible by the generosity, creativity, and leadership that Hunt brings to every endeavor. His art and design sensibilities have transformed spaces where our scholars live, study, and rebuild their lives. His partnership with Judy has inspired and mobilized others—family, friends, and colleagues—to join this mission, creating a network of support that has fueled Thrive For Life’s national expansion and strengthened our work both behind and beyond the prison walls.
Today, on this Giving Tuesday, Thrive For Life Prison Project wishes to give back—to give back our profound gratitude to Hunt Slonem and Judy Miremont-Vitanza for their transformative generosity, their deep love for Cardinal Dolan, and their unwavering commitment to our mission and our national ambitions.
Their partnership continues to transform lives both behind and beyond the prison walls, and we are honored to walk this path of restored dignity, beauty, and hope together.
