We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kierra Aiello. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kierra below.

Kierra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I am fortunate enough to have worked on many meaningful projects in my life, from collaborating with women artists experiencing poverty, to increasing environmental sustainability efforts at the Denver Art Museum, and much more. However, I would like to focus on a project from earlier this year. I played a very small role, and the impact was relatively small, but it meant so much to the youth that participated.

For context, as I started sixth grade at West Middle School in Grand Junction, Colorado, I began to play the cello. I loved it. As my interest increased, I continued to practice, working out of Suzuki books and into cello suites and sonatas. In high school, myself and a select few classmates auditioned and made it into the Colorado All State Orchestra, I played with the local college orchestra every week (then Mesa State College, now Colorado Mesa University), and eventually even performed with the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra. These group opportunities were amazing, and built more skills than I realized at the time, but I wasn’t standing in front of an orchestra playing a solo.

One year, however, my orchestra conductor and cello teacher, Cameron Law, arranged a Vivaldi concerto to be played by the top three cellists in our class. Here it was, the opportunity to perform beautiful music with a full orchestra at our backs. We played the piece at our school concert, as well as the Colorado American String Teachers Association meeting in Colorado Springs. For a true “orch dork” like myself, this was a truly amazing experience. I felt empowered, validated, and confident in the skills I had practiced so hard to realize. From there, I went on to study music at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, and I now perform in various local groups, including the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra and the source of my most recent meaningful project, The Wild Beautiful Orchestra (WBO).

In January 2022, WBO gathered to perform a showcase where the soloists were none other than elementary through high school students. The students could audition with whatever piece they liked. Following their acceptance, WBO Executive Director, Chappell Kingsland, and musician, Evan King, made arrangements for all of the songs that weren’t originally written to be performed with full orchestra. By the end, there were 14 youth soloists performing everything from the theme from The Mandalorian and Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” to Boccherini, songs from Aladdin and Hamilton, and more.

Each of the students were given time to shine in front of an orchestra, performing a work they love and worked hard to master. I was simply the cellist in the orchestra, but having any small part in giving these youth a possibly transformative musical experience was rewarding beyond belief. Seeing the faces of proud parents and mentors as the soloist nailed the tricky part, watching the student as they hit the last note and looked out into the audience – these are wonderful moments that I hope they remember as fondly as I will.

http://www.wildbeautifulorchestra.org/outreach.html

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Born and raised in Colorado, I attended the University of Denver after completing high school in Grand Junction, Colorado. Undergraduate degrees in music and art history, a master’s degree in art history with a museum studies concentration, an internship at the Smithsonian Institution, a volunteer position at the Clyfford Still Museum, and a semester abroad in France all prepared me for a career in the art community.

I am currently the Manager of Institutional Giving at the Denver Art Museum. As part of the development department, I work with our corporate members and sponsors to maintain their partnerships and build revenue that supports world-class exhibitions and programming for all ages. In high school and college, I knew I wanted to work in a museum. I was not fully aware of the variety of career paths that exist in museums, but I saw a future in that space. In college, I started in the gift shop at the Denver Art Museum, and over the past seven years, I was able to intern with the Fashion and Textiles Curatorial department and work in art collections and exhibitions, refining my passion and skills to determine the most fulfilling career path. Once I settled on development, I introduced myself to everyone in the department, asked for informational interviews, and landed a position.

Previously, I worked as the Manager of Art Restart, a social enterprise of The Gathering Place (TGP), a daytime shelter for women, children, and transgender individuals located near Colfax and High Street. I collaborated with women experiencing poverty to develop and sell artistic products. Each purchase equaled a royalty check for the artist, putting them on a path to self-sufficiency and providing validation of their skills. The remainder of the proceeds went back to TGP, which provides programs such as high school equivalency classes, childcare, job search assistance, food, and much more. One of my greatest achievements in that position was curating Shifting Outlines, an exhibition of artworks created by women experiencing poverty, hosted at Leon Gallery.

Outside of work, I serve on the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Alumni Council with the University of Denver and play cello with the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra and other small music groups, including the Strings of Brigid. Although not an artist by trade, I find time to dabble in creative projects and can frequently be seen at gallery openings in Denver. With any additional spare time, I enjoy traveling, making cocktails with friends, and exploring many of the outdoor activities the state has to offer, including hiking, biking, and park picnics.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Art creates environments that support growth, empathy, agency, and diversity. It does not accomplish this through workshops and training, but through color, form, sound, and light. Being a creative means that you have a say in the culture and environment around you, and that can be quite powerful. It can be argued that everyone has the ability to do this, and to me, that simply means that everyone is an artist. We curate our social media feeds, build our workout playlists, and design our home and work spaces, surrounding ourselves with different types of creativity.

In my mind, the best part of being a creative is the confidence that you have an impact. I know playing certain kinds of music will make my guests feel more comfortable, that buying and hanging works by previously overlooked artists will both beautify my space and provide them with needed revenue, and that I can support a thriving community by working in an arts nonprofit. In small ways such as these, we can all help build the environment and society we want to see.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

The resource that comes to mind is the Colorado Nonprofit Association job board. It’s a simple thing, but we all need to pay the bills, and that means getting a job. However, that doesn’t mean you have to get a job in Corporate America. This job board is full of positions that support the community across Colorado. You can search by job type and region, and you know that every position will support a nonprofit organization.

https://coloradononprofits.org/careers/nonprofit-jobs

P.S. This job board is doubly great if you are trying to work in nonprofits so that you qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and have your federal student loans forgiven!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @artandfrugality
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierra-aiello-966338a0/