Kalen Jesse Acquisto

Kalen Jesse Acquisto serves many roles in the Denver Fringe Festival organization. Year round she helps promote the festival, develop community partnerships and build relationships. During the festival, she leads our media team of photographers and videographers who cover dozens of shows at performance venues throughout the greater Five Points area, the RiNo Art District, and beyond.

Kalen has devoted much of her professional life to supporting startup organizations, businesses and entrepreneurs. Kalen is also the founder of Kalen Jesse Photography Co. where she fosters connection and community through the art of documentary style photography for life + business. She is the ultimate cultivator and everything she brings her energy to inevitably grows. Fully able to see the big picture and the highest goals of an organization, she is always willing to take on every element necessary to get there, from the smallest task to the most mission critical. She finds a creative solution to every problem and is one-hundred percent devoted to whatever she takes on.

As a collaborator and team member, Kalen is resourceful, intrepid, passionate, responsive and committed. She has been an essential part of getting the Denver Fringe Festival off the ground and growing it to what it has become today. Kalen has the type of pure energy and vision that is unstoppable – when she makes up her mind about something, there is no question it’s happening. She is an exceptional mentor, willing to share her knowledge and experience. If you want your project to succeed, you want Kalen on your team!

The impact that Kalen has had on the Denver Fringe Festival is immense. She has helped to establish and expand numerous community partnerships. Her unbridled enthusiasm for the Denver Fringe festival is contagious. She is the ultimate Fringe ambassador – cultivating involvement in the Fringe from local businesses to staff members to performers. The Fringe festival takes a literal village to pull off, and she gets everyone excited to be a part of that village.

We are so incredibly fortunate to have Kalen as a central part of our organization. Her dedication to equity and opportunity for everyone has helped to infuse the Denver Fringe Festival with a loving, inclusive ethos. She is dedicated to making Denver a more vibrant and equitable place, and we are lucky to have someone with her leadership skills involved in cultivating the arts.

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*Each organization nominated their honoree with an essay. Those essays are posted here, as submitted, to maintain the organization's unique voice and authenticity.

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