A Pile of Props: Paul Fiorino Pushing to Find Home for Nonprofit

Paul Fiorino is standing at the corner of Broadway and Ninth Avenue, next to heap of what might look like trash to many passersby. But to Fiorino, agent for Colorado Arts Consortium and Ballet Arts Theater Denver, the pile is a time capsule of “the cornerstone of the Golden Triangle.”

He’s referring to 899 Broadway, the brick building that since 2005 had housed the Consortium, an educational arts nonprofit founded in 1974 that Fiorino joined fifteen years ago. Weeks ago, the organization was served an eviction notice to make way for a new development; for Fiorino, it brought up memories of 2006,  when the Ballet Arts Theater, another nonprofit he’d joined in 1993, had to move out of the neighboring building – also to make way for a future highrise.

“Developers run this city,” he says, shaking his head. “We couldn’t find someone to come forward and give us a new space.” Still without a home, the Consortium has now cleared out its former spot, leaving an abundance of ballet and arts castaways – old props and programs, furniture, art, crafting supplies and more memorabilia – next to a dumpster. A bulbous head, used as a prop for a Wizard of Oz production, stares at the police officers overseeing the cleanup. Fiorino did find one pleasant surprise: a certified check for $500 that he never cashed.

Fiorino, who has worked as an educator and ballet dancer for decades, believes this eviction is the past repeating itself. He pulls out a faded 2003 Denver Post newspaper clipping that named Colorado last in the nation for arts funding. He pulls out another clipping from a decade later, a front-page story headlined, “Colorado’s unusual cultural ecosystem pushes it to the top of per capita arts attendance in the U.S.”

Shortly after that first story was published, Fiorino ran for governor as part of the Unity Party (he ran an additional three times, and has mounted numerous campaigns for other state and Denver offices). “I decided to run for governor in 2006 to fight this development from all over the state,” he says, claiming he was the first unaffiliated to make the ballot through the petition process. Fiorino has worked in the arts nonprofit world for a long time, doing projects for Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, the now-defunct Alliance for Arts Education, Pueblo Ballet and even the Kennedy Center, he says.

The Consortium and Ballet Arts Theater were able to survive the pandemic through PPP loans, he says, adding that he believes the “little guys” – smaller nonprofits such as these – were given the short end of the stick. “The Consortium could be the SCFD for all the rejects,” he says. “We’d get our $10 or $25,000 grant and we give everybody a couple of bucks. I would love that.”

In the past, the Consortium was able to provide such support, but the last two years made that difficult. “Arts have been made essential because of the pandemic, and that’s what I’m celebrating, frankly,” he says. “People, society, made it into an essential business. That makes advocating for the arts easier.” To him, advocating means “sharing information that’s fair and real.”

And that includes sharing information  – and opinions – on development. “We’re letting the developers still run this city, as far as I’m concerned,” he says. “I just fought the Loretto Heights Campus destruction, which is awful. … We’re still realizing that they, the developers, rule. When the Golden Triangle allows twenty-story buildings – there’s just no more charm.”

Still, he fights on. Among other causes, he’s hoping to help revive the original Elitch Theater in north Denver. “The people in that community want their theater!” he says. “And then the community should take over.”

Other plans include raising funds for the Consortium so that it can support up-and-coming artists and performers; he also has laid out several ballets to pitch to venues. He wants to find the Consortium a permanent home, and says he has been in talks with the Central Presbyterian Church.

And he has more on his mind, including making a new album of his harmonica music and mounting yet another campaign for mayor.

“I’m not nervous, I’m not freaked out,” he says. “I think there’s something that guides us to what we need in this life.”