Council Member Ashley Kierkiewicz - Hawai'i County (HI)
2023 Honoree - County Arts Leadership Award
Council Member Kierkiewicz holds her award along with Americans for the Arts' Jay Dick at Austin's Mexic-Arte Museum.
“We have used art to bring our community together following the 2018 Kīlauea eruption and COVID pandemic. It’s been a vehicle for healing, uplifting diverse voices, and celebrating what makes our island strong and unique. While the arts have positively transformed public space, it transcends murals, grants, and community activations. The artist way is our approach to governance and policy making – we cultivate curiosity, embrace creativity, and champion innovation to create spaces where all can thrive.”
—Council Member Ashley Kierkiewicz - Hawai'i County (HI)
Biography
Born, raised and educated in Hawai’i, Council Member Ashley Kierkiewicz has for the last five years used her community-driven and small business experience to catalyze projects, policies, and programs that uplift the county and its people in a variety of ways including harnessing the power of the arts and the creative economy. During her time on the Council she have enriched lives through installations of public art and creative placemaking experiences.
This includes her personal passion for the arts where she infuses an artist's creative approach to policymaking and projects to uplift the community. They are curious, playful, open minded, sensitive, thorough, and innovative.
Council Member Kierkiewicz was one of only six county teams selected nationally for the 2022 NACo Creative Counties Creative Placemaking Challenge, a year-long program engaging various stakeholders using the arts to solve a unique county problem. She led a team of community stakeholders, lineal descendants, artists, and County departments to complete a creative signage art installation with complementing digital and virtual media to depict the significance of Pohoiki, a historic fishing village and surf locale that was partially inundated by lava during the 2018 Kilauea volcanic eruption.
She also leads a team of artists, engineers, County officials, and more to implement a National Endowment of the Arts Our Town grant. The project will demonstrate diversion of waste plastic from the County landfill and through a process of shredding, molding, and melting, create a new plastic material to be shaped into functional artwork and playground equipment at County parks across Hawai’i Island.
During the pandemic, she co-led creation of a Vibrant Hawaii's Economic Development Strategy, which identifies Creative & Performing Arts as an industry to support because it is conducive to Hawaii's values, culture, and environment. To support implementation of this strategy, she secured $110,000 to launch a micro-investment program that support local residents to pursue actions identified in the strategy.
She is staunch believer in that every person is an artist, creating their grand masterpiece called life. What a great belief and statement.
