PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CI LIFE IN KEP HERE AND HIS MONEY HERE, MADE T HERE, WEN G TIM GILL ALL BACK. T A MAN BYHIS G EVEN BECOME AN HIM, HE’S HAVE C AND D ALL LOVES. O SCHOOL O OLORADO TT ENVER REW UP REA T Y HE G EMP T T HIS IVE I HA T G ER T IVEN T F T HE S OR

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Tim Gill is perhaps best known — nationally anyway — as head of the team that developed a page layout software called QuarkXPress, a program used by many designers and art directors to help create magazines like this one. Gill developed the software in the decade after graduating from the University of , and he and business partner Fred Ebrahimi built Quark into a multimillion-dollar computer technology giant, all without leaving his backyard, so to speak.

Born in Indiana, Gill was raised in Lakewood by a physician and a homemaker and was never one for the activities many folks take for granted as part of their daily Colorado lives. Instead, he liked the idea of building, tearing down, refining and inventing machines and processes. While most of his classmates were outside, he was working on the first computers delivered to his school, figuring out how they functioned and developing new ways to make them work for people. This aptitude led him to the N<ËM< University of Colorado and the nascent computer 8CN8PJ9<@CC#  slated to be a short-term loan to buy a printer for THE 9LKEFN his growing business, his parents, he says, “never N<ËI<@E thought they’d see the money again, that personal computers were a passing fad.” He paid them back in 8N<8J?< ART less than a month, and it allowed him some freedom 9<:FD

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ARTISTIC BENEFACTORS Both Gill and Miller are dedicated patrons and collectors of contemporary art, so it makes sense that another beneficiary of the and the Gay & had changed. Terms of the sale were never One of Gill’s main purposes in establishing the Lesbian Fund’s generosity is the Museum released, but company operations stayed in fund was to take steps toward demystifying of Contemporary Art. MCA is the city’s first institution devoted solely to Denver, successfully keeping his hard-earned the words “gay” and “lesbian” and to presenting contemporary art, and the fortune local, even as most of his competitors reflect the ways in which members of the museum recently celebrated its first year in its new David Adjaye–designed facility in and contemporaries were moving to homes on gay, lesbian, bisexual and lower downtown. Over the course of 2008, either coast. community are an integral part of Colorado the museum brought 21 contemporary art and regularly contribute to its betterment. exhibitions to Denver and showcased the work of 29 artists, many of whom made Embellishing an already healthy altruistic side, “The Foundation’s funding and support of a time to come to the museum for lectures Gill created the Gill Foundation in 1994. The variety of causes is so forward-thinking and and other events. money from the sale of Quark allowed Gill to altruistic; it ultimately benefits all citizens,”

Miller’s work with the museum has push his philanthropic efforts further, turning says Eve Powell of the Women’s Foundation been key in attracting cutting-edge his foundation into one of Colorado’s largest of Colorado. “Tim’s philanthropy raises the contemporary work to Denver. An account locally based charitable organizations, reporting bar for charity in Colorado and shows the vice president at UBS Wealth Management, Miller serves on the museum’s board of a staggering $266 million in assets in 2008. The community in general that gays and lesbians directors. He recently initiated a challenge Gill Foundation is based here in Denver because participate in all sectors of society and make grant to secure funds that provided the museum with the opportunity to present that’s the way Gill wants it. He has made millions many contributions to our community.” the work of Damien Hirst, who is regarded and is currently giving them away at a pace not as one of the most successful living artists often seen in the philanthropic world. Some of the organizations strongly supported working today. On display are four works that represent Hirst’s signature “Natural by the Gay & Lesbian Fund include the History” series, his butterfly paintings and He’s taken on this made-in-Colorado, stayed- Denver Zoological Society, the Mizel Museum, his “Medicine Cabinet” series. This solo in-Colorado mindset because he has a life here the American Heart Association, the Anti- exhibition, a Denver first, runs through August 2009. and a home he has created with his domestic Defamation League and nearly every public partner of six years, Scott Miller. radio station in Colorado. Gill’s Foundation “MCA is on the cutting edge of what is already Gill says, “Colorado is home. All my is also a strong supporter of the Children’s an extremely vibrant friends and family are here. And Museum. “The foundation works with us as a arts scene here in anyway, I’m a snowboarder; moving partnership; they don’t just give us a check,” Denver,” Miller says. “Contemporary arts to the coast would rob me of one of says Tom Downey, director of the museum. often force us to open my passions.” “They have helped build our outreach into the our minds and expand GLBT community through a smart, thorough our imaginations. I think that’s good for The Gay and Lesbian Fund for and long-term approach. They truly get it.” us as a community. Colorado was founded in 1996 That’s why Tim and I as a special project to expand his The Gill Foundation is headquartered in a are happy to support the work of MCA and charitable giving and has been refurbished warehouse near Coors Field. “We other similarly situated highly successful, annually granting started renting space in that building when we institutions.” approximately two million dollars relocated to Denver from Colorado Springs,” toward organizations that advance says Gill. “When we outgrew the space, we the quality of life for all Coloradoans bought the building rather than moving. I in areas such as — but not limited love that part of town. And now that Snooze to — arts and culture, healthy families, public is there, it’s even better.” broadcasting and safe schools. The fund was started and named because, as Gill says, “It’s Tim Gill grew up here, went to school here, a way of highlighting another aspect of gay made his money here and kept his life in the people to Coloradoans that may not know city he loves. For all that Denver and Colorado anyone gay — or who think they don’t know have given him, he’s become an even greater anyone gay.” man by his attempts to give it all back. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEAN KAUFMAN