TARA KELLY, Rutland Creative Economy and RAFFL
“What does a community have to offer that is unique enough that someone would choose to be in Rutland, versus Boston or another city?” Tara Kelly asks this question often, and she’s actively pursuing the answers.
As Chairwoman of the Rutland Creative Economy and Executive Director of RAFFL (Rutland Area Food & Farm Link), Tara is engaged daily in developing and growing a “reinvigorated” Rutland from the grassroots up. After spending close to a decade in Oakland, California as an urban planner and civil engineer, Tara chose to come to Rutland in 2003, completely inspired by Rutland’s potential.
Taken by the city’s historic architecture, respect for its past and a willingness to look to the future, Tara saw parallels to her own hometown and upbringing in Watertown, Massachusetts. She understood Rutland’s blue-collar, can-do character and sensed citizens’ interest in change for the better. “Here there’s a lot of opportunity for creativity because there’s so much need and just the willingness for someone that takes initiative to really make a difference. It’s really incredible in that way.”
Tara initially used her skills as Senior Planner with the Rutland Regional Planning Commission, pitching in with on-going efforts to revitalize downtown Rutland. In time, she chose to help bring together and focus broader renewal efforts as an early organizer of the Rutland Creative Economy, the volunteer grassroots organization working to revitalize Rutland’s hart-hit economy through creative thinking and community initiatives.
When the Creative Economy began four years ago, Kelly aimed to help focus the group’s sights on achievable goals. “What are the small things we can do? What are the little wins, the low hanging fruit? What’s the stuff that a community group could work on, and feel some sense of pride and accomplishment and forward movement? That’s how I think you start to turn things around,” she notes. After community-wide discussion and debate, the Creative Economy fixed its sights on four priorities: shifting the “culture” of decision-making in Rutland through community engagement; stimulating local economic development; developing a “sense of place” within the Rutland community; and involving youth in all aspects of Creative
Economy efforts.
The group has managed some big successes in four short years, building confidence and greater community involvement. In season now, Rutland’s Friday Night Live series brings thousands of local people to downtown Rutland every Friday night from June 25th to August 20th for music, food, and local performers. The initiative has brought the community together, and has provided a real economic boost to local businesses.
But another issue, equally close to Kelly’s heart, is promoting Rutland’s local farms and food movement. After leaving the Rutland Regional Planning Commission, Kelly took the helm at the Rutland Area Food and Farm Link, a non-profit organization that helps support local farmers and increases access to local foods “through education of the public and by facilitating new and expanded markets, distribution mechanisms, and processing infrastructure while seeding the region with new farmers.”
The Summer Farmers’ Market has long been one of Rutland’s most popular events, yet many people longed for fresh local food during long winters. The development of a year-round Farmers’ Market was an exciting prospect, and a project that could combine Tara’s RAFFL and Creative Economy interests. In a joint effort, the Farmers’ Market, RCE, RAFFL, the Natural Food Co-op and an array of volunteers established the Indoor Winter Farmers’ Market in Rutland’s old Strand Theater. Now 52 weeks out of the year, Rutlanders have access to fresh, local food - and local farmers, food purveyors and crafts people have a place to sell their wares. Notes Kelly, “It’s the outcome of people coming together and wanting that connection back to the good of farming - to what they know is in their blood in this region. And they see it as part of their future.”
Employing new solutions and creative thinking, both Rutland Creative Economy and RAFFL are leading the way toward Rutland’s future. And they are just two of the efforts that Kelly has had a hand in. But she doesn’t want to rest on past successes and says, “This community is the best place it’s ever been. So we decided it was time to reach back out and say, okay what else? We’ve all been working hard together and working on these issues and we want to make sure that we don’t just then rest on that. So to say what else? What else is out there?”
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