Ahead of Pride Month, Rutland Hangs Banners Celebrating Inclusion

Ahead of June's LGBTQ+ Pride Month, community members in Rutland, Vermont, are sending a message that all are welcome in their city.

"I think it's going to make Rutland a better place," predicted Karly Haven of the nonprofit group Queer Connect Rutland, which is one of the grassroots organizations working to create a Pride celebration for June in Rutland.

Community NewsDowntown RutlandMay 28, 2021Downtown Rutland, Social Tinkering, Rutland Pride, Rutland Vermont, Downtown Rutland Vermont, Queer Connect

Sculpture to Trailblazing Black College President Dedicated in Vermont City

According to organizers of the Downtown Rutland Sculpture Trail, Freeman was among the very first Black students to go to college in Vermont. He went on to become a leading abolitionist and even the first Black man to lead a college in the United States as president — before the Civil War.

Community NewsDowntown RutlandMay 13, 2021Rutland Sculpture Trail, Downtown Rutland Sculpture, Rutland Vermont, Downtown Rutland Vermont, Martin Henry Freeman

Celebrate National Poetry Month in Downtown Rutland

Celebrate Poetry & Earth Month all April long by rediscovering your sense of place among the pop-up poetry path created by The Paper Poet in collaboration with Phoenix Books Rutland and Downtown Rutland Partnership. Over 30 poets have 70+ poems on display in 17 downtown Rutland businesses. Poems are on display through the first week of May. You are invited to celebrate by following the green signs and reading the poems in the window fronts.

Community NewsDowntown RutlandApril 7, 2021Downtown Rutland, Downtown Rutland Vermont, The Paper Poet, Poetry, Pop Up

Rutland artist paints massive BLM mural

Titled “We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest Until it Comes,” the mural is 60-feet high at its tallest point and it is painted on the back wall of the former Strand Theater overlooking Center Street Marketplace Park. The title is from a song composed by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, founding member of Sweet Honey in the Rock and inspired by Ella Josephine Baker, a civil rights leader and mentor with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Community NewsDowntown RutlandJuly 15, 2020LMNOPI, Downtown Rutland, Downtown Art, MKF Properties, Mark Foley, Rutland Mural, Downtown Rutland Mural, Downtown Rutland Vermont, Vermont Mural, Vermont Artist

Art and stone: Rutland and Barre create a living legacy

Barre and Rutland, two cities with extraordinary stone history, are equally busy building new monuments to create sculpture walks for their communities.

Community NewsDowntown RutlandFebruary 19, 2020Rutland Sculpture Trail, Downtown Rutland, Carol Driscoll, Carving Studio, Mark Foley, Steve Shaheen, Vermont Quarries, Amanda Sisk, Evan Morse, Don Ramey, Sean Williams, Rutland Vermont, Downtown Rutland Vermont

Rutland celebrates 60 years of Halloween parade

The Rutland Halloween Parade celebrated 60 years of float making and community fun in Downtown Rutland on Saturday, October 26th, 2019.

Community NewsDowntown RutlandOctober 28, 2019Rutland Vermont, Downtown Rutland, Downtown Rutland Vermont, Rutland Recreation, Halloween Parade, Rutland Halloween Parade

Rutland City firefighters to take part in Storytime

This year’s Friday Night Live Storytime will feature members of the Rutland City Fire Department reading from their favorite children’s books.

Community NewsDowntown RutlandJuly 12, 2019Phoenix Books RutlandCity of Rutland Fire Department, Rutland City Fire Department, Phoenix Books, Phoenix Books Rutland, Downtown Rutland, Friday Night Live, Rutland VT, Rutland Vermont, Downtown Rutland Vermont

Building a bridge between art and community

77 Art Center, now located at the Opera House on Merchants Row, will welcome 42 national and international artists to Rutland over the course of three month-long sessions — 14 each in June, August and October — a 600% expansion from its pilot year in 2018.