BRATTLEBORO-It was a night to honor the creative economy as the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce (BACC) shined a spotlight on that sector in its annual awards ceremony on Sept. 11 at the Brattleboro Country Club.
Tom Bodett, co-founder of HatchSpace, was presented with BACC's Person of the Year award, while Randi Solin and Natalie Blake of Fire Arts Vermont were named BACC's Entrepreneurs of the Year and Next Stage Arts in Putney was honored as BACC's Member of the Year.
All three entities represent different elements of the creative economy in and around a community that some have called one of the best small arts towns in the United States. But they all have one thing in common: namely, a willingness to take risks and persevere to transform their ideas into reality.
Carving out space for a dream
BACC Executive Director Greg Lesch said Bodett received the Person of the Year award for "his love for and investment in Brattleboro, and commitment to building community, entrepreneurship, and keeping the industrial arts alive and thriving for future tradespeople."
Bodett came to southern Vermont in 2002 after a life that took the Michigan native and college dropout on a journey that started with becoming a self-taught carpenter building houses in Alaska, to becoming a writer and audio essayist on public radio and, most recently, to turning his love of woodworking into HatchSpace, a place where all ages and genders learn the industrial arts.
His time in Vermont is highlighted by serving on the Dummerston Selectboard, by being a partner in Hazel, a restaurant that operated on Elliot Street, and by taking part in a couple of downtown renovation projects.
But HatchSpace is Bodett's pride and joy.
HatchSpace opened in 2019 and, with more and more people wanting to learn woodworking, quickly outgrew its space in the Mocha Joe's coffee roasting building on Frost Street. Two years later, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bodett and his wife, Rita Ramirez, bought the former Midtown Mall building on High Street with a eye toward making it a downtown creative arts center.
Today, the building, now known as High Street & Green, is home to not just HatchSpace but also the Vermont Center for Photography, First Proof Press, Wheelhouse Clay Center, Brattleboro Community Radio (WVEW), and A Vermont Table, a catering operation.
"I feel more positive than ever that the investment, time, and energy of my own, and the people who have built this with me, has been very well spent," Bodett said on receiving the award.
Staying the course
For Solin, a glassblower, and Blake, a ceramicist, receiving the Entrepreneurs of the Year Award was recognition for, as Lesch put it, "having the vision, fortitude, and talent to build an enterprise that not only satisfies their artistic needs but enhances the local economy and business community of which they are part."
The saga of how the duo struggled to find a site for their studios and gallery in Brattleboro sounds like the plot of a Hallmark movie. Their first potential site turned out to be contaminated by industrial waste. They came within minutes of closing an alternate site when another buyer outbid them for the building. An attempt to partner with the town to put their studio in a former railroad building off Bridge Street was unworkable.
Finally, the former home of Tom & Sally's Handmade Chocolates - a drab metal building on Route 30 - became available. It was not what they originally had in mind, but what they turned into Fire Arts Vermont ended up being both an artistic and financial success.
"Last year alone, some 35,000 people paid a visit and, today, they employ some 10 workers between them, not counting the café, which is owned by a former glassblower who had for a while leased time in Randi's studio," Lesch said.
"Each of them has known great commercial success and are in collections all over the world," he continued. "Natalie recently completed a large commission for an enormous hotel in Dubai, and Randi's work may be seen in nine world embassies."
In an age where the digital realm threatens to overwhelm the traditions of making things by hand, Blake cited the imperative need "that we stay the course and we connect as community members."
Creating a community hub
Next Stage Arts' Member of the Year Award also validated a journey nearly as arduous as the one taken by Fire Arts.
When declining membership forced the United Church of Putney to dissolve in 2008, the question emerged of what would become of a historic building with many needs and few resources to maintain it.
Following a pair of devastating fires to the Putney General Store across the street, a group of Putney residents came together with the idea to turn the old church into a performing arts venue and community center.
Nearly $2 million was raised to redo the old church's upstairs sanctuary into a 200-seat performance space, with a visual art gallery, commercial kitchen, community room, and green room for the performers in the lower level. An elevator rounded out the extensive renovations.
Next Stage's first executive director, Maria Basescu, established the venue as a viable site for the performing and visual arts. Its current executive director, Keith Marks, has built upon that foundation.
Marks joined Next Stage just as the pandemic was beginning. Former BACC Executive Director Kate O'Connor said Marks used the forced hiatus to "immerse himself in the organization's finances, and he got to experience the deep sense of community of which he and his family were now part."
The Bandwagon Summer Series, which began as some outdoor concerts in Putney adapting to pandemic safety protocols, now presents performances in locations around Windham County and has brought a diverse and eclectic menu of music to local audiences.
"Keith's love of people, his ability to cultivate strong relationships through networking, and his affiliations with other organizations all contributed to his ability to get the best performers," O'Connor said.
Marks said Next Stage is able to survive due to the generosity of the community, as well as the belief that programming needs to have meaning and relevance in to order to be supported.
"In no way is it a handout" to support the arts, Marks said. "We feel there is a return on investment to the community."
Other honorees
The Chamber also honored local businesses and nonprofits among its membership that are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year.
Those members included:
• Theatre Adventure and Vermont Independent Media, the publisher of The Commons (20 years)
• Kitchen Sync (30 years)
• School for International Training (60 years)
• Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (70 years)
• Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend (75 years)
• Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (120 years).
This News item by Randolph T. Holhut was written for The Commons.