ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Jolene Kelly accepts praise from Lynn Museum Director Drew Russo at her goodbye party.
By STEVE KRAUSE
LYNN — Jolene Kelly only worked as operations manager for LynnArts for three years. But judging from the response from people who stopped by the Exchange Street building to say their goodbyes, she touched a lot of lives positively.
Kelly will be leaving next month to go to Wyoming, where her husband, Ken Coder, will be working at Laramie County Community College. Her departure will leave a tremendous void, friends and co-workers say.
“Aside from the absolute dedication to everything that went on at LynnArts, Jolene is the sparkle of the downtown area,” said Drew Russo, director of the Lynn Museum, which encompasses LynnArts. “She was such a vital part of the downtown community, and she added so much to it.”
Though Kelly worked officially for LynnArts, she was known just as much for what she did outside the building — such as walking dogs, getting to know people from all walks of life (including some of the homeless people in the downtown area), and, last month, helping to organize a clothing drive after a large apartment building on West Baltimore Street.
“The downtown area is in every fiber of her being,” said Russo. “Sometimes, it amazes me that she didn’t grow up in Lynn because she seems to be such a large part of it.”
For her part, Kelly, who did everything from supervising building maintenance to planning and scheduling exhibits, isn’t one to take credit.
“I like to think I do what needs to be done,” she said after accepting citations from Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, Lynn City Councilor Brian LaPierre and State Rep. Brendan Crighton.
She’s a firm believer that nothing gets done without lots of help. For example, she says she’s indebted to Joe Scanlon and Steve Babbitt of the Lynn Museum and the Friends of Lynn Woods for their help during the winter of 2015.
“So many things went wrong with the building,” she said. “And they were invaluable.”
Kelly has lived in many places, “but Lynn is one of the few places that I really consider home,” she said.
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Annette Sykes, chairwoman of the Curatorial Committee at the museum, worked closely with Kelly and called her “a very inviting person who creates a true sense of community. She brings people together, and that’s a true gift.”
And Yetti Frankel, a longtime artist in residence at LynnArts, said Kelly was “a character in her own way, and she really cares about the people in the building.”
Haley Sullivan will serve as interim operations director when Kelly leaves.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].
