Newport Naked Magazine Feature

by Newport Naked Magazine (newportnaked.com) | Winter 2021/22

Check out the magazine online here!(pages 30-31)

“The Newport Tartan is a one-of-a-kind and protected design, exclusive to the city of Newport, Rhode Island, USA. Created by Newport resident Kelley Coen in 2020, The Newport Tartan is much more than a plaid. Beyond the ancient tradition of patterns signifying clans and families, modern tartans have been adopted by municipalities to celebrate community and culture. The Newport Tartan’s colors were carefully chosen to represent the city’s rich and iconic heritage.”

Newport Neighbors Magazine Cover & Article

by Newport Neighbors Magazine (@newportneighboraquidneckliving) | December 1, 2021

Love our dual covers! Thank you to @kelleydco and family for sharing their story with us!!! Check out @thenewporttartan and how it gives back to the community!! Kelley Has been working in the nonprofit community for over 25 years! Recently she received the Boys and Girls Club of America’s 2021 Northeast Outstanding Resource Development Award! Well deserved! @bgcnewport Thanks to @merikeller_ for the beautiful photo taken at Ballard Park.

Newport Tartan Now Nonprofit

By Newport This Week Staff | on September 23, 2021

More than 100 community members gathered on Sept. 15 to celebrate the first anniversary of the inception of the Newport Tartan and announce that the Tartan Fund has established non­profit status.

In 2020, the Newport City Council approved the design by the Newport Tartan as the official tartan of the city. The design was then submitted to the Scottish National Registry and was formally approved. Following the registry, business partners Kelley Coen and Elizabeth Brantingham began the process of having the custom tartan woven in Scotland.

The color and design are in­spired by Newport’s history, orga­nizations and residents. Currently, the group is selling two styles of the lambswool scarves online. A cotton fabric is expected later this fall, which will be used to design various accessories and expand the product line.

The mission of the Newport Tartan is to donate all proceeds from every weave back to the city through scholarships, dona­tions to nonprofits and other civic causes. To date, it has supported the Newport Fireworks fund and is currently working with the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee. A scholarship is planned for a Rogers High School senior with an entre­preneurial spirit and or enrolling in a trade school.

Follow the Newport Tartan on Facebook, Instagram and at www.the­newporttartan.com.

Betty Grauer and Dottie Berube, Mary Hastings and Daniel Fitzgerald (Photos by Andrea Hansen)

Newport to have Official ‘Tartan’

By ohtadmin | on August 13, 2020, in Newport This Week

By James Merolla

Newport has six Sister Cities from New Brunswick to Japan, a St. Patrick’s Day Parade, an Irish Heritage Month, and now its own official, color-coded, authentically approved tartan.

The City Council officially endorsed a resolution introduced by Lynn Ceglie for the creation of a tartan by Newport resident Kelley Coen, director of development of the Boys & Girls Clubs Newport County, on Aug. 12. The council intends to submit the resolution and a letter to the Registry of Tartans in Scotland requesting the Newport tartan be an official tartan within the registry.

Tartan is an ancient tradition identifying and symbolizing families. Many cities and towns have adopted a tartan to symbolize the pride of their tightly-knit communities.

According to the resolution read at the council meeting, Coen envisioned creating a Newport tar-tan for years. The COVID-19 pandemic gave her the time and the creative outlet to design a tar-tan that symbolizes the Newport community. Coen has 25 years of experience in sales and fund-raising, and she has secured the endorsement of the St. Patrick’s Day parade committee.

The finished woolen tartan fabric designed by Kelley Coen will be custom made.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for many, many years,” she said. “I have family who created a tar-tan for the town of Holyoke some years ago. It has become a very rich, prideful tradition of the community. I’ve always said Newport needs tartan and we will do it someday.”

Noting the disappointing cancellation of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade this year, the pandemic gave her time to create with her two teenage daughters. “Next year, we will be able to have this,” she said. “What is very important for the tartan to be accepted is for the city to embrace it, so it can be a symbol and a tradition.”

The production of the tartan would begin with woolen scarves that would be sold to support the parade. Coen says the design is finished, but the actual manufacture of the first scarf must be done overseas and has been a slow process, given the state of the world. All proceeds from eventual production would be reinvested into the community.

Six colors were chosen for the design and woven into a pattern: blue for the ocean, Narragansett Bay, sailing, Colonial Newport and the Navy; green for Irish heritage, historic preservation and the Newport Arboretum; yellow for the Gilded Age and optimism; white for religious freedom, history, goodness and purity; red for Rogers High School and love; and black for Thompson Middle School and African-American history.

The combinations of colors also hold significance. Red, white and black represent Newport Public Schools; red, white and blue are for the American flag; white, blue and yellow are for the Rhode Island state flag; blue and white represent Salve Regina University; and blue, white and yellow are for the Navy flag.

“It was designed not to exclude any groups,” said Coen.