Jillian Fisher is Kingston’s ambassador

Jillian Fisher salutes while hanging out with re-enactors at last year’s George Clinton commemoration. (Photo by Dan Barton)

Ironically, when the siblings grew up in Uptown Kingston in the 1970s, they always felt like outsiders, Fisher said. “Kingston at that time was a very tight-knit community. We came from the city, and our family did not go back generations,” she said.

She nonetheless has idyllic memories. “My friend Caroline and I would roller-skate to Dallas Hot Wieners and get lunch,” she said. “Parental supervision was not required anywhere.”

She left to attend college in South Florida, where she worked for the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and a regional theater company after graduating. Fisher and her husband, Robert Fisher, a private practicing attorney and assistant district attorney who was then just graduating from law school, returned to Kingston in 1993 to settle down and raise a family. (The couple have two daughters.)  “We bought our first house downtown,” Fisher said. “It was very odd for me to live downtown and not hear the bells of the Old Dutch Reformed Church.”

While housing was cheap, Kingston was not an arts mecca at that time, with a challenging job market. She got a job with Ulster ARC, developing communication tools for developmentally disabled people, helping them find jobs, and eventually helping create those jobs. Meanwhile she joined the board of the fledgling Hudson Valley Film Festival and helped the Woodstock Film Festival get off the ground, working as director of hospitality and travel in its first two years.

Part of her job was locating housing for the participating producers and directors. “I was in some of the most fabulous houses you can imagine, meeting the homeowners and determining which personalities would work best together,” she said.

That experience proved invaluable in wooing producers to Kingston for the shooting of The Sisterhood of Night. The producers were scouting numerous locations when the city clerk forwarded the initial call to Fisher, who subsequently met with one of them and the director three times, showing them the variety of locales in the city. The director fell in love with Kingston, Fisher said, even as a location in Rockland County seemed to have the edge: its proximity to New York City precluded having to lodge the crew, a cost savings. In the end, love — coupled with the efforts of “everyone in Kingston who worked really hard to make it happen” — won out.

Kingston’s small size was a big plus, Fisher said.  “One of the biggest selling points was that every single location was only five minutes away from the next,” she said.

The Holiday Inn negotiated with the producers for the eight-week stay by the cast and crew (six weeks were spent shooting, with the remaining time dedicated to pre- and post-production). Some locations got $500 a day, though the city did not charge any special fees — a controversial practice that Fisher said in this case would have killed the deal. The financial benefits were substantial, with the film calculated to have contributed a million dollars to the city coffers, counting the hotel rooms, meals, rental of facilities at 721 Media Center, and numerous other expenses, according to Fisher.

One long-standing criticism of the city has been its insufficient marketing of its galleries and arts community. Fisher said the city is addressing that problem by forming an arts advisory board, which is seeking representation from a broad range of artists. The purpose of the board is to “work collectively to market the arts as a whole,” she said, noting galleries have to take up that responsibility themselves.

Lack of funds is a perennial challenge. “The City of Kingston doesn’t have enough money to fix its own website,” the inadequacies of which “the mayor is fully aware,” she noted.

Its numerous free events, Fisher said, are yet another plus for Kingston is. Last year’s successful hosting of free movie showings and fitness classes in city parks will be continued this summer. Fisher is also heartened by the fresh approach of its venerable cultural organizations. Friends of Historic Kingston, for example, is reaching out to attract younger members and updating the antiquarian with creative flair. Among its recent events is the erection of streetside sculptures in the shape of historic shopowners, incorporating photographs of their shop interiors and a scarecrow fashion show.

Fisher said businesses closed on Sunday was the biggest impediment to Kingston’s appeal as a destination. “It’s incredibly frustrating to have tourists come and the businesses are closed. Especially in the winter, when the museums are closed, it makes the town look more depressed.” Plus, being open Sunday is a terrific business opportunity, she argued, noting that the example of Edelweiss, which sells handmade soap on John Street, doing “more business on Sunday than the entire week.”

Fisher said she “gives the city 110 percent,” despite her part time compensation. “When I walk down the streets I pick up garbage, because Kingston’s image truly matters to me. If it rains on Saturday at the Kingston farmers’ market, I take it personally.”

Maintaining perspective is helpful. “The things we view as not positive are happening everywhere in the country, and in many places are much worse,” she said. “Sometimes people living here can get jaded. Everyone needs to take ownership.”

On her travels, Fisher is constantly taking photos, getting ideas of how to improve her hometown. “No matter where I am, I consider myself a Kingston ambassador. I’m proud to be so. It’s a labor of love.”