Vannessa Pillen, left, and Mandi Maiore own the Dance Sanctuary in Saranac Lake and are opening a satellite studio in the Tupper Arts center, for kids and adults in this town to have dance lessons close to home. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

TUPPER LAKE — The Tupper Arts center on Park Street will open Tuesday with a gala kicking off the 45th annual Tupper Lake Arts Show.

The center will be open to the public Wednesday with more than 50 artists’ work on display.

The top floor of the 9,000-square-foot building will be packed with paintings, sculptures and photos from Tupper Lake artists, high school students and craftspeople.

The opening gala will feature jazz singer Cole Rumbough, a New York City performer who sings smooth songs from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. The arts show will run through Aug. 25.

Tupper Arts Director Louise McNally is excited to see her dream of a Tupper Lake arts hub finally coming to fruition. McNally picked up the responsibility of organizing the arts show after the Tupper Lake Arts Council lost its nonprofit status. She started Tupper Arts in its stead.

The arts center will feature a shop for artists to sell their pieces, a studio for dance lessons, musical and dramatic performances, yoga, and several classrooms for painting, quilting and pottery for people of all ages and skills.

The main room, which McNally described as “a big, white box,” can be reconfigured to whatever it needs to be, and she plans to host several concerts, plays, classes and social groups a month in the space.

McNally was most excited that Saranac Lake’s Dance Sanctuary, run by Mandi Maiore and Vannessa Pillen, is opening a satellite studio at the center, giving Tupper Lake dancers a place in their hometown to learn and practice salsa, hip-hop, ballet, tap and other styles of dance.

Maiore and Pillen started the Dance Sanctuary two years ago after a hurried month of renovations to the Main Street, Saranac Lake, studio. They said they have always wanted to open a second location to service the Tupper Lake area.

The two, who have four children each, met at a moms’ group after moving to Saranac Lake in the same month, and they found out they both shared a lifelong dream of opening a dance studio.

The dance community they attracted grew rapidly, to the point that their spring recital this year had more than 200 kids and adults performing and hundreds more in the audience. The Tupper Lake program will have two semesters, starting in September, and its own recital in May.

The idea for a partnership between Tupper Arts and the Dance Sanctuary came from Tupper Laker Lilian Rohrbach, who drives her daughter out to Saranac Lake for lessons. She talked with McNally about collaborating, and McNally jumped at the idea.

Maiore and Pillen believe there are many people, especially kids, can learn through the art of dance. They offer parent/child classes where parents, even pregnant mothers, can bond with their children through exercise and art, private wedding sessions for couples who want to look coordinated on their big day, and one-on-one classes for kids with autism, teaching them structured body movements and social skills through dance.

They consider themselves partners with the community.

“Part of the name ‘The Dance Sanctuary’ is that we wanted to be a space that they are loved well, that it is a safe place,” Pillen said. “That is our primary focus. Yes, we teach the art of dance, but the first priority is loving these kids and dancers and families. If we start there, then it only gets better.”

Businesses donate money to fund scholarships.

“We really believe in our motto, ‘No dancer left behind,” Maiore said. “From the get-go when we opened our doors, we said, ‘There’s no kid that’s going to be turned away because of financial stress.’ We’ve been able to give out thousands of dollars of scholarship money.”

Tupper Arts’ educational, business and artistic endeavors begin Thursday, under a storefront facade painted by nine Tupper Lake high school students.