Jess Ackerson, left, shows Britt Sternberg a cat she sewed at the center on Thursday. Ackerson and Sternberg are two of the three co-owners of the art center in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Lauren Yates)

SARANAC LAKE — The owners of ADK ArtRise in Saranac Lake are asking the community to support the art center as it struggles with staffing and finances.

ArtRise co-owners Jess Ackerson, Britt Sternberg and Julia Fatato wrote a letter to the community on social media last week asking for support as they struggle to keep the center up and running and earn a living wage. Operating costs are rising, they said, but their earnings aren’t.

Because much of ArtRise’s operation relies on art class attendance, the co-owners are asking the community to sign up for classes. But they’re also looking for volunteers, donations for their scholarship fund and general feedback from the community — how could ArtRise programming work better? How could classes be more accessible?

“We are often told that we are an invaluable resource for this community,” the letter reads. “We are coming to you now to help us make our next moves.”

Ackerson and Sternberg said they’re “here for the long haul.” They quit their full-time jobs to start ArtRise, and they want to retire there.

“This is where we want to be for the next 30 years,” Sternberg said. They just need the community to show that they also want ArtRise to be a staple of this community.

“I just love this job so much,” Ackerson said. “I get to make things all day every day and help other people make things, and see them light up the same way that I do. It would be hard to go back to anything else.”

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The challenges

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ArtRise relies on class attendance for around 95% of its operating costs, and according to the co-owners’ letter to the community, attendance isn’t hitting the mark they projected for their third year. Though ArtRise had a successful summer, according to Ackerson, the rising cost of their building’s rent, along with the waning pool of funding they received from a rent assistance grant they got earlier in the pandemic, means their final earnings have stayed about the same. Sternberg and Ackerson said they’re working full-time for less than minimum wage. They said the three co-owners’ husbands have “floated” finances for their families since ArtRise opened.

“We’re not looking to get rich being art teachers,” Sternberg said. “We’re looking to support our three families.”

They’re considering becoming a nonprofit — or at least having a nonprofit operation in place to run their scholarship fund — but Sternberg said that starting out as an LLC has given the co-owners the freedom to make quick decisions together.

ADK ArtRise officially opened in January 2021 after a challenging start. The co-owners first rented the building — located in the former Sears parking lot on Main Street — in October 2020. That was right around the time local schools went remote again amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

With the freedom of operating as an LLC, Sternberg said, the three owners had the opportunity to apply for and earn a grant in 2020 — a process that took about a week and a half — to operate a remote learning center in the ArtRise building for three different school districts as an alternative to higher-priced childcare for essential workers before the center’s official opening in January 2021.

Times have gotten even more challenging recently as Fatato is staying with an ill parent, leaving operations to Ackerson and Sternberg. Fatato’s art courses are starting on Monday, but she won’t be there to teach them. Ackerson and Sternberg aren’t sure when she can return. In the meantime, they said, they’re steering people away from signing up for Fatato’s classes, and they’ve cut down on special events.

Even with Fatato there to help, according to their letter to the community, the co-owners were “stretched pretty thin and wearing a lot of different hats.” They prep for, teach and clean up after art classes, along with doing all of the center’s accounting, marketing, fundraising, gallery planning and website designing. Becoming a nonprofit could help with that, Ackerson said, but they don’t have experience with starting one — they’re looking for a mentor or someone who’s started a nonprofit in the past to help them out.

Sternberg said they’ve learned a lot about running a business and the type of programming that works — or doesn’t work — at the center. Now, they’re hoping to continue learning through another challenging experience with the help of the community.

Community response so far

Sternberg said that since they posted the letter to the community, they’ve received an influx of volunteers, class sign-ups and more than $1,000 in donations for the art center’s “Decidedly Doodling” scholarship fund, which is used for the center’s operating expenses and is matched with art classes for people with financial hardships. Prior to last week, the center had received around $750 in donations for the entirety of 2022.

Sternberg said that after the letter went out to the community, people seemed to be reminded of ArtRise’s presence in the community and wanted to make sure it’s here to stay. Sternberg said she’s received so many responses from people willing to volunteer that she’s having to organize and delegate tasks. During an interview with the Enterprise on Thursday, Sternberg received another message from someone who wanted to fund classes for kids whose families couldn’t afford them.

“It’s just been really touching,” Ackerson said of the community response. “Everybody volunteering to help us with grant writing, cleaning — the amount of donations we’ve gotten has just made me cry numerous times. It just makes me so grateful for the place that I live. It’s pretty special.”

Ackerson and Sternberg are hoping that people will come to ArtRise’s Halloween Party on Oct. 29, which includes a costume contest, gallery opening, live music and a guest bartender. They’d like the event to act as a fundraiser for their scholarship fund, but a donation isn’t required to attend. There’s a $10 entry fee for the costume contest, which will have first, second and third prizes. The Halloween party’s gallery opening runs from 5 to 7 p.m. and the live music and cocktails will follow from 8 to 10 p.m.

People can visit adkartrise.com to learn more about the Halloween party, book a course, sponsor a scholarship, buy a gift certificate, sign up for the center’s volunteer email list, or to provide feedback and ideas.