The BluSeed Studios arts center has been in a “dire” financial situation for a while now, Executive Director Marissa Hernandez said on Thursday. She felt its closure was “inevitable.”

The nonprofit’s directors announced on Wednesday that they made the hard decision to dissolve the organization and put the 7,500-square-foot building on Cedar Street up for sale. The center’s programming will run through the end of the month.

BluSeed has hosted visual art exhibits; fashion shows; concerts; open mics; workshops; classes; pottery, textile, letterpress and printmaking studio spaces; an art supplies thrift shop and kids’ movie and art nights. It’s been a place for wedding receptions, for creative gatherings, for people recovering from addiction to share music and for locals to display their handiwork. The studios have provided artists in niche mediums access to expensive equipment they can’t own personally. The halls of the building are filled with past projects, tools of the trade and works in progress.

“Although a significant effort has been put forth by staff and volunteers, it has been extremely challenging to maintain the finances of a small arts center in a low population, rural area,” the directors said in a statement.

BluSeed Studios Executive Director Marissa Hernandez stands in front of the art center in June 2024 with her dog Reacher, a redbone coonhound. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

BluSeed’s closure comes just two months after the ADK ArtRise art education business announced it will close its doors at the end of June.

“Lots of little things happened all at once to push us to this point,” Hernandez said.

The coronavirus pandemic had a long-term effect on the center, grant funding has been slow and payroll funding has drastically reduced.

Hernandez is BluSeed’s only paid employee. Her position has been funded by grants from the New York State Council on the Arts. Full-time funding for her job ended a couple of years ago, but she’s stayed on as a part-time employee. Still, she said fundraising, organizing and planning is a full-time job. It can’t really be done in only 20 hours a week.

Then, in December, NYSCA cut the funding for her position in half — reducing it from $30,000 to $15,000. This would have had her working 10 hours a week, which is impossible to run an arts center on. This was a “punch in the gut.” Hernandez isn’t sure why the funding was halved. She’s asked the state, but has not heard an explanation.

Last summer, BluSeed went public with their financial struggle and started a fundraiser to get them through the end of the year. The GoFundMe shows $40,225 raised as of Thursday. In December, the board had plans to revamp their programming and fundraising plans this year. But when they had their funding pulled out from underneath them, Hernandez said they resumed the tough closure discussion they’ve been having for years.

The center is largely funded by donors and grants.

They were already not getting as many grants last year as they had before, and Hernandez said with the current major cuts to federal grant programs for the arts, it’s not possible to rely on grants anymore.

Last month, the majority of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ 180 employees were terminated and 85% of its promised grants were cancelled. The National Endowment for the Arts began cancelling its grant offers earlier this month.

Hernandez said they’re looking for a buyer who is interested in maintaining the building as a community art center in some fashion. The listing through Coldwell Banker can be found at tinyurl.com/5hjtmn8c.

Because BluSeed is a nonprofit, the sale is regulated by the state attorney general — including the $450,000 listing price. She said they need to sell at or near full market value to get AG approval of the sale. She’s hoping to find a buyer who doesn’t want to undo the work they’ve done renovating the space.

The board has some discretion in who they can sell to, but can only negotiate the price a little.

Hernandez looked back on her favorite memories at BluSeed — the day they opened the “Shop at the Blu” thrift shop, which coincided with the “Let’s do it in Denim” fashion show; or the artist residency program they worked on with Pendragon Theatre in 2023, which brought in local artists and artists from Texas and California to give free performances, teach dance classes and create the mural on the ArtRise building.

Hernandez is uncertain about the future of Saranac Lake’s arts community. She said BluSeed mostly brought in the same people over and over again.

“Trying to get new people interested in what you’re doing is really hard,” she said.

She wonders if public perception of the arts has changed. Because it’s more accessible through devices and social media now, she feels it’s less mysterious, and less intriguing to people not in the art world.

After the news went public on Wednesday, though, the community responded with broken heart emojis, grief about the loss of another arts space and by sharing memories of the ways BluSeed has impacted their lives.

“BluSeed was a home to me when I first came to Saranac Lake and the arts community that stemmed from it has had a gigantic impact on my life,” Theresa Hartford-Bah wrote on social media. “I can only imagine how great of an impact it has had on our entire community. Thank you for fighting to keep it going for so long.”

“Playing at BluBeed was a highlight of my musical life,” Michael Weeks wrote on social media.

“So many beautiful memories made in that big blue building,” Tori Vazquez wrote on social media. “I do want to give a special thanks to the woman who was the glue that kept BluSeed together for so long, Marissa, you are literally super woman and a huge inspiration for me and so many young women. Your beautiful energy is just unmatched!!”

Coupled with the loss of ArtRise, Vazquez said the closure of two of Saranac Lake’s major arts organizations is heartbreaking.

“We are supposed to be an artist community but somehow we can’t support our artsy organizations enough to keep them in the community,” She told the Enterprise. “It’s so sad.”

Hernandez will continue to teach dance classes at The Studio Upstate and Dance Sanctuary and said she’ll be able to work on her farm more this summer.

The last Sober Open Minded Mic at BluSeed will be held on June 20 and on Sunday, gypsy swing band Hot Club of Saratoga will be playing a free concert at 7 p.m.