2024 Annual Fund

Dear ALCA Friends, Members, and Supporters,

As we launch our annual fundraising appeal, we have fantastic, remarkable, and historic news!  On October 29, 2024, the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts purchased Potters Resort in Blue Mountain Lake to be our new home.  After 57 beloved years in the former Fuller Garage, built in 1920, and after thorough discernment and effort, the ALCA Board made the monumental decision to purchase this new property.  With grassroots support from the local and regional community, including substantial grants, ALCA was able to acquire this superb and charming updated historic property on Blue Mountain Lake.  Thrilled with the upgraded buildings and property enhanced by a breathtaking lake view, the board and staff are diligently working on this transition to our new home and on the programming for 2025 and beyond.  We can’t wait to see you in our new space!  Most importantly, none of this could have happened without your continued support and vision for ALCA, the longest-established arts and cultural center in the Adirondacks. Your support has fortified ALCA through the years to grow, change, and cultivate community through the arts.

While we were in the vigorous phase of a “quiet” capital campaign to obtain our new property, our 2024 programming went on spectacularly!  This fall we presented the world premiere of the play The Cure: An Adirondack Story to audiences across the Adirondacks.  The writer of The Cure, Frederic Glover, was the recipient of a 2023 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Support for Artists grant sponsored by ALCA, with technical assistance on the application provided by ALCA’s staff.  The grant enabled Fred to develop this drama inspired by actual people and events in Saranac Lake, NY, including the life and struggles of Dr. Edward Trudeau, the Adirondack-based doctor who devoted himself to finding a cure for tuberculosis.

Connecting with creatives in the Adirondacks is integral to the heart of ALCA’s mission, as evidenced by a cast and crew for The Cure drawn from across the North Country.  As we strive to provide the space, funding, and foundation for the arts and culture in the Adirondacks, we build these artistic relationships within the region and beyond.  Our “ADK Lakes Theatre Festival” also featured spirited performances of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Gilbert & Sullivan’s hilarious operetta, H.M.S. Pinafore.  Through a generous sponsorship, we were able to invite the world-renowned concert pianist Tony Siqi Yun to ALCA to perform on our beautiful, recently refurbished Steinway.  Our lively 2024 schedule also included performances by the rowdy jazz ensemble Folkfaces; Chicago-based cello and violin duo Anita and Julian Graef; country-music duo Martin and Kelly; and a program of Disney favorites from the Seagle Music Festival.  “Tuesdays @ the AC” saw performances from Adirondack-based or -connected artists the Yod Squad, Paul Meyers, Ryan Leddick, the McCarty/Zito Duo, Brock Gonyea, and the Schanzer/Speach Duo.                                            

Our charter as an arts and cultural center includes education.  The adult workshops in 2024 included creative projects such as watercolor landscapes, illuminated paper vessels, and plaster relief sculptures.  The “Summer Kids’ Arts Camp” enabled local children to create mosaic lizards, paint paper butterflies, and participate in a “Theatre Fun!” class.  Multiple gallery exhibits took place over four more-or-less monthly display periods, including one show featuring ALCA members and another featuring artists of the Adirondack Folk School.  These exhibits were enjoyed by many year-round residents, seasonal ones, and visitors to our region – highlighting the connection of artists from around New York State and beyond to the magnificence of the Adirondacks.  Our gift shop continues to grow with local artisans who consign with ALCA to sell their art. 

With community leadership and support, we brought back the ever-popular “ALCA Auction.”  For more than a week, area residents stopped by to drop off their donations – pulling antiques and uniques out of their attics, closets, and basements.  We meticulously tagged and organized items during this week and partnered with renowned auctioneer Douglas Stinson, who led us in the auction.  A huge success, the ALCA Auction gathered the community to donate, volunteer, and monetarily support the arts in the Adirondacks, while bidding and buying unique items and antiques.  Mark your 2025 calendar for the ALCA Auction happening Sunday, July 6th and for the “Great Arts Benefit” occurring Sunday, August 10th along with contradancing and square dancing led by the band Adirondack 2-Step – both at our vibrantly attractive new space!

While we were happily implementing our mission of bringing the arts and culture to Blue Mountain Lake and neighboring communities in 2024, ALCA was simultaneously administering NYSCA’s Statewide Community Regrants (SCR) Program in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, and Hamilton counties and the Haudenosaunee tribal community of Akwesasne – in numbers comparable to the 102,456 audience members and artists ALCA served in 2023.  Significantly, we received another historically high amount of SCR funding – $285,000, up from $210,000 in 2023 – to regrant to arts and cultural groups, other types of community organizations, local governments, and individual artists.  You enable this to occur!  ALCA’s staff, facility, and organizational infrastructure all contribute to implementing, sustaining, and growing the SCR Program here in the Adirondack North Country.  When you support ALCA, you support the SCR Program.

We also initiated the “ALCA History Project,” partnering with a Colgate Fellow and volunteers to research, archive, and present ALCA’s history.  The newly formed ALCA History Committee continues to work extensively on researching, categorizing, and organizing 57 years of accumulated boxes and treasures in our old ALCA building!  Of notable interest, our Board of Trustees has recently grown and has been further revitalized.  ALCA now is the beneficiary of 18 active board members who will be meeting in January 2025, under the guidance of leading nonprofit-industry “guru” Andy Robinson, to work on harnessing their individual experience and wisdom into a combined volunteer force in service to the arts and culture of the Adirondacks.  As we ourselves evolve through this process and at our new facility, we invite you to continue to join us on this journey of growth and fulfillment.

With your unparalleled championing of our organization, ALCA has been able to thrive within these challenges of change and transition while fostering a vibrant culture of community through the arts.  As we enter our 58th season, we are ecstatic about presenting the 2025 season in our new facility!  You are the catalyst that enables all of this to happen – with your participation, your voice, and your vital support for the arts and culture of the Adirondacks.  We hope you contribute generously to this Annual Fund appeal request today, as you provide the monetary foundation for sustaining and growing the arts in the Adirondacks with ALCA. 

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, staff, and our indispensable volunteers, we thank you!

With unyielding gratitude,

Joanna Pine, Board President
Jean-Marie Donohue, Development General Director
George Cordes, Artistic General Director

ALCA Board of Trustees:
Joanna Pine, Mary Leach, Todd Friebel, Karen Butters, Kathleen Peartree, Deborah Marriott, Monica Bills, Francie Armstrong, Pat Benton, Sherry Nemmers, Douglas Stinson, Mike Corey, Mark Chamberlain, Audrey Peartree, Sally Coney Wheeler, Karen Kirkham, Ardie Russell, Peter Gibson