The room was maybe 100 square feet in a former bank in downtown Biddeford, and the carpet did not smell great. But the window looked out on Main Street, and the monthly rent was unbeatable. So Amira McIntire replaced the flooring and painted the walls lavender with bold stripes of brown and coral.

The result was their first artist studio, a place to create and experiment. Or it was for a few months, until the arts nonprofit Engine shut down its 18 upstairs studios this fall amid plans to vacate its downtown building.

Engine is closing its physical location at 163 Main St. at the end of October because the building’s owner is selling. The nonprofit started in 2010 as an early innovator in what is now a lively art scene in Biddeford. Rather than find a new home downtown, Engine is going remote, at least for now. A shared darkroom closed in July, and remaining artists had to clean out their studios by the end of September. The nonprofit has been selling everything from paintbrushes and half-rolls of tape to tables and office chairs.

Leaders are adamant that Engine is not actually going anywhere. Acting director Sarah LaFortune said the board is in the middle of strategic planning for the future and plans to continue signature events such as monthly Art Walks and the summertime Fringe Fest. But Biddeford has changed dramatically in the years since Engine formed, and the nonprofit decided to take a step back to figure out how to serve the present-day city. Whether those needs include a brick-and-mortar location, LaFortune said, remains to be seen.

“We want to send the message to the community when they see that we are leaving our physical space that we are not going anywhere as an organization,” LaFortune said. “It’s been a quiet year for us with strategic planning. That doesn’t mean we’re not there to support artists.”

But some are uncertain and confused about the next steps. The organization’s founders, who are no longer involved, have questioned the board’s current approach. Artists say they are struggling to find studio space in the city for the same affordable rate that they paid at Engine.

“I was so gutted, to be honest,” McIntire, 33, said. “I had visions of the future, being there for years and seeing what it would bring to my life.”

AN EARLY INNOVATOR

Tammy Ackerman and Joshua Bodwell, two of the three founders of Engine, moved to the city in 2006. They saw a great desire for cultural events but no one to organize them, so they decided to do it themselves. They opened their first location where Elements is today, inspired in part by Portland arts venue Space.

“The community needed to have a focal point, a place for people to gather, a hub,” Ackerman said. “It needed to have visibility on Main Street, not off in the hinterlands of some industrial park. We wanted to be right downtown because we wanted to put a face on the arts of the community, so people could use that space for connecting.”

Engine has moved to four different addresses over the years but always remained downtown. The nonprofit has championed the Art Walk and developed the Fringe Fest, which this year included a performance from the vertical dance troupe Bandaloop. It also hosted gallery shows, such as an annual exhibition called Rumpus that welcomed submissions from artists of all ages, and live music. LaFortune said this year’s budget is roughly $250,000.

Delilah Poupore became the executive director of Heart of Biddeford in the early days of Engine, and the two nonprofits have often partnered on events. She said Engine has played a major role in the downtown revitalization.

“It’s been a key part of Biddeford’s growth, as well as a key part of Biddeford’s not losing its sense of self,” she said. “A dozen years ago, you could be out on the street for three days and not see another person. One business would open, and two more would close. Now that is by no means the case, and that is because artists have made this a place to learn something new, see something beautiful.”

Tina Johnson, 33, grew up in Biddeford and moved back to the city after art school. She is a black-and-white film photographer and dreamed about a shared darkroom where she and others could work. Ackerman offered her the space at Engine to start one, and Johnson raised the startup costs through an Indiegogo campaign. She offered memberships and classes at affordable rates for seven years.

“I had one artist driving from Boston to use the darkroom at Engine,” Johnson said. “It’s a testimony to the need for it.”

Last year, Engine launched an arts business incubator called Ignite. Six candidates participated in an eight-week course and received up to $5,000 to develop or grow their businesses. Their work ranged from a community garden to a textile company that makes chalk bags for rock climbers. LaFortune said the board was excited about the outcomes of the pilot program and hopes to continue Ignite in some form in 2024.

Billy Giordano, who ran that program, said the creative economy is traditionally undervalued. He pointed to Ignite as an example of how Engine can help both grow arts businesses and spotlight their importance to the local economy.

“I think there’s a duty for those who understand arts business to help tell that story, and I think Engine is well positioned to do that,” he said.

Genius Black, also known as Jerry Edwards, was part of the pilot cohort for Ignite in 2022. Black now lives in South Portland but used to live in Biddeford and has performed at Fringe Fest. He is part of Gem City, a collective of musical artists who work together on wide-ranging projects; they are about to release a new music video. Black said Ignite helped him create a sharper vision for the business and gave him better tools to evaluate other proposals.

He credited Engine with seeing and acting upon the needs of working artists.

“I found that places like Engine, for instance, they really focus on getting money to artists,” Black, 42, said. “You want to support working artists? Pay them. And that’s real. A lot of people want working artists to do a lot of things. They’re excited, but excitement is not a spendable currency. (Engine) they pay artists, they plan with artists, they center on artists, they provide places for artists to be.”

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

At one time, Engine envisioned a permanent home in the historic Marble Block on Main Street.

The Reny family, which once operated one of its namesake department stores in the building, gave it to Engine in 2011. The nonprofit secured grants and donations to clean up hazardous materials in the building, complete a site survey, update the sprinkler system and develop plans for a renovation. LaFortune said that work was expected to cost at least $6 million in 2019, a number that would have only grown in the intervening years.

“Then the pandemic brought everything to a crashing halt,” LaFortune said. “The math for the board became risk mitigation for the sustainability of the organization combined with the limited ability to raise funds during the pandemic.”

In 2021, Engine sold the Marble Block to Bryan Holden, chief development officer of Luke’s Lobster, for $400,000. LaFortune said that sale provided a needed boost for the nonprofit during the pandemic, and she hopes the organization will be involved in programming at the Marble Block in the future.

Ackerman ran the organization for more than a decade, but she and Bodwell planned to move closer to Boston for his job in 2020. She left Engine but ultimately stayed in Biddeford, and she has since started a collective pottery studio called Mill Pond Ceramics Studio in the North Dam Mill. In an interview, she said she disagreed with the decision to sell the Marble Block.

“It’s a missed opportunity to push things forward and take the lead role in showing the arts community what it is they’re building,” Ackerman said. “It’s not the time to decentralize.”

“You decentralize, you disappear,” she added.

Engine has been housed at 163 Main St. since 2019 but never saw the building as a long-term home. The nonprofit learned at least a year ago that the landlord would be selling that building. LaFortune was on the board and stepped in as acting director in January after her predecessor stepped down for health reasons, she said. She and others saw the need to pause amid changes in both their location and their leadership.

LaFortune said the board is grateful for the vision and energy Ackerman brought to Engine, but both the pandemic and skyrocketing real estate costs have created new problems for the organization in recent years. LaFortune said Engine has heard the call for shared makerspace and studio space, but has struggled to find commercial space at a rent comparable to what they paid at 163 Main St. For now, Engine will share office space with Heart of Biddeford on Main Street.

“This decentralized approach is in response to external factors, but reducing the organizational overhead (like rent and utilities) will allow Engine to weave its offerings into spaces people frequent and fuel the arts community in new, exciting ways, such as taking the savings and creating artist scholarships or grants,” LaFortune wrote in an email. “Through this approach, Engine hopes to expand beyond a single gallery space, bringing artists to the public. This is evident in our partnership as a fiscal sponsor of the Mobile Arts Bus, which delivers creative programming to where community gatherings occur.”

Chrystina Gastelum had a studio at Engine in years past for textile projects and is now on the nonprofit’s board. She said she moved to Biddeford in 2017 in part because she knew she could find an artistic community there. She noted the programs and organizations that have grown up around the nonprofit in recent years, including dance organizations, a community theater, a yarn store, a children’s art studio and retail shops selling fine art and craft.

“Engine has been many things to many people, and the specific needs of the community have changed over time,” Gastelum wrote in an email. “What I find most inspiring is that Engine no longer is or needs to be the one and only art source in town.”

‘A BIG HOLE’

Artists in Biddeford said one of their major needs is physical space to make their work. Without Engine, their options for that space are even slimmer than before.

McIntire, who was a tenant at Engine for only a few months, has a background in printmaking and used the studio to explore a new interest in fiber arts and carpet making. They live less than a half mile from the studio and found greater focus in a dedicated workspace away from home. But McIntire is back to working in their basement because other options for studio space are significantly more expensive than the $150 per month they paid at Engine.

“Every time I would walk downtown and peer into the windows and see their gallery space, it felt so nice to know that there were people who cared about the arts and getting it out there,” McIntire said. “I feel like Engine was so supportive of just anyone who wanted to be involved.”

Tyler Varlese, 33, and Sarah Korman, 37, moved to Maine from Connecticut in March 2020, and they met most of the people they know in Biddeford at events hosted by Engine. Korman is a metalsmith and jewelry designer, and Varlese paints and works with clay. They spent months on a waitlist before they got their shared studio at Engine for $300 a month in March 2021.

They said they felt sad and confused when they heard about Engine’s plans to close its space, including the studios. Like others, they relocated their work to their Biddeford apartment. They participated in a town hall meeting this fall to share their thoughts and needs with the organization. They are hopeful that Engine will still host the Art Walk and other events they love, but they said the studios are a major loss.

“It feels like a big hole in the arts in Biddeford,” Korman said.

Johnson also shut down the darkroom this summer. She said she has always thought of Engine as a gathering place – to see art, to listen to music, to make friends, to be together – and she isn’t sure how the organization will replicate those opportunities without a location of its own.

“I think they’re going to be heavily relying on downtown businesses to host events, to have a place to do those things, so it’ll definitely be different,” she said. “It’s hard to know what that will look like.”

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