
Delilah Poupore, executive director of Heart of Biddeford, poses in downtown Biddeford on Friday. The arts nonprofit Engine has dissolved and transferred its remaining assets to the downtown group Heart of Biddeford, which will pick up the mantle of arts programming in the city. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald
The arts nonprofit Engine has dissolved and will transfer its remaining assets to the downtown group Heart of Biddeford, which has pledged to pick up the torch of arts programming in the city.
The decision caps nearly five years of turnover and tumult at Engine, which helped develop the art scene in Biddeford and became known for signature events such as Art Walk. People involved cited a number of contributing factors — the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a string of rejections for grant applications, repeated changes in leadership in recent years, and the lack of a physical home since the end of October 2023.
“We are trying to seek infrastructure and stability, and Heart of Biddeford has always been there with us and has that,” said Sarah LaFortune, the outgoing executive director of Engine. “So rather than trying to continue in a way that felt like we were constantly trying to get our footing, it felt more responsible to turn toward our partner.”
Delilah Poupore, executive director of Heart of Biddeford, said she has been meeting since October with local artists and residents to understand the needs of the community. That input shaped a new initiative called Art of Biddeford. Its first events — a gallery show, dance performances, a maker’s fair — will be part of the program this month for the city’s annual WinterFest.
“It seemed like being able to have the strong infrastructure of an organization that has been around for 20 years like Heart of Biddeford would be a good home for the arts,” Poupore said.
The transition has been met with both hurt and hope.
“It is sad to me that we have come to this point where Engine, as it has been known for 13 years now, just isn’t a feasible organization anymore, and at the same time, I’m super grateful that there is this ability to become part of Heart of Biddeford,” said Emma Bouthillette, a local writer who served on the board of Engine in 2022.
‘GROWING PAINS’
Tamsyn and Joshua Bodwell, two of the three founders of Engine, moved to Biddeford in 2006. They decided to organize the cultural events they found lacking in their new home. They formed Engine in 2010, inspired in part by the Portland arts venue Space.
The nonprofit championed the Art Walk and developed the Fringe Fest. It hosted gallery shows, live music, art camps, classes and storytelling nights. At times, it was home to a darkroom for photographers, a 3D printing lab and a boat-building program. Its last location on Main Street housed a rarity — 18 artist studios at affordable rates.
Residents and supporters said Engine was a key driver of what has been called the “Biddesance.”
“Something that was really necessary at the time was revitalizing the sense of Biddeford as a place not just to have a tradition — it’s a town with a great history — but to have this really propulsive, forward-looking attitude toward what the city could be,” said Biddeford resident Stephanie Edwards, who served on the board between 2019 and 2022. “That’s really what Engine was about.”
For years, Engine envisioned an arts hub 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 for $1 in 2011. The nonprofit cleaned up hazardous materials in the building and did a site survey. In 2019, the estimated cost of the project was $6 million.
Tamsyn Bodwell ran Engine for more than a decade but announced her plans to leave in 2020. At the same time, Engine announced that it would sell the Marble Block, citing the founder’s departure and the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tamsyn Bodwell has since started a collective pottery studio called Mill Pond Ceramics Studio in the North Dam Mill.
In 2021, the Marble Block sold for $400,000. LaFortune said $130,000 went to pay back a loan for remediation in the building. The nonprofit also set aside $83,000 to repay a Small Business Association loan received during the pandemic. The remaining proceeds from the sale — about $180,000 — went to Engine for operating expenses.
Engine hired an executive director to succeed Tamsyn Bodwell in 2021, but that person left the following year for health reasons. LaFortune, who was on the board at the time, became the acting executive director at the start of 2023.
That fall, Engine vacated its last home, in a former bank at 163 Main St. The building’s owner had decided to put it on the market. At the time, LaFortune said Engine would still be active in Biddeford but needed to do strategic planning. In January, the nonprofit hired board member Nick Blunier as a full-time arts programming director. Blunier is also the owner of the Mobile Arts Bus and the Common Roots Studio in Biddeford. But by July, he no longer worked for Engine.
“At the end of the day, it was a tough hit to the community to lose the identity of Engine in the sense that that was the hub that everybody knew,” Blunier said.
Before 2020, Engine had an annual budget of roughly $250,000 that relied heavily on program fees. The pandemic stymied that funding stream. Revenue from the sale of the Marble Block helped pay for limited programming in the following years, but LaFortune said Engine did not win any of the 11 grants it applied for in 2024. The decision to dissolve was made over months.
“Once we came to this decision, it really felt in that moment, it was made out of strength and involvement with many stakeholders,” she said.
The board voted to dissolve the nonprofit and filed the required paperwork in December. LaFortune said Engine was current on its debts and is now in the process of transferring the $83,000 to pay off the Small Business Loan. The remaining assets — somewhere around $30,000 — will eventually be transferred to Heart of Biddeford.
“If a founder is the main leader of an organization for many years and the founder leaves, there’s always growing pains,” Poupore said. “I personally know from running a nonprofit here for 14 years now that there’s a major leadership balance between a board and a director, and I don’t think they were ever able to find that right balance after Tamsyn moved on.”
A PAINFUL PROCESS
Tamsyn and Josh Bodwell said they purposefully did not stay involved with Engine after she left the nonprofit because they wanted to give space to the next executive director. In June, they contacted Engine and offered to reconvene the founding board in an effort to get the nonprofit back on track. The board declined. A brief meeting with the board and lawyers this fall also left the Bodwells feeling more confused and hurt, and they still don’t understand why they weren’t allowed to help.
“It would have been less painful if we wouldn’t have been shut out of the conversation by both Engine and the Heart of Biddeford, quite honestly,” Tamsyn Bodwell said.
LaFortune said both Engine and Heart of Biddeford had signed nondisclosure agreements by the time the Bodwells reached out in June. “We were not in a place to have a conversation,” she said.
The transition has left a rift with the founders of Engine.
“I’m disgusted with it,” Tamsyn Bodwell said. “We’re over the sadness. We’re over the other adjectives you could pick and just disgusted with how it’s all turned out.”
“It’s so unnecessary,” Josh Bodwell added. “There were ample opportunities for this to have ended up differently.”
MOVING FORWARD
Artists said they felt a void in Biddeford last year as Engine stalled.
“It’s unfortunate that the board could not continue to serve the mission that Tamsyn had created because it was such a vibrant organization,” local artist Rebecca Cote said. “It feels like they really weren’t serving the mission by not being transparent in a way. Everyone was like, ‘Where is Engine?’”
Poupore said Art of Biddeford will work on securing funding and technical support for artists, as well as hosting beloved events such as Art Walk. They also will be looking for a gallery location with an artist workspace.
In the meantime, local artist Julie K. Gray is curating a gallery show that will be part of WinterFest. The developer of The Foundry has offered the warehouse to Art of Biddeford for three months, she said, and they hope to host multiple events in that time.
“It was a real blow to the artistic community here when we lost Engine’s physical space,” said Gray, who once had her studio at Engine. “With that, a lot of people lost their studio spaces, and the darkroom had to close down. We know that real estate is bonkers right now. A space has definitely been a priority for most everyone.”
Artists and residents said Engine built a creative community that they want to survive.
“It’s the reason why Biddeford now has so many artists living here,” said Scott McPheeters, a co-director at the dance company Subcircle. “It’s a huge loss, and we’re just trying to figure out what the possibilities in the future are moving forward.”
This story was updated at 9:32 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1, to correct the spelling of Delilah Poupore’s name.
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