The Adirondack Art Association needs you more than ever! We urgently invite you to take part in a unique opportunity to influence the future of the Adirondack Art Association. We can assist you as you become actively involved and take this historic and vital community asset into the post-pandemic world.

The Adirondack Art Association was started in 1963 by a group of dedicated fine artists to support artists and art-lovers in the Adirondack region. Our primary mission is to promote, show, and sell visual art by local artists. Over the decades, the organization moved from one vacant, rental space to another for the ‘summer season.’

Each summer the AAA hosted regular openings, poetry readings, demonstrations, workshops, and other artistic endeavors. Much of the work was done by volunteers and, in recent years, a seasonal gallery director. The gallery served as a tourist destination and local center, helping Essex maintain a vital downtown.

Factors have converged to bring the Adirondack Art Association to a low point. The gallery was closed due to the pandemic in 2020. Then in early 2021, the “old firehouse” space we had been renting was sold. Essex real estate has become scarce as the appeal of rural life has grown during the pandemic, leaving little opportunity for AAA to find a new appropriate space.

Like everywhere, our active membership has aged, and most of the current board fits into what the CDC calls the “vulnerable elderly category,” although we don’t always feel that way! However, we have to face that we cannot carry the organization.

We are concerned though, that without new people to enliven the AAA and move it forward, it will not continue to exist. We need new ideas, enthusiasm, skills, and effort to breathe vibrant life into our art association.

We are hopeful that folks in Essex and the surrounding area will want to join with others to take over our mission. Being part of an organization that supports the arts provides a great way to engage with the local and wider communities.

If any of you, whether artists or non-artists, are interested in becoming active in steering this organization, we welcome you! If you are not, then it seems to be time to legally dissolve the not-for-profit corporation that is the Adirondack Art Association. We know that nothing lasts forever. However, it is painful to see the “expiration date” coming due on our watch. We do not want to be at the end, and very much need your help to prevent that.

Please contact us if you are interested at adkartessex@gmail.com.

Penny Clute, Board Chair
Trista Sheehan, Vice Chair
Dennis Kalma, Secretary
Teresa Cummings, Treasurer
Wendy Miller, Board Member