Retailing in the North Country

In my role as President of the Saranac Lake Community Store interim board of directors, I was down in Albany yesterday, being interviewed by the host of WAMC's Roundtable program, Joe Donahue. We had some time afterwards to chat a bit, and Joe talked about where he lives, which is about 25 miles away from Saratoga. His town has roughly the same number of residents as Saranac Lake: 5,000 or so. What was interesting, as we compared the two communities, is that in his town some 60% of the shops downtown have closed in recent months. While Saranac Lake has a few empty store fronts, we haven't experienced huge closures in recent months. Yes, there have been a few, but no where near 60%. I'm wondering if this isn't yet another indication that because the economy in the North Country has always been tough, everyone is used to scrambling and may see the current downturn simply as just another "blimp" on our economic horizon.

Out of the blue - yet again

Well needless to say I didn't get the last internship that I went on an interview for. The one the guy emailed me out of the blue telling me he would be in town and all. Well after a brief courtship (i.e. talking on the phone, exchanging emails, and sending a portfolio) with another newspaper and yet another rejection ("I was always a strong candidate.") I got another email out of the blue. This time from someone telling me that the deadline for their fall internship is on Friday and they hope that I have time to apply. Well of course I have time, I have nothing but time. There for a while I was having doubts about my work and that no one was noticing it when I would send in my portfolio. Well these last few encounters have left me feeling like an eternal bridesmaid and never a bride.

Sarah
photographer/recent graduate

Arts & Future of Adks

Local leaders in government, economics/tourism, and the environment, which includes environmental education have forgotten who put the Adirondacks in the public mindset in the first place; it was artists and intellectuals – people in the forefront of their disciplines that have ranged from Emerson and Thoreau in the 19^th Century to Einstein and Freud in the 20^th; The Hudson River School artists in the 19^th to sculptor David Smith and Georgia O’Keefe in the 20^th; writers like James Fennimore Cooper to Russell Banks, and such 20^th century leaders of music as Charles Ives and Bartok. They came here for inspiration, relaxation, fellowship and to heal.

How many have ever gone to David Smith’s farm in Bolton Landing and seen his brightly polished steel sculptures standing out in a field. They come alive. Our Museums are only now embracing Rockwell Kent who died 40 years ago. Conferences on greening our economy see the arts as decoration at best, decoration lite at that. Artists want time, light, space and an opportunity to network. One of our greatest assets is our light, we are blessed with a variation on a Mediterranean Light – a light influenced by our abundance of water, though here it is a very moody light, ever changing, which makes it stimulating. Artists are a green industry. Their products don’t pollute. Nor does the process of making them.

You want to grow the economy, attract young families and get media attention; recruit artists in all disciplines to live here. Raid Berlin. Raid New York. Raid Russia. Raid centers of the arts, while at the same time nurturing the talent we have. Create artist-in-residence opportunities for writers, poets, sculptors, playwrights, composers, dancers, video and digital artists and performance artists at the Wild Center, Adirondack Museum, DEC, ORDA, Paul Smiths College, Adk Lodge, Adk Medical Center, Trudeau Labs and other obvious and not so obvious places. Confront artists with the pleasant and unpleasant sides of the Adirondacks, economically and environmentally. Give them platforms to share the results. The results will not always be pretty, but they will be stimulating, challenging and exciting, and educate critical thinking as to just how important and interesting the Adirondack are. We should think of the whole Adirondack region as one big laboratory for ideas and inspiration; that’s how the 18^th and 19^th century artists saw and experienced our region. Do that and we’ll reverse the youth drain and economic slide wherein we are trapped.