COLLABORATIVE SPACE
Innovation Center at Saratoga previewed
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. » Saratoga County is getting ready for great things to come. By summer of 2020, the county’s first collaborative maker space should be open to the public.
The Innovation Center and Saratoga Bridges announced plans for the construction of a maker space at a preview event on Tuesday at the building site on Saratoga Bridges Boulevard. The building is currently home to the Saratoga Bridges Alpha Industries, a chapter of ARC of New York.
The two organizations will share the building space, and the facility once construction is complete, with plenty of room for all.
The maker space will also be open to the public. The Innovation Center’s board president Beth Moeller described the future site as a place where artists, entrepreneurs, and members of the community can all come together for collaboration on any project imaginable.
“An artist and an entrepreneur have very similar needs,” she commented. “There has to be a way for them to work together. This will be a place of support for budding artists and starting businesses - a fun, vibrant, collaborative space for working together.”
This will be the first publicly accessible maker space in Saratoga county, with lots of features making it just as unique as the county itself. It’s going to be the only maker space, anywhere, with a darkroom. In addition to a 1300 square foot “flexible creative work area,” there will be a series of individual studios spaces for specific creative purposes.
One of those studios will be a fully equipped digital content creation space, complete with a green screen and equipment for podcasting. Another will be a soundproofed music room, suitable for lessons or rehearsals. There will also be a fully outfitted woodshop and a gallery with 100 linear feet of display space.
At the preview event, many county and community representatives came to show their support for Moeller’s vision.
Greg Cuda, executive director for Saratoga Bridges, was very excited to welcome Innovation Center to the building.
“Our space is not being fully utilized,” he said. “We’ve been looking for ways to reconfigure the fa
cility and maximize its potential. Saratoga Bridges sees this collaboration as the right answer for utilizing the space. We welcome the Innovation Center at Saratoga, and the community at large who will use the space.”
Ryan Van Amburgh, with the Saratoga Economic Development Corporation, is looking forward to the economic advantages that the maker space will bring to the community.
“This space is going to be what Saratoga county needs,” he said.
Tim Dunn, Malta town councilman, agreed with Van Amburgh.
“I’m excited that small businesses are going to be working on big things here,” he commented. “This fits in well with the small businesses we want to promote and support. It fills in Malta Works, a program we launched in Aug. to promote economic investment.”
“I can see artists coming here to teach classes,” said Cecilia Lockwood, with the Beekman Street maker space.
Lockwood is looking forward to Beekman Street collaborating closely with the Innovation Center at Saratoga. Artists looking for a work space, but unable to get into the filled-to-capacity Beekman Street, will be able to find space at the Innovation Center without having to travel too far from home.
Other community organizations are also looking forward to supporting the Innovation Center at Saratoga. Marcella Hammer, general manager of Palette Cafe in Saratoga Springs, doesn’t view the Innovation Center as any kind of competition with Palette’s newly opened workspace, Plaette Upstairs. Instead, she sees it as a space for more community opportunity.
“We’re about building a community, and this is a huge community creative space,” she commented. “It’s so exciting. It’s in tune with the needs for a modern, technological creator. Palette is all about collaboration with everybody, so we’ll do whatever it takes to support the Innovation Center.”
Moeller is very excited for the new space, and all the support she has received for it so far.
“This is my vision,” she said. “I’ve been so excited about planning this for so long. Saratoga is a unique community; there’s space for a lot of stuff to happen.”
Moeller is hoping for a June 2020 ribbon cutting on the completed building. Until then, The Innovation Center at Saratoga is looking for support to get construction done.
“We need to raise about $300k to get everything built,” she commented. “We’re able to take donations now, and later we’ll be looking for partnering ideas.”
The Innovation Center at Saratoga is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization (in what Moeller describes as nothing short of a miracle, it achieved its nonprofit status in 1 month). Companies or individuals who want to make donations can do so by contacting Moeller through email at beth@innovationcentersaratoga.org, or by phone at (518) 587-5107.