Corey Aldrich

Opalka Gallery Pop Up Beer Garden and Neighborhood Block Party

September 13, 2022 By Corey Aldrich

Join us for the opening event of our 4th Annual 2022 Pop Up! Beer Garden and Neighborhood Block Party series at the Opalka Gallery in Albany, NY.

This series opener will feature the main reception for the 2022 SCREENPRINT BIENNIAL featuring a curator talk with Nathan Meltz & Josh MacPhee’s GRAPHIC LIBERATION installation. On the hops and barley front we welcome back our good friends at Druthers Brewing and series newbies Shmaltz Brewing.

For those who are hungry, we arguably have the best line-up to date with Meadowlark, La Capital Tacos and desserts by O’Malley’s Oven. The live stage will welcome back series favorites the Graham Tichy Trio and series newcomer Caity Gallagher.

All this and lawn games and great conversation. Bring the family and enjoy what is sure to be an amazing evening.

This is an ACE! (Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy) sponsored event and FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

SERIES CENTER : HISPANIC HERITAGE EVENT

There will be two more dates in the overall beer garden series on each of the following Fridays. The second event in the series will be a HISPANIC HERITAGE month celebration that will be on Friday the 23rd.

Back by popular demand, the second event of our 2022 Pop Up! Beer Garden and Neighborhood Block Party series will be a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

The 2022 SCREENPRINT BIENNIAL & Josh MacPhee’s GRAPHIC LIBERATION will be on display in the gallery for review. Pop Up Brew vendors include the dynamic duo of Rare Form Brewing and Nine Pin Ciders.

Come hungry as we will have both Grammy’s Tamales, Oaxaquena Triqui and Mayan themed drinks and chocolate by Primo Botanica.

Finally, get you dancing shoes on for a return of DJ RVMBA and Joe Barna’s Latin Ensemble featuring Stacy Dillard.

All this and lawn games and great conversation. Bring the family and enjoy what is sure to be an amazing evening. Event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

SERIES CLOSING EVENT : A TROY NIGHT OUT

Series Closing Event | Troy Night Out at Sage Park

Our series closing event will be tied in solidarity for the first time ever to the Russell Sage College’s Troy Campus on Troy Night Out. And what a night it is! The ‘unofficial‘ event will be part of the city wide kick-off of the first year of Baccanalia, a SXSW style, distributed music festival.

Beer for the evening will be provided by Frog Alley and Fort Orange Brewing.

On the food front we will be featuring gourmet mac and cheese with the Mac Factor food truck and ice cream with Emac and Bolio’s.

Enchanted City Steampunk festival performers Frenchy and the Punk are back in town with an opening set by Jules Olson.

More to be announced…

All this and lawn games and great conversation. Bring the family and enjoy what is sure to be an amazing evening. Event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

A FREE shuttle will be available from Albany to Troy and back for the duration of the event that will leave from the OPALKA GALLERY parking lot at 140 News Scotland Avenue and return to it after the event.

Shuttle times to be announced.

Building on Strength : A Conversation with Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins

August 4, 2022 By Corey Aldrich

Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins | Photo: Hartman Photography

From your perspective, why are Creative Economy components (artisan restaurants, arts and cultural institutions, performance space, etc) so important to a vibrant city scape?

Over the last decade, even during the height of the pandemic, we experienced people moving to the region. As the pandemic has shown us, the Creative Economy is a powerful, sustaining force — especially in a city like Glens Falls. For instance, it’s a long proud fact that Glens Falls is the smallest city in the country with its own paid symphony orchestra. New resident to our city are here working in arts, business, restaurants, music, medicine, banking, and other fields that supported and increased the diversity and talent of Glens Falls.

The Creative Economy shows up throughout — our new Glens Falls Arts District, the popularity of the library, the new murals being planned for three city properties, the new restaurants and the longtime venues. That attention — and that energy — feeds the economy in a way that is measured more by feeling than by economic development — our economy is thriving.

Glens Falls Arts District Signage | Photo: Provided

What is your philosophy and approach to building on those market segments?

The City is building a $4 million events space as part of the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) — a critical piece of our continued growth. It will help to support already successful creative economy events like the LARAC Festival and other large entertainment opportunities. In fact, our vision is to be able to use the space to extend these activities throughout downtown locations — tying in many newly renovated gems to host festivals and large scale community wide events.

Our economic development and community development teams have grants and loans to support great ideas that become popular businesses, galleries or restaurants, like the Park Theater. And let’s not forget the innovative Shirt Factory on Lawrence Street — a haven for artists of all stripes. I believe that if we can continue to build the capacity for creative folks to live, work and play in the city (Including increased broadband access) our creative economy will continue to grow. And our city will continue to be a magnet for these magnificent people.

The Restored Park Theater | Photo: Sydney K. Andrew Photography

How much money from the DRI funding is being dedicated to creative / community building components?

The entire DRI project will inject $10 million into the South Street / Elm Street area — but that is just the state money. The new commercial use and housing projects, as well as the renovation of the three existing historic buildings, will invest more than $26 million cumulatively.

How does that benefit the creative economy? The overall project includes the Market Center, as noted above, which will host our weekly Farmer’s Market, music festivals and other outdoor events. The Center is tied to a planned community Commercial Kitchen for food demonstrations and exhibitions. The two other historic buildings will have restaurant / commercial space on the ground floors, and for the first time in decades will have living quarters above.

Add in more than 80 new apartments, all the commercial / studio space and the concentration of arts, music, food and people … and we definitely expect that it will support the growth of our creative economy. In fact, the creative economy interests will be an important beneficiary of the entire project. Glens Falls will become a hub and attraction point for the lower Adirondacks because of it.

For more check out: Glens Falls: A Winning Team Sharing Secrets to Success

Glens Falls : A Winning Team Sharing Secrets to Success

August 4, 2022 By Corey Aldrich

The Glens Falls Collaborative was founded in 2012 as a means to draw customers to downtown. A traffic circle was being constructed which was creating a challenge to Glens Falls Downtown BID (Business Improvement District) members. A small group of merchants decided to try and do something about it, to bring customers and visitors back to downtown. From these determined circumstances The Glens Falls Collaborative was born. The Collaborative is a membership organization whose mission is to band together and promote businesses in the Glens Falls region in an effort to help them grow and thrive. Currently, they have about 100 members. In addition to organizing many large downtown festivals and events, the Collaborative has created a brochure of Glens Falls with a large distribution that is used as a promotional tool for area businesses to connect with locals and out-of-town visitors alike. The Collaborative also holds membership networking mixers and works alongside the City of Glens Falls and the BID on hospitality and promotional efforts for the community.

The Collaborative has a strong working relationship with the Lake George Chamber of Commerce and CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureau), the Adirondack Chamber and with Warren County Tourism. Collaborative events, branding and marketing have become a vital part of Glens Falls’ Tourism and economic development.

A seedling version of the eventual Glens Falls Arts District began meeting monthly in 2014 as a cross promotion of the Shirt Factory, LARAC, North Country Arts, World Awareness Children’s Museum and the Wood Theater. In the early days, there were a couple of iterations including the Glens Falls Arts and one called The Art Coalition (TAC). Eventually, dues were collected to pay for an administrative person to organize meetings, take notes and to organize collective events and promotions. In 2016, after a couple of years of conversations, the Glens Falls Arts District became a sub committee of The Collaborative. At this time, arts organizations became members of The Collaborative which then took over the administrative budget to help fund the basic operations of the Arts District. Currently, there are 13 members in the Arts District.

Phillip Casabona (LARAC) and Kate Austin (Advokate) | Photo: Provided

In 2017, the Arts District was written into the Glens Falls Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) for a $125K award (Note: They are still waiting for receipt of the full amount.) to be used specifically in establishing the Arts District and Trail. The Arts District funding also includes grants from the Touba Family Foundation and the Charles R. Wood Foundation.

The Arts District is technically a committee under the umbrella of The Collaborative who cover the insurance for Arts District events as needed. LARAC, a founding member of the Arts District and member of the Collaborative manages the accounts for the organization. It is not uncommon for folks to be on at least two of the three entities and as such, there is a strong partnership.

“I host a monthly meeting for the Collaborative, I sit on the board of the Glens Falls (BID) and provide regular updates to all parties about the others. Many of us are involved in at least two of these organizations as well as others, so we have a good sense of connection and collaboration.” says Kate Austin :Co-founder and Administrator of the Arts District and Owner / Founder at Advokate

There is significant synergy and interplay between the organizations. For example, the Collaborative has used the Wood Theater to host family movies for one of their popular annual events, Hometown Holidays, which also includes The Hyde Collection as part of the events’ programming. They frequently have artist participation during their events and have collaborated with the Glens Falls Community Theater group and the Glens Falls Symphony. The map of the Arts District is located on The Glens Falls Collaborative website. They have a variety of free public events throughout the year that highlight a broad selection of businesses such as the recent Take a Bite walking restaurant tour. In 2021 The Collaborative was asked to host the Adirondack Christkindlmarkt, which originated in Lake George in 2018. This event had many local artisan vendors and brought visitors from across the Northeast.

Nancy Turner : President at The Glens Falls Collaborative | Photo: Provided

“We strive to be inclusive of all our members, many of whom are part of the Glens Falls Arts District. We are always looking for ways to include them in our events.” says Nancy Turner : President of The Collaborative. She continues… “As we move forward as an organization and our city becomes more recognized as an artistic community, continued growth will naturally come to us. This will bring new residents and tourists who dine at our restaurants, buy tickets to attend our theaters, concerts and sporting events, and stay in our lodging establishments.”

Editors Note: This article was updated to show NORTH COUNTRY ARTS as an initial founding member of the Glens Falls Arts District. We regret our initial oversight.

For more check out – Building on Strength : A Conversation with Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins

Finding the Formula : A Conversation with Chet Opalka

July 12, 2022 By Corey Aldrich

My first memory of engaging directly with Chet was at an Ellen Sinopoli Gala Event. That particular year it was located on the Russell Sage Campus in Troy at the Bush Memorial Hall. Making a bold play to be dapper I had chosen a bow tie, the kind you have to actually tie yourself. Having never done this and distracted by the event that I was in fact running that evening for Ellen, I had neglected to figure out just how to do that. Guests were arriving and my stress level was rising.

But then, flanked by his charming wife, I spotted a dapper man in a seer sucker blazer and perfectly appointed bow tie entering the room. Swallowing my pride I approached sheepishly asking for advice. With a flashed smile and a chuckle the kind gentleman put his arms around me and adeptly tied the perfect knot.

And this was how I came to meet regional benefactor Chet Opalka.

It was a warm and sunny afternoon when I joined Chet and Karen in the Japanese style garden at their home in Rensselear county. I was initially greeted by two playful pups that were demanding of a couple of pets on the head for the cost of admission. As conversations with Chet usually are, it meandered, jumping between past, present and future. A winding narrative that continued to hone in on a couple of overarching themes that helped to define in my mind the focus and direction that has been and continues to be a life philosophy, a guiding narrative for his philanthropic endeavors – open minded collaborative thinking, generosity, risk taking and a belief that people and their ideas and passions can create value in our regional community and far beyond.

Chet the man is curious, vivacious and at times renegade. A creatively improvisational soul that looks to find cohesive connectivity in all things around him. For the last 20 years he has found ways to do that by working through the passion and visions of others in the community. Whether it be in private business enterprise (Chet was an early investor in Starfire Systems and Plug Power) or mission oriented arts and cultural organizations. A true angel investor, his philosophy is to invest in many and see how they develop over time. Some will fail, its inevitable. Chet is ok with that. Not every business, organization or idea will be fully actionable or sustainable. His interest is in the giving someone a chance to realize their dreams, to pursue their passion.

“We try to support as much as possible. Small (such as the Sand Lake Center for the Arts) and large (SPAC) because they all add quality of life to the community. We support as many as we can, the best we can. I subscribe to the idea that…what good is leaving a part of your estate to an organization after your gone? Do you get any enjoyment out of that, do you get to see the value you created? You don’t even know if they are going to survive. I prefer to do it while I am living, to see what value has been created. You can leave money to your kids, we did set up trusts for them. They don’t need anymore money. I prefer to give money to organizations or companies, to give them a chance to grow. Give them the horsepower to be successful. Angel investment is a version of philanthropy, betting on companies not to make money but to help them to be successful. If I make money it gives me more money to give away. That’s the only reason for me. That’s why I want the market to do well, so I can make more money to give away. That doesn’t suck, right? Enough is enough, how much do you need to be happy? What else do I need? I can go anywhere I want to go, I can do anything I want to do. I have enough money. What more do I need? I actually prefer to cook at home. I could eat out every night, I could have a personal chef but what fun would that be?“

After two decades, the desire is still stronger than ever to have an impact. His desire for direct involvement though, is evolving.

“When being in the limelight was new, it was exciting. As time goes on though, now that Karen and I are 74 years old, it is not as exciting. I understand why folks I knew doing this 20 years ago dropped out of the limelight when they were hitting our age, it gets tiring.“

As such, Chet prefers to provide financial leverage and opportunity to those individuals and organizations he feels are worthy but has little interest in the day to day involvement that directs those funds. Preferring to give his beneficiaries free reign to leverage his financial support. We did talk a lot about financial sustainability and how we need to move forward in the creative / cultural sector in a post covid world.

“Organizations should be looking at all aspects of what they do and understand how they can be monetized, become financially self sustaining.” When pressed about how we can reconcile that approach specifically with a mission oriented organization he said, “With no financial sustainability, there is no accomplishment of mission.” This was particularly prescient to me as my prime motivation for leaving the Real Estate industry about 10 years ago was a motivation to address this very issue. I had seen through volunteerism that many organizations that I was working with were excellent at mission but had a very poor understanding of the financial or accounting side of the ‘business.’ As we moved along in that aspect we landed on an area that is increasingly near and dear to the mission of ACE! – education. Teaching our creative and mission based organizations how to be more financially savvy.

“They don’t think about it. So many of us are altruistic, people (artists / organizations) are like that with their art and mission. But everybody needs to understand finance. One of the weaknesses of our education system is that we don’t teach people practical things. The only thing we seem to teach kids in school is how to memorize stuff, which was always a problem for me because I am a hands on learner. I don’t have the attention span. That’s how I learned chemistry. By seeing what others did and going from there.”

This creative hands on approach turned out quite well for Chet when he was a young chemist at Sterling Drug where he gained his first patent for a drug that later became a foundation for a new series of drugs designed to address congestive heart failure. When at first he was left off the patent that was filed, his willingness to challenge a hierarchical system payed dividends. He went over his direct boss’ head to have the situation rectified. He had been assigned to work on a series of antibiotics. When he noticed an interesting structural formula that he felt may have different and beneficial characteristics, he set aside his own time to pursue it and created a tidy piece of intellectual property for his employer. To that end he said…

“What I did could be considered insubordination because I didn’t do what I was told but that’s the way my mind works.“

I was also really interested in Chet’s perspective on how we could get more successful regional individuals and institutions in the private sector to consider following a similar philanthropic path to create a new generation of support for arts and cultural in our region. Here he got a bit psychological.

“By exposing our biz leaders more to arts and culture. They tend to focus on their businesses, they are overachievers. They don’t spend as much leisure time enjoying arts and culture and the outdoors necessarily. The people that work for them do though.“

What attracts young creative talent to a region is more than just a paycheck. It has to do with the quality of life options, the placemaking advantages that a region has to offer. Again, the very areas of the creative economy that were identified in the Mt. Auburn Associates ‘CAPTIVATE‘ report commissioned by the Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region and Center for Economic Growth for the stakeholders of ACE! close to its inception.

But then Chet drilled deeper…

“Our recruitment problem is that we have not made a name for ourselves as a cultural mecca of any kind. We are a secret externally and internally. To attract the kinds of young people who are in front edge creative careers we need to have a variety of things to do. What are they going to do when they are not working? Instead they go to NYC, Boston….In reality though, we are like the boroughs of Manhattan. Each community has its own character. What makes us different from Manhattan is that we look at ourselves as individual identities, we have not combined them. We are in fact neighborhoods – the Schenectady neighborhood, the Albany neighborhood, the Saratoga neighborhood.“

“We have a self esteem issue. There is no pride. We consider ourselves second hand citizens. Years ago in recruiting the big pitch was that we are 2.5 hours from NYC and 3 hours from Boston. It’s a Smallbany thing. We want to flip that script. Tell NYC folks that they are only 2.5 hours from Albany! Boston folks, 3 hours from Albany! I do love the Smallbany idea in that its easy to get to know people in our area. It’s about scale. It’s a benefit.“

Though I personally see some of that changing in the hearts and minds of young professionals in our area, this rang pretty true to me from an ACE! perspective. A few years ago, ACE! under the tenure of previous executive director Maureen Sager and in conjunction with several stakeholders including the Workforce Development Institute, held a series of round table discussions across the Capital District about how we could continue to attract bright creative individuals and companies to our region. This narrative is one that has been in the mouths and minds of many looking to create a destination space place for the Capital Region.

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, why don’t we understand that? Why are we so self centered and insecure that we can’t share with others for fear of them taking something from us? If it happens, so what? Personally, I don’t care if people use my ideas. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Who needs credit? I don’t care if I get credit for it or not. My ego is not so large as it needs credit for everything…unless its a patent!“

Chet and Karen Opalka | Image: Corey Aldrich

Putting the Economy in Creativity – A Conversation with Maureen Sager

June 6, 2022 By Corey Aldrich

I met Maureen while I was in Saratoga producing a sustainable fashion event in 2015. She took an interest in me and invited me out for drinks to talk about potential projects we could work on together. I will never forget how passionate she was about collaboration and the need for creatives to get proper compensation. We ended up working on a series of events together under the Saratoga Arts Fest summer program over the course of 3 years. Also at around that time she helped facilitate my connection with ACE! as the freelance creative representative in what was a group of who’s who of institutional arts in the Capital Region. This was back when it was a small gathering of folks meeting in a conference room at the Community Foundation of the Greater Capital Region. Since then, we have worked together on scores of events across the 8 counties of the Capital Region and helped create a connected community of talented creatives that I am proud to be a part of. While its bitter sweet to see Maureen move on to her next episode, I know that she will always be a quick text away and am excited to walk in her footsteps, continuing what we both believe is an important mission for all creative individuals and cultural and arts institutions in our region – the raising up of creative voices and providing opportunity for recognition, compensation and the strengthening of our most valuable regional asset, our creative class.

2016 WMHT Creative Networking Kickoff Event | Troy NY | Photo: Richard Lovrich

You came into this affiliation with a strong experiential background, can you share a little bit about your previous professional gigs?

Sure! I feel really lucky to have had a career in the entertainment industry. I went to film school at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, and worked at film companies like PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, where we released a slew of great indies like Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Usual Suspects. Then I fell in love with dotcom, and ended up at Nickelodeon during the wild, early days of the internet. It was super fun.

2018 Art OMI | Ghent, NY | Photo: Kristin Halligan

Tell us a little about the genesis of ACE! and how and when you came to be involved.

Almost ten years ago, the Community Foundation of the Greater Capital Region, along with key players like the Center for Economic Growth (CEG) and others, commissioned a report that quantified the “creative economy” of the 8-county Capital Region. The results were amazing! This sector — which had never been measured or talked about before — was suddenly seen as an economic driver, generating over a billion dollars in revenue, and employing tens of thousands of people. Such a surprise for everyone involved.

A group of people — Ellen Sax of MVP Health Care, Robert Altman of WMHT, Tom Lloyd of Adirondack Studios, Jeff Mirel of The Rosenblum Companies, Philip Morris of Proctors and MANY, MANY others — started convening, trying to figure out how to make the creative economy known and recognized in economic and workforce development circles. We gathered a bit of money together to start the project, and see whether we could get creatives businesses and organizations from all eight counties to work together in developing ourselves as a business sector. And, voila! ACE! was born.

2018 EYP Architecture and Engineering | Albany, NY

2019 PS21 | Chatham, NY | Photo: Ed Sager

You have been a passionate and dedicated leader to the organization, what particularly called you to the mission of ACE! and why do you feel that is important for our region?

There are SO MANY talented people up here — as talented as any I met in NY and LA — and yet, there just aren’t enough jobs and opportunities for our artists and creatives. People here — and small orgs and businesses — have drive, skill and passion to spare, and yet, they’re barely getting by. I think that’s what connected all of us who have worked with ACE! over the years. We wanted recognition for what’s here, and who’s here. We’re SO DAMN AWESOME. So, we just started throwing events, to celebrate all of the amazing venues, locations, and people we’ve got in this region.

2021 HBO Gilded Age Event with Special Guest Bob Shaw | Troy, NY | Photo: Konrad Odhiambo

Corey, I remember when you and I drove down to Brooklyn to go to a Freelancers Union networking event about 8 years ago. It was so cool to see a bunch of self-employed people sharing their knowledge and completely supporting each other’s efforts. You and I thought, “Damn, we could do that.” So, we did! We busted our asses for years, with dozens and dozens of events, and people were so supportive of our efforts. People were — are — really hungry to connect and learn and collaborate.

2019 Pitney Meadows Community Farm | Saratoga Springs, NY

There have been many highlights over the last several years. Can you share what you feel or some of the most important accomplishments of ACE?

I guess the biggest accomplishment is that the term “creative economy” is officially recognized and respected throughout the region. That’s really what we set out to do — to make it easier for everyone to be seen as integral to the economy of the region. Creatives aren’t just eye candy. We’re MONEY. We give life to our cities and towns. And we deserve respect.

2018 National Museum of Dance | Saratoga Springs, NY | Photo: Ed Sager

Can you tell us about your latest decision to move on and what your current professional goals are?

Two years ago, I moved down to Catskill, a town I fell in love with while planning an ACE event six years ago. My life is centered down here now, and it’s too far south to cover the whole region. Plus, after these two years of COVID, I was ready for a change. I’m so damn glad that you (Corey) are here to take it over. We hatched this thing together, and it’s time for you to invent the next chapter. I’m so excited to see where it goes.

2019 Arts Letters and Numbers | Avril Park, NY

2019 Opalka Gallery | Albany, NY | Photo: Ed Sager

Is there anything specific you would like to share that you feel is important for our audience to consider?

The creative economy is a powerful change agent, but not all of the changes are good. Gentrification and skyrocketing rents are plaguing many of our cities and towns. It worries me, when creatives can no longer afford to live in the places they helped to flourish. I hope we can figure out ways to address this together, and if you have ideas, I’m all ears.

Maureen Sager is now the Director of Marketing and Communications at SUNY Columbia-Greene Community College and has a real estate side hustle based in Catskill, NY.

Editors Note: Ellen Sax was inaccurately identified as working for CDPHP. Ellen is actually employed by MVP Health Care. We apologize for the confusion.