Saratoga Business Journal
Entrepreneur Converts Mechanicville Church into an Arts Center to Serve the Community
by Wendy Page
It took a strong vision, persistence and determination, and a host of
individuals for Jaimen McMillan to convert the former St. Luke’s
Episcopal Church in Mechanicville into the new The Arts Center on the
Hudson. It also took time and a circuitous path.
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, built in Mechanicville in 1898, was in
disrepair. The roof was failing, causing water and mold problems, floors
were in disarray, and stones on the north side were falling from high up
the tower. A report was produced saying the building was unsafe and
possibly irreparable.
Five years after that report, when McMillan was looking for space for an
arts center he wanted to bring to the community, he heard the church was
for sale and decided to investigate the charges against the building.
“The building architecturally is very unique,” McMillan said.
“The building itself is a work of art that had to be saved.”
He hired John G. Waite Associates, a leading consultant in the field of
historic preservation architecture, to conduct a thorough study.
“To change the perceived reality,” explained Bill Brandow, an
associate with John G. Waite, McMillan “hired us to do a feasibility
study: How bad is it, what needs to be done, in what sequence. We kind
of laid out how they’d have to go about it, what was significant
concern, what was over-hyped. He used our report as a jumping off
point.”
McMillan purchased the church in August of 2007. With report in hand
stating that the building was sound and with a list of necessary
improvements, McMillan turned to Richard R. Butler of Butler Rowland Mays
Architects LLP to represent him in front of the planning and zoning boards,
and to assist with building review issues.
“Jaimen knew it was necessary to just clean the building up, and to
make it a multipurpose space to use for all kinds of functions,”
Butler said. “It was a lot of deferred maintenance, a lot of removal
of old work that had been done to the original.”
The roof, in large part the source of the problems, was replaced.
Seamless gutters were installed, “then Jim Roberts, my contractor
from Home Works, dug trenches to funnel the water away. Then it was a
question of gutting the basement. My family - my wife Dorothea and
nephew - did a lot of the work necessary to turn the tide.”
Walls in the basement that had been covered up for years were exposed to
reveal windows eliciting a lot of natural light. Handicapped bathrooms were
installed, wall surfaces were restored and replaced, and the ceiling height
was raised in the lower level. McMillan added: “We didn’t restructure the
church; we restored it. This was a restoration. We changed very little- the
alter was removed, the iron work and the pews were taken out. We put a
totally new floor in the upstairs. A red oak floor is in there now. We
gutted the basement and a new floor is down there, too. From the pews,
we made some beautiful windowsills.”
The idea for The Arts Center was born from McMillan’s career, his
travels, and his vision for the future. His expertise is in movement
- specifically movement therapy, for which he has a doctorate, and
the quality of movement, such as how to incur fewer sports-related injuries,
or how to ensure people hurt less while working on a production
line or in everyday activiities.
He developed an approach to physical education and spatial ergonomics,
and founded the Spacial Dynamics Institute, Inc., where he serves as director.
“Spacial dynamics includes the immediate space around the person as
part of the person,” McMillan explained. “This is where we come
into the arts. We have to study the science of charisma and connecting
- these are spatial bridges that we make to other people. We’ve
all been moved by a glance, for example. A glance isn’t physical yet
it is as real as anything material. It shows how we can jump out of our own
skins and spark something new in others. Connecting to others is perhaps
the ultimate art.” Lots of actors and musicians train in Spacial Dynamics “because
they make their living by changing that space on the stage,” McMillan
said. ”There’s a vibrancy between the audience and the
performer.”
Once the art of performance is added, it leads to having a venue for
these performances. McMillan associates true art with true community, and
views The Arts Center as a cultural center and community builder.
As stated prominently on The Arts Center’s web site ([LINK:
center promises to make cultural waves that will be felt throughout
Saratoga County and the Capital District. This is especially true for
waves that reach children. Adjacent to The Arts Center is the Mechanicville
Community Center, which will hold some programs in the Center. Performances at
The Arts Center reflect McMillan’s mission to share
“all sorts of art” with the people of Mechanicville. In the
area of performing, “there will be concerts, plays, art exhibits, and
dance performances,” McMillan promised.
Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was performed in
early December by Ashley Ramsden, an English master storyteller and actor
who portrayed all 23 characters of the classic tale. On Valentine’s
Day, Australian actor John McManus and Israeli pianist Gili Melamed-Lev
will present Paul Gallico’s “The Snow Goose,” a story
about love and compassion set against a background of war and mistrust.
In early April, there will be a dual performance. ”The Open
Window” is the true story of Vedran Smailovic, principal cellist of
the Sarajevo Opera, who, during the Siege of Sarajevo in 1992, powerfully
responded to genocide with his cello, creating music that was heard
around the world. Max Judelson accompanies on the cello. ”Three
Strings” asks the question: In the middle of a concert, what does
violinist Yitzchak Perlman do when one of the strings on his violin
breaks? Gabi Im accompanies on the violin.
Another part of The Arts Center focuses on art education. Classes will
be offered on subjects such as how to sculpt and how to paint. “Fonda
Black, The Arts Center administrator, is a specialist in handcrafts,
knitting, and weaving,” McMillan stated. ”She can make
anything. One of the things we want to be able to offer, particularly to
children, is handcrafts.”
Butler is equally impressed by the outcome. ”What to me is the
real story,” he said, “is that Mr. McMillan is the first person
in the contemporary history of Mechanicville to restore an historic
building. He saved the building. This is a real event that sparked urban
renewal in the community, and added a function to the southern part of
the county, not just Mechanicville. It’s really a success story.”
McMillan concluded, “To be able to work on something that majestic
brought the best out in all of us, and there was camaraderie in saving
something that would otherwise have been lost and could never have been
brought back.”
The Arts Center on the Hudson can be reached at 2 South Main Street in
Mechanicville by calling 852-8870, or by visiting [LINK: