Mostly Modern Founders Discuss Arts Center Updates and Controversies

SARATOGA — Since the publication of a story last week about the proposed Mostly Modern Arts Center in the Town of Saratoga, opposition to the project appears to have increased. A Facebook group pushing back against the project grew from 53 members to 92. A similar Change.org petition has also gone from 89 signatures to more than 200.

Victoria and Robert Paterson, the co-founders of the Mostly Modern Festival who are spearheading the project, spoke with Saratoga TODAY about their plans for the center, which they indicated will be smaller, quieter, and less intrusive than opponents may believe.

“We have to help take down the temperature and try to get the facts clear,” Victoria said.

“Almost everything is going to take place indoors and the space is entirely soundproof,” Robert said. “For those rare moments when we have something where we open the front doors towards County Route 68, which is where it faces, those events are going to be mostly classical and all chamber music, and fairly infrequent.”

The Robertsons also said they will attend the Town Board meeting on Sept. 8, when a public hearing about the project is scheduled to take place, according to the town’s Aug. 11 meeting minutes.

“We get that our neighbors get worried because they may not understand everything and they’re still learning,” Robert said. “If there are some facts that seem a little confusing, we want to make sure we get the facts straight.”

A circulated flyer titled “Protect the Peace, Safety, and Rural Charm We Call Home” states that the center would have a 100-car parking lot. Although a variety of documents have mentioned that the center would have 100 spaces total (including grass overflow spaces), there are no plans for one paved parking lot with 100 spaces, the Patersons said.

“There will be 51 total paved parking spaces between the cabins (when those are ever built) and the building,” Robert said. “All those parking spaces will be behind the woods and hidden. There will be grass areas where people can park if there’s overflow. Those are not paved.”

The flyer also states that an outdoor amphitheater for performances is planned. The Patersons said that this outdoor performance space would include a small stage capable of fitting about five performers. A seating area in front of that stage could fit “no more than about 30 or 40 people,” Robert said.

“I don’t want our neighbors to think we’re the next Coachella,” Victoria said.

A project proposal from June mentioned that as many as five cabins could be built on the site. Robert said this number was more of a “maximum potential” and “definitely not what we’re planning right now.” The total number of cabins, which would primarily be used to house visiting musicians and performers, would likely be 2 or 3. These cabins could be as large as 5,000 square feet, but are more likely to be whittled down to 2,000 square feet, the Patersons said. 

Any cabins likely wouldn’t be constructed for at least a few years, the Patersons said. And the venue itself, if fully approved, also won’t be built for another two to three years. Although the project proposal lists the venue as being three stories, the third story is a basement that would mostly be used for storage. Overall, the venue would accommodate a total of 150 people maximum, including musicians.

One more thing the Patersons wished to clarify was the project proposal’s inclusion of a statement that they “have been looking for a new home for the [Mostly Modern] festival.” This statement appears to have been included in the proposal in error.

“We have no plans or desire to leave Skidmore at all,” Robert said (Skidmore College’s Arthur Zankel Music Center hosts the annual music festival). “We love hosting our festival there. We can’t possibly host our festival in this structure that we’re building because we need the hall at Skidmore and those facilities… So this venue is definitely not meant for that.”

According to the Town of Saratoga’s Aug. 11 meeting minutes, the next steps for the proposed Mostly Modern Arts Center will be: 

• The public hearing on Sept. 8, by which point the town will have a complete application;

• A State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR);

• And then, following the SEQR, a determination if the town will continue with the application.

“We are looking at October or November depending on how quickly we go through these steps,” the minutes said.