After 76 years of artist exhibitions, advocacy for the arts in local government and dozens of free programs, Bainbridge Arts and Crafts will close its doors Jan. 1, 2025.

“My heart breaks for the devoted staff who have given their all to the gallery. It’s such a beautiful space and an essential part of the Bainbridge arts community,” Joanne Shellan, oil painter on BI, says in an email. “The amount of patrons who come through the gallery on any given Art Walk night is astonishing, and when I had the opportunity to be one of a three-person show, [BAC] almost sold out my show. I am shocked and saddened by the news.”

BAC officially announced its closure Sept. 5, a few weeks after the nonprofit initially disclosed its financial troubles to the public. With its departure go decades-old community programs, such as grants for teachers and emerging artists, “Art after 60” and other classes at the senior center, art on lend for hospitals, public talks by professional artists and the “Professional Practices Program,” skill-building workshops for artists and creatives.

“There will no doubt be a large hole left in the art exhibition landscape with our exit,” executive director Debra Ruzinsky said.

It’s been a slow spiral, Ruzinsky explained. BAC’s work helped form the vibrant arts ecosystem on BI, but it was the very conditions that BAC helped create that gave rise to the challenges that pushed the nonprofit to the brink.

Today, the BAC gallery on Winslow Way is their face of the work in the community, but in its early days, it was a learning hub. Its founding members offered the basics of popular art forms — including classics like drawing, painting and ceramics, but also china painting, lampshade-making, macramé, mosaics, sand casting, dollmaking and lectures. Instructors taught in people’s homes and schoolrooms.

BAC soon grew to include a gallery space, which has operated since 1954, featuring everything from local children’s work to luminaries like glassblower Dale Chihuly, painter and sculptor George Tsutakawa, photographer Mary Randlett and still-life painter Rosalyn Gale Powell, among others.

It never stopped doing outreach for the arts: scholarships and support for school art programs remained integral to the organization’s focus, as well as art talks, classes, demonstrations and exhibitions. By 2024, the organization was regularly hosting up to 250 local artists in the gallery and over 100 workshops every year.

“We have worked hard to deliver quality programs […] all while educating the public about art, artists and diverse perspectives. We don’t always choose works that are ‘commercial’ because our mission is about so much more than selling art,” Ruzinsky said. “We have tried to be responsible with your donation dollars to provide a venue that keeps the community coming back, one that engages conversation and critical thinking.”

As time went on, arts organizations proliferated on BI. BAC continued to fundraise through grants, donations and art sales, but that became more competitive and income dwindled. To keep up, BAC has been relying more on its savings, Ruzinsky said, but overhead is high as most activities are free to the public.

“It’s always been tough, but so much has happened in rapid succession to make it even harder,” Barbara Bolles said, lamenting the closure. “The arts and nonprofit offerings in the community have multiplied in recent decades, thinning out the sources of support.”

However, cutting programming was never on the table, and neither were staff reductions. So when solvency began to look questionable, BAC sought a partnership with a fellow arts organization, but that didn’t happen.

“We explored partnerships with multiple nonprofits and ultimately came to the decision that it would be better to go out in our best and current form, rather than shrink down to a greatly reduced version of ourselves,” Ruzinsky said. “We have discussed with others ways to carry on our programs, and cannot speak to who or how at this time, but will work until our last days to find a home for the programs this community has relied on for many years.”

Amy Bush, designer and owner of Loyalsmith jewelry, said that she was “astonished but at the same time, not surprised” by the announcement. Her experience starting her own gallery about 18 months ago is already facing a similar fate. “It’s crushing sometimes, the amount of effort it takes,” she said.