BIDDEFORD — Engine, the arts-focused non-profit on Main Street, has a lot on the horizon, including hosting a Biddeford-born artist collective’s first exhibition at the end of the month, as well as finally starting to see its dream of renovating the Marble Block come to fruition.

“Our whole mission is to help revitalize downtown Biddeford through the arts,” Engine’s Executive Director Tammy Ackerman said Friday.

“(Engine) is really an economic and community development organization disguised as an arts organization,” she said, with a smile.

The space, at 265 Main St., is marked by the same brick-and-hardwood charm that graces many of the buildings in downtown Biddeford. Art exhibitions are showcased there every two months or so, said Ackerman, “with the intent to support the community of painters and artists.”

The next exhibition to appear at Engine will open on Jan. 30. It’s called “Primum” and was created by an artist collective formed by four York County artists in early November. The collective, known as Autus, which means growth in Latin, has four members: Keiren Valentine of Kennebunk, Sarah Baldwin of Wells, Julie K. Gray of Saco and Tina Guay of Biddeford.

“We’re local artists,” said Valentine on Friday. “We have process-driven work. We’re looking to push the edges of our local community, in terms of the types of work that is typically shown.”

Valentine also works as the curator of local art exhibitions for Elements: Books Coffee Beer, which sits next to Engine on Main Street.

“Primum” will be Autus’ first exhibition as a group; fittingly, the word primum translates to “for the first time” in Latin.

“It’s a representation of the types of work that we do,” said Valentine of the exhibition, which will run through March 21.

“I do cyanotypes,” she said. “They’re a type of photography. It’s kind of like painting with light. It’s photography-based, but I use a lot of different methods to get an image.”

The four artists’ work combines an array of techniques. Baldwin’s work, for example, is rooted in ink drawing, while Guay works in photography and Gray works in both photography textile art.

The group’s core intention is “to cultivate growth in the emerging art scene of Biddeford and attract new talent to the area,” Baldwin wrote in an email this morning.

By 2016, Autus will take over the curation of several exhibitions at Engine.

“Our focus will be on emerging and mid-career artists who are working in experimental studio practice and have been under-represented,” wrote Baldwin. “We will exhibit local artists as well as bring international talent to Maine to establish a connection between the emerging art scene in Biddeford and the international stage.”

Baldwin also noted that Ackerman was the one who brought the four artists together to form the collective late last year.

Ackerman said helping to form artist collectives like Autus ensures that Engine achieves its main goal of supporting the community via the arts ­”“ a goal that may be met on a much larger scale before the year’s end.

In 2011, the non-profit was gifted property at 129 Main St. known as the Marble Block. The three-story, marble-veneered building, which was built in 1877, was formerly a Renys department store, and the Reny family donated it to Engine so that it could turn it into a center for arts and creativity.

But the gift didn’t come without strings ”“ and headaches ”“ attached. “The basement was nasty,” said Ackerman.

There was lead in the paint, and asbestos was found in the insulation between the walls. But after years of the project being no more than an aspiration, construction is finally set to begin, sparked by a recent $200,000 grant from the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission.

“Work will begin very soon,” said Ackerman. “We’re making headway on it, with the idea that we’ll be able to occupy the first 3,000 square feet by the fall.”

Spreading out into the rest of the building, and onto the second and third floors especially, will prove more complicated, she said. But the plan is to have the entire building “up-and-running” within five years.

Once completed, the Marble Block will boast 20 art studios, a vaudeville-era performance stage and even a “green roof,” which will feature gardens and a gathering space.

For more information on upcoming events and exhibitions at Engine, or to view blueprints and designs for the Marble Block project, visit Engine’s website at www.feedtheengine.org.

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.