FARMINGTON – The future of the three-story Knowlton-McLeary building on Church Street is unknown, but the building’s owners have notified the artists at NOW Studios and Gallery that they will need to vacate by Jan. 6, according the gallery’s manager, Joe Moceus, who also rents space there.

Peggy Hodgkins, president of Hodgco Inc., the corporation that owns the building, verified Wednesday that there is a purchase-and-sale agreement, but that the sale is not yet final. She needed to give renters 30 days notice, she said.

In addition to having a well-lit four-room gallery, the building has provided studio space for about 20 artists since 2003. Residents include two University of Maine Farmington professors, several university students as well as community artists. They are painters, sculptors, potters, glass, fabric and silver artists, along with a musician. All will need to pack up their easels and potter’s wheels and be out by January, according to Moceus.

“The space is so good,” he said of the large-windowed structure where rents average about $40 monthly.

He said artists had varying reactions to the news. Some were very upset, some were already planning to move, and some were just accepting the news because they knew the building had been for sale.

Standing astride a pile of scrap wood he planned to use for a sculpture, university art student Chris Shaw said recently that it would be really tough for him to move everything out.

But, “There’s not much I can do about it,” he said.

Another artist said it feels like a family there, according to Moceus.

“I’ll definitely miss that,” Moceus said. “It was good of Peggy (Hodgkins) to let us use the building,” he added. “I know she took a loss.”

Hodgkins said her company wishes the artists luck.

“It’s unfortunate that the university does not provide adequate space for art students,” she said, adding that she hopes someone in the community will step up and offer them space.

On Wednesday, the gallery was showing paintings by Laurie Barker and Lord Clinton Casey. It is the last show the group will sponsor, said Moceus.