ArtYard is an incubator for creative expression and a catalyst for collaborations that reveal the transformational power of art.
We are a contemporary art center dedicated to presenting transformative artwork, fostering unexpected collaborations, and incubating original new work. Situated in the heart of Frenchtown, New Jersey, ArtYard’s campus encompasses exhibition spaces, theater, artist residencies, and a workshop designed to support artists and welcome visitors from across the region.
We present innovative exhibitions by emerging and internationally recognized artists alongside performances, live music, artist residencies, and community programming. We emphasize experimentation, collaboration, and accessibility, encouraging audiences to engage with contemporary artistic practices in meaningful ways. Through partnerships with schools, community organizations, and local businesses, ArtYard serves as a cultural anchor in the Delaware River Valley, creating opportunities for artistic exploration while strengthening connections between artists and the public.
ArtYard envisions an inclusive and expressive world where every individual can discover their creative potential and belong to a diverse, flourishing, and empathic community.
We are guided by the following core values:
Unexpected and Transformative Work
We are dedicated to supporting artistic freedom and fueling the creative process in pursuit of innovative, original art that opens pathways toward greater self-reflection, understanding, interaction, and imagination.
Collaboration
We are committed to working with values-aligned and process-focused individuals, organizations, and institutions, and generously sharing our facilities, time, knowledge, and connections with them.
Belonging and Empathy
We aim to remove barriers and create the conditions for curiosity and full, meaningful participation so that people feel welcome, known, seen, heard, and connected to something larger than themselves.
Joy and Creativity
We cultivate joy in our daily lives, work, and relationships by practicing celebration and communal making and recognizing each person’s ability and need to be creative in their own way.
Organizational Wellness
We center collective care, recognizing that each person is an expert on what care means to them, and build strong internal and external processes and feedback loops in which context and decision-making are communicated frequently.
ArtYard provides support and has played a key role in sparking Studio Route 29, a progressive art studio that centers the creative practices and perspectives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A community space that champions inclusion and brings people together in play and creative spirit, Studio Route 29 is part of a growing movement of initiatives that provide community, dignity, income, and opportunities for adults with developmental and other disabilities to realize their full creative potential.
The vision to plant Studio Route 29 in Frenchtown has roots in ArtYard’s 2019 exhibition, The Creative Commons: Progressive Studio Practice. It brought together works from the Creative Growth Art Center, LAND Gallery, and the Center for Creative Works, three studios influenced by Creative Growth founders Florence and Elias Katz, whose radical approach to art making and inclusion for adults with developmental disabilities has occasioned a sea change in conceptions of contemporary art and launched more than 300 similar arts centers and myriad acclaimed careers.
Studio Route 29 is housed in ArtYard’s first home at 62A Trenton Avenue. In addition, ArtYard’s Courtyard Gallery showcases work by artists with developmental and intellectual disabilities, often alongside pieces by neurotypical artists, in collaboration with Studio Route 29.
