Fifth Anniversary Hatch

All are invited to join in the procession alongside the Ocean Avenue Stompers and Miracle Tapestries Project

After our virtual Hatch-in-place in 2020, we are so excited to announce ArtYard’s biennial celebration of communal creativity returns in person in Frenchtown on June 25, 2022.

Hatch features live music, performance, storytelling, and a parade of locals dressed as birds who hatch from a giant 14-foot egg to celebrate creative incubation and community.

At this year’s Hatch, the procession will be led by Ocean Avenue Stompers, a New Orleans-influenced brass band. Artist Laura Bernstein and collaborators will also unfurl their Miracle Tapestry Project. Panels of 12-foot-tall,hand-sewn fabrics chronicle the first 12 months of Covid-19 in the artist’s life. Bernstein and the artists will also share a collective poem written in embrace for finding joy in the natural world despite its perilous future. The artist collaborators include Natessa Amin, Georgina Arroyo, Jana Benitez, Claire Bidwell, Krysta Brayer, Tamar Ettun, Ava Hassinger, Rebecca Pristoop, Emily Reilly, Lydia Rosenberg, Ryan L Smith, Lexy Ho-Tai, Leah Victoria, and Amalia Wilson.

All are invited to join in the festivities as a Bird to hatch out of the egg. All birds should meet at ArtYard Center at 9:30 AM on the morning of the Hatch. You can create your own bird costume, make a larger-than-life bird puppet, or gather with friends to make a flock. We have a limited supply of past Bird costumes available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Check out photos of our past Hatches for inspiration.

What is the Hatch?

The inaugural Hatch was held on the day that Artyard first opened its doors on September 4th, 2016. The act of hatching was a nod to Frenchtown’s past as a 20th-century hub of egg incubation, and to its future as an incubator of creative artistic enterprise.

ArtYard’s community created a 14-foot-tall welded-steel egg and a flock of community and artist-constructed bird costumes and giant puppets and, perched on the edge of the derelict former egg hatchery which is now the site of ArtYard Center, emerged in a raucous celebration of creativity.

Since that day, we have continued the Hatch to commemorate our opening and underscore our commitment to art that is inclusive, democratic and subversive of expectations. The Hatch engaged people in our own community of Frenchtown, but also commingled groups from communities in Philadelphia, Camden, Brooklyn and beyond.