Spring 2026: A Season of Wonder

Coming to ArtYard this spring are two major new exhibitions — In the Company of Still Life and Lora Webb Nichols: Photographs Made, Photographs Collected — that foreground quotidian life in a survey of contemporary still life painting and sculpture and an astonishing recently discovered archive of a small town photographer who chronicled Wyoming’s “inconsequential chores and rituals (washing, shovelling snow, braiding hair).”

The exhibitions open with a public reception on the evening of Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, followed by artist-led talks and tours on Sunday, Feb. 22.

Curated by Alex Cohen and Clara Weishahn, In the Company of Still Life explores the fascinating and complex relationships between objects and ourselves through still-life paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and found objects. Capturing the ordinary and extraordinary, in turns eternal and ephemeral, still lifes tell our stories by proxy while reflecting our very human desire to slow time. Work from 40 artists is displayed in a series of distinct rooms, welcoming visitors into a space inspired by the specificity and intimacy of still life.

Curated by Nicole Jean Hill, Photographs Made, Photographs Collected features carefully selected images drawn from Lora Webb Nichols’ extraordinary archive of approximately 24,000 negatives, chronicling life in Encampment, Wyoming, in the early to mid-20th century. Nichols’ photographs of domestic, social, and economic rhythms capture the rural community with a sensitive, unpretentious eye, inviting a moment of pause for a bygone era.

ArtYard’s performance season features a dynamic roster of concerts, comedy, and genre-defying art featuring internationally acclaimed musicians, visionary storytellers, and boundary-pushing performers. Spanning a wide spectrum of styles, cultures, and forms, the lineup brings together artists whose work shares a spirit of artistic risk-taking, inviting audiences to gather closely, lean in, and experience the power of live performance.

Highlights include:

On Saturday, March 7, the celebrated singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Joan as Police Woman, known for emotionally resonant performances, makes her Frenchtown debut. Her genre-defying sound blends soul, indie, and jazz influences.

A concert by Cochemea Gastelum, a multi-instrumentalist and composer whose work weaves together jazz, funk, and Indigenous rhythmic traditions, provides a powerful, meditative musical experience on Saturday, April 11. His music reflects on lineage and speculative history: ancestral memory is a core inspiration, and his sound is at once rooted and futuristic.

On Saturday, April 25, musical theatre duo Jaime Lozano and Florencia Cuenca showcase a brand-new collection of songs born from their ArtYard residency — works inspired by the real-life stories of New Jersey residents. Returning after last year’s Broadway en Spanglish concert, Lozano and Cuenca once again weave their signature blend of Mexican mariachi traditions, heartfelt storytelling, and family-rooted artistry, offering audiences a first listen to this deeply human and locally rooted song cycle.

Martin Sexton, called “the best live performer I’ve ever seen” by John Mayer, makes a stop in Frenchtown on Saturday, May 23, as part of his tour in support of the 25th anniversary of the critically acclaimed double vinyl live album Live Wide Open.

The lineup also features Dave Hill, an irreverent stand-up comedian with a rockstar edge; Dynasty Handbag’s Weirdo Night, featuring singular cathartic performances and a diverse catalog of artists (tickets coming soon); and Ayodele Casel, internationally acclaimed tap dancer, choreographer, and writer, celebrated for her deeply expressive and narrative-driven works.

The Delaware River will become a glowing stage for creativity and community at the third Aqualumina, a riverside lantern festival, on Saturday, May 9. A joyful convergence of art, music, performance, and environmental reflection, Aqualumina is a celebration of water as a vulnerable resource, a necessity, a bellwether, and a mirror of the sky.

The festivities kick off in January with art-making workshops in ArtYard’s Aqualumina Workshop (details coming soon), where community members will be invited to design illuminated sea-life puppets, whimsical rain cloud costumes, and jellyfish parasols to animate the festival’s signature community procession.

ArtYard and Mudtown Ceramics will partner to present The Deep, a participatory art project and exhibition in ArtYard’s entry gallery, in which community members will build a common ocean from individual waves. Mudtown will host 10 workshops (coming soon), allowing participants to join in this project by crafting ceramic waves to contribute to the ocean installation.

In addition, longtime ArtYard collaborator Brian Sanders’ JUNK, the wildly inventive dance and acrobatic troupe, will perform their newest work, URBAN SCUBA, during back-to-back performances on Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28.

A new addition to ArtYard’s community programs is Latin Ballroom with Michael Sazonov, a workshop series designed to light the fire for movement within, kicking off Thursday, Jan. 29.  This easygoing six-week dance workshop series takes attendees on a down-to-earth dance tour of salsa, mambo, merengue, cumbia, and tango. Creative Movement for Older Adults, also led by Michael Sazonov, returns for an eight-week series on Wednesday mornings from Jan. 14 through March 4. No dance experience is necessary!

Finally, keep an eye on ArtYard’s website for the speakers featured in our Tiny Talk series, held on the second Sunday of every month. Campus Tours led by ArtYard’s Gallery and Theater Manager Saxon resume in May and run through the summer on the first Sunday of each month.

ArtYard’s fall/winter season features new additions you don’t want to miss.

To kick off the new year, New Jersey Ballet’s week-long Works & Process creative residency at ArtYard culminates on Friday, Jan. 9 in a showing of company favorites alongside performances from choreographer Roderick George’s newest work Wings of Desire. Commissioned by New Jersey Ballet, ArtYard, and Works & Process, the work will be performed at Guggenheim New York on Jan. 10 and New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts on April 24 and 25.

Experience Living in Brilliant Suspension: Didier William one last time ahead of its closing on Sunday, Jan. 18 and join us on Saturday, Jan. 17 for a film screening of the upcoming documentary SAN GADE DYE, an artist portrait of Didier William, followed by a conversation with artist Didier William, curator and Associate Professor of Black Studies Jerry Philogene, and Emmy Award-winning producer and director Marlon Johnson. “SAN GADE DYE” is a phrase in Haitian Creole. While there isn’t a single direct translation, the core of the phrase means “without looking at God” or “without God’s approval.” It implies a reckless or ungodly action.

Joseph Keckler’s Golden Hour returns to ArtYard on Sat., Jan. 24 for an unforgettable evening of daring storytelling featuring Edgar Oliver, a cult favorite of New York’s downtown theatre scene, and River L. Ramirez, a multidisciplinary experimental artist whose work spans comedy, music, writing, and performance.

At the Brazilian Carnival concert on Saturday, Feb. 7, dancing is encouraged — even on stage — during this lively performance of Brazilian jazz, bossa nova, and samba led by Michael Arenella, featuring special guests from the Brazilian music scene.