The Barn - Albany, NY

What is Albany Barn?
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Barn-raising is the name given an age-old practice of people coming together to erect a barn or house for a neighbor but it has come to mean a lot more than constructing a structure; it’s about building community.
Albany Barn, Inc is a private nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to creating a permanent, sustainable creative arts incubator and neighborhood art space in Albany, NY.
St. Joseph's Academy - future home of The Barn
Albany Barn recognizes how difficult it can be for aspiring working artists to get a foothold. It is our goal to make a home for all the rich and diverse arts of the Capital Region, not only by providing a place to display or perform, but a place to create, to network, to promote, to learn, and even to live.
Albany Barn evolved from Rock2Rebuild™, a grassroots production group established to create events benefiting important causes while raising the profile of local creative talent. Since its inception in early 2005, Rock2Rebuild (R2R) has staged several major multimedia concerts featuring regional artists and raised tens of thousands of dollars for goodwill agencies including Habitat For Humanity and Save The Children. The R2R “Capital District Benefit for Tsunami Relief,” was voted one of the year’s “Best Concerts” in the Albany Times Union “2005 Readers’ Poll” and 2009 marks the fifth year of R2R’s “Rock Lite” bimonthly acoustic concert series in the Ronald McDonald House of Albany ‘Family Room’ at Albany Medical Center.
R2R’s work remains an integral part of Albany Barn’s broader mission. In 2008 Albany Barn pioneered new local music showcases at “Art on Lark” and “Lark Fest,” two of the region’s largest cultural events, produced its second “Summer In The City Youth Talent Exhibition” featuring student artists from the inner city, and collaborated on programs with the Salvation Army and Gilda’s Club Capital Region.
“Events are in our DNA, but local artists need more than visibility,” explains Jeff Mirel, Founder and President of Albany Barn dba Rock2Rebuild. “We want to deliver arts from the community for the community 365 days a year. We want to put a roof over the Rock2Rebuild concept.”
Beholden to the spirit of those early R2R concerts and the successes of transformative art incubators in other American cities like Providence, RI, New York, NY, and Kansas City, MO, Albany Barn seeks to create new synergies between culture, commerce and community by providing an open forum for the exploration, creation and presentation of art; cauterizing the brain drain of promising young artists from our Region; nurturing productive relationships between artists, businesses and residents, particularly at-risk City youth, expanding the footprint of arts in the City; and facilitating neighborhood revitalization.
Facilities planned include affordable live/work residences, work studios, rehearsal suites, performance and exhibition space, a public darkroom, digital media lab, and more. They will be made available to local artists, musicians, writers, filmmakers and performers seeking an engaging, supportive environment in which to create and share their work, particularly those who cannot afford or otherwise obtain such space. Exhibits, performances and activities will be unjuried and open to all ages.
This is a call to all creative artists and art supporters in the Greater Capital Region:
SPREAD THE WORD - GET INVOLVED -
RAISE THE BARN!
For more info, please visit www.albanybarn.org or email us at [email protected]
Albany Barn, Inc. is moving forward with our partner, the Albany Housing Authority, on converting St. Joseph's Academy, a beautiful and spacious former school building in Arbor Hill into a community arts incubator. The massive first floor will include several large galleries, significant performance and flex space, cafe, work studios, rehearsal studios, a dark room and digital media lab. Affordable live-work apartments with private bathrooms & kitchens will be located on the upper floors.
So many of you have already written to us expressing your interest in live/work space, studio space and rehearsal space - THANK YOU - your input will help to make The Barn a reality.
If you are interested and you have not contacted us yet, we still want to HEAR from YOU:
PLEASE COMPLETE THE "LIVE/WORK IN THE BARN" FORM AT www.albanybarn.org
NOTE: WE WILL NOT BE SHARING ANY NAMES OR CONTACT INFORMATION WITH OUTSIDE PARTIES - we are trying to show general interest, but not specific individual prospects at this time.
EXPRESSING INTEREST IN A SPACE IN NO WAY OBLIGATES YOU WHEN IT BECOME AVAILABLE.
Thank you! If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected]