ABOUT THE BARN
-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; itıs about building community.
Albany Barn, Inc, is a private nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to developing a permanent creative arts incubator and community art center in Albany, NY called THE BARN.
Albany Barn, Inc recognizes how difficult it can be for aspiring working artists to get a foothold. It is our goal to make THE BARN 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, to teach, and even to live.
Albany Barn, Inc. grew out of the grassroots charitable concert group, Rock2Rebuild. Since its inception in early 2005, Rock2Rebuild (R2R) has staged several major charitable concert events and a bi-monthly acoustic concert series exclusively featuring Capital Region musicians, dancers and visual artists. R2R raised tens of thousands of dollars for local and national goodwill agencies including Habitat For Humanity, Save The Children and Ronald McDonald House of Albany (RMHC). The R2R ³Capital District Benefit for Tsunami Relief,² held in February 2005, was voted one of the yearıs ³Best Concerts² in the Albany Times Union 2005 Readersı Poll.
The success of Rock2Rebuildıs homespun talent-driven model and the wealth of artistic talent based in the Capital Region inspired R2R co-creator, Jeff Mirel to found Albany Barn, Inc. through which R2R will now continue producing events as part of the new organizationıs greater mission.
³We want to deliver arts from the community to the community 365 days a year,² explains Mirel. ³We want to put a roof over the Rock2Rebuild concept.²
Beholden to the spirit of those early concerts and the successes of transformative art incubators in other American cities like Providence, RI, New York, NY, and Kansas City, MO, Albany Barn, Inc. seeks to: cauterize the brain drain of promising young artists from the area; expand the footprint of arts in the city; facilitate neighborhood revitalization with a more vital social-art dynamic; act as a bridge between area artists, arts groups and city neighborhoods; and provide an open forum for youth to explore the arts.
Facilities planned include affordable artist-friendly live/work residences, work and rehearsal studios, live music/theatre space, multiple galleries, public darkroom, multimedia 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 in THE BARN 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
