Our New Campus
The new campus was opened to the public in 2023 and we continue to construct the new buildings in phases.
When we relocated Craigardan from Keene to Elizabethtown in 2019, we imagined the possibilities for expanding our international, interdisciplinary arts program and amplifying its positive exchange well beyond the borders of the Adirondacks.
We were rooted in place and thinking globally.
Craigardan now stewards 320+ acres of field and forest in various stages of regrowth and regeneration. In the early 1800s, Manoah Miller set out to create a homestead including a forge, sawmill, and kiln on these lands taken from the native Kanienʼkehá:ka people. Not much of the Miller settlement remains, but the land continues to hold the full history of this special site bordering Hurricane Mountain wilderness. We strive to develop a deepened understanding of place, and to allow this understanding to heal the land, inform our collective work, and guide our path forward.
Since 2019 we have been working with a team of architects, historians, artists, designers, conservation specialists, engineers, and forestry experts to steward the land, plan a new campus, raise funds, and secure permits.
In 2020 we opened the original 1814 farmhouse as Craigardan’s new farm store, with the goal of returning all profits to regional farmers. We began to farm the land again, and gave away the food to families who need it. In 2021 we built a new barn, launched a Community Farm Program, and began working on the new campus site. Located 1/3 mile into the forest, the mountainside campus has views out over Rocky Peak Ridge. The surrounding forest is in a state of repair after years of logging and we worked within its various stages of regrowth to turn skid tracks into trails, rebuild soil, recover pastures, and clean up streams.
In spring 2023 we opened the new main campus to the public. With site work and infrastructure complete, we finished the timber-framed Kiln House and built our new wood-fired kiln; we completed the individual artist cabins and temporary bath house; and we began construction of the new Applebarn with support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the Charles R Wood Foundation, and the Cloudsplitter Foundation. We supported more than 70 artists and scholars-in-residence and 88 public programs that summer.
In spring 2024 we opened the new Applebarn, and we received a $637,000 capital projects grant from NYSCA to break ground on the new Main House building in 2025. Main House will be the main entrance and focal point of the new campus. This year-round, universally accessible building will house offices, community meeting space, galleries, gathering and event space, a beautiful commercial teaching kitchen, and a studio kitchen for culinary artists-in-residence.
The two remaining buildings, Studio and Home, will be completed in phases over time, as designed by Adirondack architect Nils Luderowski.