Our New Campus

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, 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 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. The mountainside campus has views out over Rocky Peak Ridge and is located 1/3 mile into the forest, which is in a state of repair after years of logging.  We are working within its various stages of regrowth as we continue to farm, turn skidder tracks into trails, rebuild soil, recover pastures, and construct the new campus.

In summer 2023 we opened the new main campus to the public and to our artists-in-residence. The buildings will be completed in phases over time, as designed by Adirondack architect Nils Luderowski.