Website | Facebook | Instagram | News | Weddings | Sound Stage Rentals | Donate
About Lumberyard
LUMBERYARD’s mission is to serve as a national model for the development of contemporary performing arts – serving as a linchpin for the New York City performing arts ecosystem. Our production residencies provide unmatched technical residency support so that artists’ work is fully-developed before premiering at prominent institutions nationwide. Our mission includes operating as a cultural hub and economic catalyst for the mid-Hudson Valley and our commitment to positive social change is realized through strong social programs that provide arts education, job training, and intervention for incarcerated teens.
LUMBERYARD is a non-profit performing arts and film campus located in the heart of Catskill, New York. With a state-of-the-art facility, LUMBERYARD offers a center for performing artists to test and perfect their work, and gives Hudson Valley audiences the opportunity to see performances before they premiere in New York City.
In addition to serving as a residency for performing artists, LUMBERYARD rents its 12,000 square foot space to film and television production companies. 100 percent of the net proceeds from these rentals are invested back into the Catskill community through programs such as: LUMBERYARD Young Performers, which provides free dance education for students living in low-income communities in and around Catskill, Fresh Start, an intervention program for incarcerated teens, and Junior Crew, which provides local high school students summer jobs and workforce development training – from resume building to learning how to network.
Set on the waterfront and just blocks from Main Street, LUMBERYARD is also a venue for weddings and large events, making the space an important part of the community’s fabric and an economic driver for the region.
Fresh Start
Fresh Start is an arts education intervention program designed to reduce recidivism rates for incarcerated juveniles. Designed to help adolescents currently in the justice system develop the means to map out the next steps in their lives, Fresh Start uses the expressive power and discipline of the performing arts.
Fresh Start piloted in May 2018 in response to New York State’s “Raise the Age” reforms. Starting at the nearby Hudson Adolescent Offender Facility (HOAF), incarcerated teenagers worked through creative and challenging exercises that helped them tell their own stories, discover more about themselves, and explore new means for expressing their wants, needs, and desires. In doing so, the inmates reflected on the choices they made in the past and how to make better ones in the future.
Subsidized Technical Rehearsal Program
LUMBERYARD Center for Film and Performing Arts’ mission is to protect and ensure artistic innovation by facilitating and advocating for access to experimentation. To this end, we have built a new model, the Subsidized Technical Rehearsal Program (“STRP”), for the development of contemporary dance and performance, with a focus on helping American artists affordably bridge the time between studio and stage.
Through our Subsidized Technical Rehearsal Program (“STRP”), LUMBERYARD serves the artists and presenters that enliven our vibrant contemporary performing arts sector. STRP provides much-needed time, space, resources, and technical capabilities for artists to fully realize new work before it premieres, and the artists we work with in the STRP represent various identities, backgrounds, professional career stages, and approaches. These artists also universally and urgently need time to experiment with design and technology to advance their work.