Arts + Culture: Garner Arts Center

Just outside of Nyack, in the nearby town of Garnerville, you will find a 19th-century industrial complex now dedicated to the arts. Garner Arts Center was founded in 2003 at the site of a historic  textile mill. The 14 acres of what is now creative space sit on what was once a plot of 45 acres owned first in the 18th-century by Cornelius Osborn and then by John Glass in the 19th-century. Osborn operated a grist mill at the site and Glass built a textile mill in 1828. After Glass died property was purchased by the Garner Brothers who saw the mill flourish. A town soon sprung up around the factory. Today, the site, which is listed on the State Historic Register of Historic Places as the “Rockland Print Works Historic District,” is comprised of artist studios, exhibition spaces, a brewery, restaurant, sculpture garden, and workshops.

Inside the complex, Industrial Arts Brewery serves up craft brews in a setting filled with art and live music. You can grab dinner in the complex at Hudson’s Mill, a tavern style restaurant that occupies the building of the first textile mill from the 18th-century where uniforms were manufactured for soldiers in the Civil War and World War I. As you walk around the complex and peek down its alleyways, you will discover surprising art installations hidden around every turn. The center frequently hosts art classes and festivals for the public.