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The Festival Showcases Historical Exhibits As Part Of The AMERICA250 Celebration
GARNER Arts Center is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of GARNER Arts Festival via a myriad of unique factory spaces and alleyways throughout the historic arts district’s 14 acres. The event will feature contemporary, immersive art experiences on the landmark pre-Civil War textile factory complex turned arts and artisan campus. This family-friendly festival celebrates creativity via an abundance of attractions over the weekend of May 16th and 17th, including children’s activities, live music, and local food purveyors.
Multimedia exhibits and installations include hands-on screen printing, live marble sculpting, an Affordable Arts & Hand Craft Market, Open Artist Studios, a 250-person invitational Flash Sketch Mob, a regional high school student art show, and hands-on children’s art workshops.
The Festival will showcase several historical exhibits, including Posters of the People, a Works Progress Administration (WPA) exhibit, which will explore how design, government, and community came together to create some of the most iconic public art in America. As a tribute to the Festival’s 25th Anniversary and the former printworks’ storied history and significance within the 19th-century textile industry, there will also be a historical exhibit on view focused on the GARNER Historic District. Demonstrations from both modern Makers as well as time-honored, traditional artisanal handworkers will be happening throughout the weekend.
Additionally, there will be five female powerhouses with solo exhibits during the Festival, two of which (Gooby & Campbell) are working with textiles– a tribute to GARNER’s place in history as a textile mill and dye works: Theresa Gooby; Rhea Marmentini; Emily Bedard; Kris Campbell; and Ennis Carter.
Activities are planned at the Live Music Stage & Food Court, and the DyeWorks Wine & Coffee Bar will be featuring a variety of cuisine, beer, wine, hard cider, ice cream, and fresh fruit ices. Adjacent to the Food Court are La Redonda Tavern at Round Table Brewery and Hudson’s Mill Tavern, offering pub fare and craft beer.
Visitors will receive a printed brochure with a map of the complex highlighting the locations of this year’s festival attractions. QR codes in the brochure and a Digital Event Guide will offer a deeper dive into the festival.
There is ample off-site parking in nearby designated Festival lots just a short walk or brief (free) shuttle ride away. On-site parking will be limited to handicap visitors only.
IF GOING
Saturday, May 16, and Sunday, May 17, 2026, from 11 to 6 pm each day. Rain or shine. Entrance will be located at the GARNER Historic District’s Bridge Street entrance (by Railroad Ave) in Garnerville, New York. Tickets are available at a discount in advance online at www.garnersrtscenter.org. Cash, credit/debit cards, and Venmo are accepted at the gate. Haverstraw residents and children ages 12 and under are FREE.
The GARNER Historic District of New York is a collection of landmarked pre-Civil War factory buildings located on 14 acres in the hamlet of Garnerville, Village of West Haverstraw, Rockland County, New York. Built between 1838 and the early 20th century as the Garner Print Works, subsequently known as the Rockland Print Works, the complex has been transformed into a flourishing and vibrant district for mixed use. For its first 125 years, this European-like urban industrial environment, characterized by historic 19th-century architecture including a brick smokestack, alleyways, bridges, and a creek, served textile mills exclusively. Today, the complex is home to more than 50 artist studios, wood and metal workers, sculptors, painters, design centers, music studios, jewelry makers, training facilities Ballet Rockland and Apex Performance gym, Stack Street Coffee Roaster, Hudson’s Mill Tavern, Round Table Brewery, and the non-profit GARNER Arts Center which offers performance, exhibition and event spaces.
The GARNER Historic District is listed on the National and New York State Registers of Historic Places, under the name Rockland Print Works, for its amalgam of industrial-era architecture, its social significance as a company town, and as one of the first industrial cooperatives in America.
