04/21/2026
Happy to be part of this exhibition. “Paterson Art and The Mills, Fred Duignan & Neighbors “
Please join us for a special reception on Saturday, May 16th, from 1pm-4pm. Informal conversation with the Guest Curator, Sara Lynn Henry at 2:30pm at the Paterson Museum.
In 1983, Paterson initiated subsidized housing for artists in two old abandoned mills in the newly designated Great Falls / SUM Historic District. These two, former silk mills were among many empty factory buildings in the district that had once manufactured a variety of products including locomotives, guns, silk and machinery. In the 1980s all types of artists were invited to apply to live in the new housing—painters, musicians, poets, photographers, and arts workers with the hopes of establishing a creative community and a shop and gallery center.
Paterson: Art & the Mills- F. Duignan & Neighbors focuses on the visual artists who lived in the refurbished mills from the 1980s to the early 2000s and some who still live there today. This heterogenous group of art makers shared this housing, the neighborhood, and engaged in a noisy, creative interaction.
