On October 1, the Keyes family cut a ribbon across the door of a gray-clad barn behind the John Ball House on Lexington Road. The Concord Bridge reported that several artists were already at work inside. The barn had hosted its first workshops two weeks earlier, on September 18, once the permits for public use were registered.
That order of events says a lot about the building. Concord Art began as a place to show art, and the Keyes Art Barn was built so people could make it.
A building for making, behind a house built for showing
The barn is named for the family of Grace Keyes. In 1917 she and the artist Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts, her lifelong companion, founded the Concord Art Association to give the town a permanent exhibition space. Concord Art still has its galleries in the white-painted John Ball House at 37 Lexington Road.
The new building is for arts education and related programs. With the ribbon cut, Concord Art's creative space more than doubled. "This space is incredibly inspiring for art education in Concord," Jared Keyes said at the ceremony, according to The Concord Bridge. He called it a meaningful way to see Grace's legacy carried on in a space for education.
The plans have always left room for both uses. When the Bridge first reported the naming in November 2024, it described an addition that would also bring exhibition, storage and event space. Still, most of the floor is one big studio.
What the north wall is for
The barn covers 2,400 square feet, and that figure includes the space the John Ball House's Loring Coleman Room used to occupy. A large artists' studio takes up most of it.
The most deliberate design choice is the glass. Floor-to-ceiling windows run along the north wall, which painters have long preferred because north light stays steady through the day. Executive Director Kate James told The Concord Bridge that the windows "provide the artists with consistent lighting while working" as the sun moves, and that they "also give a view of the historic hillside and the old stone wall behind."
The outside is synthetic wood paneling made from rice hulls and recycled plastics, chosen with sustainability in mind. It sits in quiet contrast to the white-painted main house.
Five years and hundreds of donors
The barn spent more than five years in development. In the 2024 naming story, Concord Art expected to break ground that December and open in 2025. At that point the campaign had raised about three-quarters of its $2 million goal, helped by a matching-gift challenge from the Keyes family. The building actually opened in fall 2026.
Sig Roos, co-chair of the Centennial Campaign Committee, said "hundreds of individual donations" paid for the project. Those gifts sat alongside a $200,000 grant the Massachusetts Cultural Council awarded in 2023 with support from state Rep. Simon Cataldo of Concord. James said more new programming for the barn is "on the horizon."
Saturday night, the studio becomes a gallery
The barn's first big public event turns it, for one evening, into the kind of room Grace Keyes set out to create. Forgers' Night runs this Saturday, November 7, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Concord Art has asked contemporary artists to reinterpret and respond to works from the very first exhibition it ever held, in 1923. Saltbox Kitchen is catering, tickets are $250 per person, and all of the new work will be for sale.
Here is who is answering whom:
- Elizabeth Awalt responds to Claude Monet
- Rick Fox responds to John Singer Sargent
- Kathryn Geismar responds to Robert Henri
- Nancy Gruskin responds to Charles Hopkinson
- Kate Hanlon responds to Gertrude Fiske
- Holly Harrison responds to Adelaide Cole Chase
- Caryl Hull-Leavitt responds to Thomas Wilmer Dewing
- Joel Janowitz responds to George Wesley Bellows
- Andrew Newman responds to John Fulton Folinsbee
- Kathleen O'Hara responds to Rockwell Kent
- Emily Passman responds to Robert Spencer
- Carole Rabe responds to Childe Hassam
- Helena Wurzel responds to Mary Cassatt
Several of these artists also teach or exhibit at Concord Art this season. Holly Harrison chairs the executive committee and held the ribbon on opening day. Elizabeth Awalt co-curated Magnetic North, which is in the Main Gallery now. Caryl Hull Leavitt teaches a fall course that has already filled. So the artists making this one-night show are the same people who work out of the barn the rest of the year.
Where seats are still open
The studio's day-to-day purpose shows up in the late-fall class list. These sessions were open for registration in late October, and enrolled students get the north light every week through mid-December:
| Class | Instructor | Schedule | Member / nonmember |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading the Lines of the Land | Katherine Downey Miller | Thursdays, Nov 5 to Dec 17, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., no class Nov 26 | $410 / $460 |
| Fur, Feathers, Scales, and Hair | Haley Johnson | Tuesdays, Nov 10 to Dec 15, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. | $300 / $350 |
| Beginning Oil Painting | Ron Krouk | Tuesdays, Nov 10 to Dec 15, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. | $400 / $450 |
| Wonders of Gel Plate Printing | Deb Drummond | Fri and Sat, Dec 4 and 5, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. | $275 / $325 |
| Printmaking Studio Basics | Brooke Lambert | Friday, Dec 11, noon to 3 p.m. | $110 / $160 |
Reading the Lines of the Land starts the day this post goes up, so anyone interested should call before the first session. Printmaking Studio Basics is the shortest route into Concord Art's print studio. The three-hour session covers how to use the studio safely, and the fee includes all materials.
Some classes filled quickly. Painting, Pattern, and Collage with Caryl Hull Leavitt, running Wednesdays through December 16, is full. So is the November 3 live model session. These are uninstructed drawing and painting sessions at $50 for members and $60 for nonmembers. You can join the wait-list for a full class without paying. Concord Art takes questions at [email protected] or 978-369-2578. The winter 2027 schedule hadn't been posted as of late October.
The free ways in, through the Cozy Show
You don't need a $250 ticket or a six-week class to see what the expansion has started. Two exhibitions opened October 29 in the main building:
- Magnetic North, curated by Elizabeth Awalt and Pamela "Posey" Moulton, is in the Main Gallery through December 17.
- Piece by Piece: Collage, with Polly Parke, Mara Wagner and Sharon Whitham, is in the Members Gallery through November 29.
Both shows come with free programs. The collage artists give a talk on Saturday, November 21, at 2 p.m. Art writer Jorge S. Arango leads a Magnetic North artists' panel on Wednesday, December 2, at 6 p.m. Concord Art asks for advance registration for both. On November 18 the events calendar lists a botanical painting demonstration with Maggie Stanley and a reading of McSweeney's prose. The reading is free with advance registration.
Next comes the Cozy Show, Concord Art's annual holiday sale and exhibition. Artists drop off work November 20 and 21, the show is up December 3 through 17, and the reception is December 3 at 5:30 p.m. The galleries are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. They're closed Mondays, and both the gallery and school are wheelchair accessible. The barn sits behind the house at 37 Lexington Road.
In Concord, much of a property's story lives in its outbuildings: a barn rebuilt for north light, a studio over the garage, a carriage house with a new purpose. If you're wondering how a space like that fits into your own plans, Nancy Cole Team would welcome the conversation. Request a confidential market consultation whenever the timing suits you.