ROADSIDE QUILT ART: The quilt art on the barn at Hidden Springs Lavender and Alpaca Farm, 890 Route 601, Montgomery Township, shows sprigs of lavender, and an alpaca in the bottom right corner. It is one of six barns in the Central New Jersey area that form a barn quilt trail, bringing public art to the rural area.
By Wendy Greenberg
How does public art make its way to a rural area? When artist Karen Tuveson thought of public art, she pictured places like Princeton and larger cities that support sculpture on campuses, murals on sides of buildings, and art at shopping centers and at parks. Tuveson wanted to bring public art to her community, Montgomery Township — art that reflects the community and its history.
She started a nonprofit, secured a grant, and gathered a committee to brainstorm. The result is the Barn Quilt Trail of Central New Jersey, which is, for now, striking large-scale quilt designs made of wood on the sides of six barns in the Skillman, Hillsborough, and Belle Mead areas, melding art, history and agriculture.
“By combining beautiful historic barns with thoughtful, story-driven works of art, we’re creating a dynamic conversation between our past and our present,” said Tuveson. “These vibrant designs elevate the character of our landscape, celebrating stories rooted in the region’s agricultural heritage and today’s caretakers.”
The board of her nonprofit, Catalytic Arts Incubator, wanted “to be very specific to the area,” said Tuveson. They thought of barn quilts, which originated in Ohio, and are seen throughout rural regions, but not here,” she said.
The first quilt trail was created in Adams County, Ohio, in 2001, according to barnquiltinfo.com, with quilt block on a tobacco barn to honor the barn owner’s mother. The project had wide appeal and the artist/owner realized that barn quilts could be beneficial to tourism and economic development, and she worked with her community to create more.
Montgomery Township, Tuveson said, has a deep history, one that newcomers might not know about. The original inhabitants were the Lenni Lenape tribe, known as Lenapehoking, who roamed among wildlife and rivers until the early 17th century when Dutch and other Europeans established farms.
“Gristmills and sawmills sprang up along local creeks, including Bedens Brook and the Millstone River, becoming hubs of activity, and agriculture thrived through the 18th and 19th centuries,” states a history summary that Tuveson prepared for the artists.
In the 20th century, many traditional family farms either closed, were parceled into smaller farms, or evolved into modernized operations, and some farms specialized. “While few historic farms remain in operation today, their legacy is still visible in the many old barns scattered across the area — some on properties no longer used for farming, others preserved in parks or protected open space,” the summary continues. It describes the township as “a community that values its past while looking forward to a sustainable future, ensuring that the legacy of its early farms continues to inspire and inform its evolution.”
The nonprofit’s website, CatalyticArts.org, describes the project’s objective: to create quilt-inspired public art honoring each site’s unique history and Central New Jersey’s agricultural heritage — using the quilt as a symbol of storytelling and community connection — while ensuring a design the site owner feels connected to and proud to display.
“So we are preserving history, and making art, and you don’t have to get out of your car to see it,” said Tuveson. The 8-foot by 8-foot pieces, or 11.5-feet by 11.5-feet when turned on point (with one exception) can be seen by pulling over on the road.
The selection committee, which is made up of artists, quilters, and community volunteers, selected six regional artists from a pool of applicants, who gathered personal histories of the barns and the farms from the current owners. The Somerset County Cultural and Heritage grant allowed each artist to be paid for their work, which was important to Tuveson.
Kris Hadinger, chair of the committee, said it was suggested that artists ask questions about the barn owner’s family origin story, when the barn was built, how they see their role within the agricultural or wider community, and similar queries. After conferring with barn owners and learning what they envisioned, the committee members reviewed and refined the proposals, “with the sense of the community in mind,” said Hadinger, who was township attorney for many years and knows the community well. “It was important that the art reflect the owners, and the history of the community.”
Marie Voorhees, owner of Hidden Springs Lavender and Alpaca Farm on Route 601 in Skillman, Montgomery Township — a farm that raises alpacas — loves her barn quilt, which shows eight sprigs of lavender with an alpaca in the corner, set off by the barn’s red wood.
“Everything she showed me was gorgeous,” Voorhees said of artist Melanka Coppola. (The other artists are Fiona Clark, Kate Eggleston, Sumi Chatterjee, Felipe Bermudez Durana, and Emily Gilman-Beezley.)
“Karen approached me when she got the grant,” said Voorhees, who had bought her parents’ farm. “We thought it was a wonderful idea. We were a perfect fit,” she said, adding that the farm faces the woods and road, and “people come in looking at the fields. Sometimes we tell them to go out and look and they come back and tell us they love it.”
Other farms on the trail are the Belle Mead Co-op, Township Line Road in Hillsborough; Pariso Farm Fairview Road, Skillman; Fiori Barn, Hobler Park, Great Road, Skillman; Agridor Farm, Skillman Road, Skillman; and Matthews Farm, Rutland Road, Belle Mead.
The other designs include one that incorporates a double wedding ring for a longtime couple, and a compass, to honor former owners who were travelers. Clem Fiori was “at the forefront of preserving open space in Montgomery,” Hadinger said, and the barn quilt at the Fiori Barn has a tree, an orange leaf representing his woodworking with Osage orange wood (which is not really orange, she noted), and a beloved goat in the corner.
Once the designs were completed, volunteers helped install them, including some volunteer firefighters, and a local landscaper allowed use of his bucket truck. The main concern of the barn owners is that people will come on their land, but the next year will be dedicated to developing roadside signage with QR codes, hopefully with help from the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, said Tuveson. They will also consider the next series of barn quilts in 2027.
“As the Barn Quilt Trail expands, it will continue to invite residents and visitors to explore our region in a fresh, accessible way while reinforcing the importance of protecting preserved farms and open spaces that define the soul of Central Jersey,” said Tuveson. “The quilt trail is meant to bring more art to unexpected spaces. We are honoring the legacy of the Montgomery area farmers, as we watch the developments spread. It’s meaningful and personal.”
The Barn Quilt Trail of Central Jersey was made possible by a grant from the Somerset County Culture & Heritage Commission, a partner of the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Blodgett Family, the Wess Family, private donors, and community supporters.
A talk on the Barn Quilt Trail will be given on December 3 at the Montgomery Township Public Library, 100 community Drive, Skillman, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Library guests will hear the creative and collaborative journey behind the trail and meet the artists, site owners, selection committee members, community partners, and volunteers who helped bring the inaugural year of this public art program to life. The program, presented by Catalytic Arts, is free and open to the public.