About Us

The Arts Barn is Northeastern Pennsylvania’s home for diverse art programming and education, gallery representation for over 150 Pennsylvania based artists, and artist collaboration with organizations, schools, and the community to encourage creation, appreciation, and understanding of the arts.  We grow artists through artistic excellence, education, and exhibitions that bring people together for powerful shared experiences inspiring a creative exchange of ideas in our community and beyond. 

The Arts Barn Art Center is overseen by a board of directors consisting of eleven members. Spearheading the Arts Center and The Arts Barn are two Co-Executive Directors, Heather Butler and Kayla Cresswell, who succeeded the founder, Deborah Cooper, in July of 2020. Ms. Cooper is the founder and served as director of The Arts Barn Art Center since their inception until July of 2020. Ms. Cooper is responsible for transforming the former Toy Barn into The Arts Barn and has lead the development of The Arts Barn Art Center  

The Center employs two Co-Executive Directors and a gallery coordinator. The Co-Executive Directors, Heather Butler and Kayla Cresswell, are responsible running and maintaining the Arts Barn, its classes, events, camps, marketing, online presence, and day to day operations.  The gallery director, Jennifer Pothering, organizes and maintains the gallery during operational hours, maintains artist databases and inventory, handles transactions for the gallery, and maintains the gallery book keeping and records.

In addition, the Center utilizes volunteers in various capacities. Individuals in need community service hours for school or service projects are encouraged to volunteer with the Center. On an annual basis, the Center is assisted by over 30 volunteers throughout the year.