mission & purpose

Eric Rudd, along with his wife Barbara, repurposed the Historic Beaver Mill in 1990 and later founded the Barbara and Eric Rudd Art Foundation.

Since moving to North Adams, they’ve dedicated themselves to revitalizing the city’s arts and cultural life—both through personal artistic practice and community development.

Over the years, they have rescued and repurposed significant historic buildings for arts use (including the Eclipse Mill Artist Lofts, Flatiron, Berkshire Art Museum, and Annex), established pioneering cultural programs, and created accessible spaces for artists to live and work.

Under the mission of the Foundation, the Beaver Mill will always be a supportive environment for creative work.

TOUR THE STUDIO:
(413) 664-9550

eric@beavermill.com

ericrudd.com

a short history of the beaver mill

Illustration from 1930

The Beaver Mill’s story begins in 1851, when its original three stone floors (now the Inn site) were built. After a fire, the mill was rebuilt upward in brick, and as the Berkshires’ textile industry thrived, by 1895 the structure expanded to more than 130,000 square feet. British insurance firms, seeking to reduce fire risk, influenced mill design—requiring massive timbers and rounded columns (or shaved-off corners of square columns). Harnessing waterpower from the Hoosic River, a six-foot-wide underground pipe once carried river water 400 feet through the building to turbines that powered early machinery; although hard maple floors were installed throughout, indentations mark where generations of workers stood.

By 1915, the regional textile collapse left the Beaver Mill vacant. In 1929, Sprague Electric purchased it for $200,000, marking a new era of innovation and local prosperity. Sprague later took over the Eclipse Mill and the buildings that became MASS MoCA, employing 4,000 people by World War II in a town of 22,000.

But change came again. A mix of labor issues, the founder’s retirement, outdated technology, and increasing global competition led to Sprague’s decline. The economy and population plummeted, and the mill sat derelict once more. In the early 1980s, a brief revival came when the Beaver and Eclipse Mills were repurposed for military textile manufacturing—producing tents, sleeping bags, and other essential textile supplies under federal contracts. New heating and electrical systems, loading docks, and masonry repairs were added, but the operation ended amid corruption scandals, leaving the buildings vacant again.

In 1987, Washington, D.C. sculptor Eric Rudd came to the Berkshires to use GE Plastics’ blow-molding lab and soon discovered the abandoned Beaver Mill. The building had 400 windows (many shattered), piles of textile debris, and only four tenants. Rudd, drawn by its potential and low cost, moved his family there in 1990. He renovated major portions, establishing one of the largest artist studios in the U.S. and founding the Contemporary Artists Center, which he ran for a decade. The CAC hosted more than 100 artists each summer, with exhibitions, residencies, and programs that helped revive North Adams during MASS MoCA’s embryonic period.

After ten years, Rudd stepped down as pro bono director to focus on his own art. Though the CAC eventually closed, the space evolved into affordable studios for working artists while Rudd maintained his vast workspace. The growing demand for creative space inspired his conversion of the nearby Eclipse Mill into 40 live/work lofts. Along with the opening of MASS MoCA, these projects helped shift the region decisively toward an arts-based economy.

Under the Barbara and Eric Rudd Art Foundation, the Rudds later opened the Rudd Foundation exhibition spaces in two former downtown churches, linking it permanently with the Beaver Mill. Today, the Beaver Mill—less than a mile from MASS MoCA and adjacent to Natural Bridge State Park—stands as both a historic landmark and a thriving creative hub. Together, MASS MoCA and the rebirth of the mills have helped transform the northern Berkshires into one of New England’s most dynamic arts communities.