Who We Are
The Canopy Program is a radical alternative program offering community, connection, and critique to artists post BFA/MFA + self-taught. Our programming spans studio critique, art history, art theory, material based intensives, research & writing, professional practices, as well as independent studies for artists. The program supports and strengthens artists’ work while building connections between artists, visiting critics and curators.
The fundamental mission of the organization is to offer the highest level of critique, dialogue and community support without financial stress and to be as inclusive as possible in all ways. The Canopy Program/NYC Crit Club is uniquely low cost and requires flexibility in time commitment, as artists can take one course when available or as many as they can manage. Time is a valuable commodity that is not afforded to all - so these courses support those who are ready, serious and excited to improve while they maintain their studio and work requirements.
The Canopy Program is not a replacement for an MFA and does not want to be. The opportunity to expand learning & community post school is at the core of this project - we support and advocate for several amazing MFA programs within our networks. We want to encourage learning and growth individually and not offer a prescription on how artists should operate - rather we want to listen and help in ways that are specific to each artist.
The Canopy Program is a woman and artist-run organization, led by Catherine Haggarty. It’s predecessor, NYC Crit Club, was co-founded in 2017 by artists Catherine Haggarty & Hilary Doyle. The program offers fair pay and employment opportunities to esteemed critics and faculty who are artists, curators or gallerists.
The Canopy Program serves artists all around the world!
The Canopy Program values equity and justice for artists of all backgrounds. It is our intent that artists from diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well-served and represented by The Canopy Program. The diversity that artists bring to classes is viewed with respect as a strength, benefit and asset in our courses. It is our goal to present materials and activities that are inclusive and respectful of diversity: gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, culture, education, and other background characteristics. The program offers financial aid in the form of financial aid and BIPOC scholarships as part of our commitment to serving artists inclusively.
The Canopy Program aims to include artists, critics and faculty with a variety of backgrounds, work and research. This range of diversity in educational background and life experience improves conversations and contributions both formally and conceptually within the program. This inclusivity also creates a safe space of learning where peer driven dialogue fuels the courses and promotes a positive and serious art experience.
The Canopy Program prides itself on improving the pay rate and faculty / critic experience within the organization. We want to be transparent about compensation to faculty, as the cost of courses echo our value system which is rooted in inclusion and ethical practices in hiring, class experience and outreach to new communities.
Ethical Employment
Affordable Quality Education
Catherine Haggarty
Artist
Founder: The Canopy Program
Co-Founder: NYC Crit Club
Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Fine Art
Catherine Haggarty, b. 1984, is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York.
Haggarty earned her M.F.A from Mason Gross, Rutgers University in 2011. Haggarty is the Founder, Owner and Executive Director of The Canopy Program. In addition, Haggarty is a Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt Institute.
Haggarty was the Spring 2024 Teiger Mentor for the Arts at Cornell AAP MFA and recently was a Visiting Artist at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (Denver, CO) on the occasion of her Exhibition featuring ten years of work at The Philip J. Steele Gallery.
Haggarty’s paintings and curatorial work have been reviewed by and featured in Bomb Magazine, Artnet, Hyperallergic, Art Forum, Two Coats of Paint, Brooklyn Magazine, The New York Times, Art Maaze Magazine, Art Spiel, Pep Talks for Artists, Sound and Vision Podcast and The Observer.
Catherine has been a visiting artist & critic at Cornell MFA (2024), Rocky Mountain College of Art (2024), Western Connecticut MFA (2023), Contemporary Arts Memphis (2023), Vassar College (2023), Rutgers MFA (2022), U. Albany MFA (2022), MICA (2022), UCONN MFA (2022 + 2023), RISD BFA (2022), Pratt BFA (2022), The University of Oregon (2021), Boston University MFA (2021), SUNY Purchase MFA (2020), Hunter MFA (2020), Denison University (2020), Brooklyn College MFA (2019) and in 2018 Haggarty was the Anderson Endowed Lecturer at Penn State University.
Solo & Two Person exhibitions include: Deanna Evans Projects (NYC), Untitled Miami, Lorin Gallery, LA, Geary Contemporary (NYC), Massey Klein Gallery (NYC), This Friday Next Friday (Brooklyn), Bloomsburg University (PA), and Look and Listen in Marseille France. Select group exhibitions include: The PIT (LA), Badr El Jundi (Madrid, Spain), Mindy Solomon (Miami, FL), Andrew Rafcaz (Chicago, IL), Hesse Flatow (NYC), Mrs (Maspeth, NY) and McBride Contemporary in Montreal, Canada.
Adrienne Elise Tarver
Artist
Managing Director, Faculty
Adrienne Elise Tarver is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY with a practice that spans painting, sculpture, installation, photography, textiles, and video. Her work addresses the complexity and invisibility of Black female identity including the history within domestic spaces, the fantasy of the tropical seductress, and the archetype of the all-knowing spiritual matriarch. She has exhibited nationally and abroad, including solo shows at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut; the Academy Art Museum in Maryland; Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta, Georgia; Dinner Gallery (formerly Victori+Mo) in New York; Ochi Projects in Los Angeles; Wave Hill in the Bronx, NY; BRIC Project Room in Brooklyn; and A-M Gallery in Sydney, Australia and two-person exhibitions at Hollis Taggart in New York; Wedge Curatorial in Toronto, Canada. She recently received the Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Boston University, and the Nancy Graves Foundation Grant. She has been commissioned for projects through the New York MTA, the Public Art Fund, Google, Art Aspen, and Pulse Art Fair and has been featured in online and print publications including the New York Times, Forbes, Brooklyn Magazine, ArtNews, ArtNet, Blouin ArtInfo, Whitewall Magazine, and Hyperallergic, among others. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and BFA from Boston University. Adrienne is represented in Los Angeles, CA and Sun Valley, ID by OCHI.
Brittany Baldwin
Artist
Administrative Assistant
Brittany Baldwin received her MFA from Pratt Institute and BFA from Adelphi University. Solo exhibitions include “Feedback Loop” at A.I.R. Gallery, ”Serious Fun" at Pratt Institute, “BRAINSUGAR” at Adelphi University. She has participated in several group exhibitions at Anonymous Society Gallery, Drawing Rooms, Iona University, Fort Tilden, Isadore and Dunn, Knockdown Center, Pratt Institute, Con Artist Gallery, and Adelphi University. Site-specific mural commissions have included “Homecoming” at Adelphi University, “Jump” in partnership with 100 Gates Project, “Power Strip” in partnership with DOT Art, Jamaica Center BID, and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, “Steinway Cypher” at Steinway Playground in partnership with New York City Parks Art in the Parks program, and “Bounce” in partnership with DOT Art. Grant projects include “Artist and Their Tools” via the Adjunct Development Grant at Adelphi University. Brittany lives in Westchester, NY and works in Queens, NY.
Sam Ticknor
Artist
Web and Development
Sam Ticknor is a Pittsburgh-based studio artist specializing in drawing and painting. She studied Fine Art and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (BFA ’15) and Studio Art at New York University (MFA ’23).
Sam creates imaginative and free-wheeling works on paper using water-based materials: gouache, watercolor, and ink. Sam's paintings have been showcased in group and solo exhibitions in New York City and Pittsburgh. Notable projects include: Rhapsody (2021), a solo exhibition of gouache paintings, at Usagi Gallery; Subject to Change (2022), an imaginative laboratory installation featuring cut-out transfer prints, gouache paintings, and half-baked ceramics at 80WSE Gallery. Currently, she is crafting ink and watercolor paintings for an upcoming picture book.
In addition to working in studio, teaching has been a large part of Sam’s artistic practice. She currently teaches undergraduate drawing and painting at Seton Hill University, pre-college drawing and painting at New York University, and children’s summer workshops at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Previously, she has also taught at Carnegie Mellon University, The Drawing Center, and The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.
NYC Crit Club was founded in 2017 by Hilary Doyle and Catherine Haggarty.
Select Lectures
Cornell AAP Lecture
Spring 2024 Teiger Mentor in the Arts
Catherine Haggarty “Past and Present Self”
The lecture Past and Present Self will share works made over a ten-year period by Catherine Haggarty. The central idea of the lecture is the rejection of a linear perspective in visual art and the embracement of ideas past, present, and future tense working simultaneously for the artist. Haggarty's interest in showing a wide range of work is to champion the idea that working with an open and collaborative mind with works and ideas from the past strengthens threads of research and creates a fertile ground for thinking, making, and living — in and out of the studio.
Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design
Catherine Haggarty “A Flexible Framework”
University of Oregon Lecture
Catherine Haggarty “You Know More Than You Can Say”
VVrkshop Panel Discussion
“Is It Time to Kill the MFA”
Articles
Want to Succeed as an Artist? Click Here.
A Conversation with Hilary Doyle
Art Power Series 2020
The Company Your Mind Keeps: Catherine Haggarty Interviewed by Sangram Majumdar
What’s the Value of an Online Art Crit?
Podcasts
Pep Talks for Artists: The Canopy Program w/ Catherine Haggarty
Pep Talks for Artists: EP 72 (Part 1)
Some Thoughts on Drawing Part 1: Catherine Haggarty, Jennifer Coates, David Humphrey, and Amy Talluto.
Pep Talks for Artists: EP 72 (Part 2)
Some Thoughts on Drawing Part 2: Catherine Haggarty, Jennifer Coates, David Humphrey, and Amy Talluto.
VVrkshop: ART PROBLEMS: Demolishing The Day Job Stigma for Artists w/ Catherine Haggarty + Macon Reed
Pep Talks for Artists: How to Host A Studio Visit w/ Catherine Haggarty
Pep Talks for Artists: Ep. 48 Interview w/ Catherine Haggarty
I Like Your Work: The Work Doesn’t Stop When You Leave w/ Catherine Haggarty
Dear Artists: Season 2 Episode 9 w/ Catherine Haggarty
The Amy Beecher Show: Sleepless Nights w/ Hilary Doyle
The School of Unlearning: On Art & Community w/ Catherine Haggarty
Art Problems: Ep 81 Ten Professionals Helping Artists You Need to Know
I Like Your Work: Claiming the Time In Between-Making Every Day a Studio Day w/ Hilary Doyle
The Amy Beecher Show: In Line
w/ Catherine Haggarty
Sound & Vision: Episode 71 w/ Catherine Haggarty