Created by local artist Brian Keeler in 1994, the North Branch Art Trail (named after the North Branch of the scenic Susquehanna River) became a program of the Kitson Arts Alliance in 2018. Since then, the trail has expanded and now includes the entire 300-mile length of the Susquehanna River’s North Branch – from its headwaters in Cooperstown, NY to its conclusion in Sunbury, PA. Today, NBat’s region consists of a total of 18 counties in Upstate New York and Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The trail publishes a 48-page regional arts publication – the North Branch Arts Paper – three times a year (Spring, Summer, and Fall/Holiday). The Arts Paper is designed to encourage locals and tourists alike to patronize a wide variety of our region’s special attractions & destinations along the 300-mile North Branch. Each issue features a North Branch Arts Guide (art galleries, museums, and artist studios plus performing arts venues & organizations); a North Branch Food Guide (farms, farm stands, farm stores & farmers’ markets); a North Branch Beverage Guide (wineries, breweries, distilleries, cideries, meaderies & more); and a North Branch Resource Directory (arts & tourism organizations). 15,000 copies of each issue are distributed throughout the 18-county NBat region – including a quantity that are inserted as a supplement in the Sunday Review, Towanda, PA; the Susquehanna County Independent, Montrose, PA; and the Owego Pennysaver, Owego, NY.
The art trail also creates a monthly e-newsletter, North Branch News, that is emailed to a growing list of subscribers (currently 400+).
