Focusing on the Echigo-Tsumari Art Festival (ETAF) in Niigata, Japan, we propose a novel conceptualisation of the role of art in rural revitalisation, focused on how local farmers experience art as a catalyst for social, cultural and natural change. Scholarship on the role of art in rural revitalisation has often focussed on arts’ problem-solving affordances (e.g., economic, demographic) or on how rural engagements matter to art development. Instead, we turn our attention to the middle-ground: how art intervenes in the everyday life and practices of farmers in the festival area. Based on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, our analysis draws on the theories of Tsurumi Shunsuke and John Dewey to offer a broad and inclusive notion of ‘art’ and ‘aesthetic experience’. With this framework, we explore how farmers relate to different artworks presented at ETAF and how art can spur farmers to reflect on their lives, their farming and the environments they inhabit.