The Parrish Art Museum has many reasons to celebrate the first summer in its new Herzog & de Meuron-designed building. On Saturday, July 13, 2013, the Museum will host its Midsummer Party, where hundreds of artists, philanthropists, socialites, and business leaders will gather to fête the Museum on its new grounds. The Museum’s first-ever collection-focused audio guide debuted in May with a new, free application that will enable iPhone users to access collection images and related material from anywhere. The Parrish now stays open until 8pm Fridays, during which time programs are presented and the café remains open for socializing and dinner.
The Parrish continues to grow as an active center for cultural engagement, fulfilling its mission to nurture creativity and to celebrate the unique artistic legacy of Long Island’s East End. The new building opened last fall, on November 10, 2012, with a three-day opening weekend which drew more than 9,000 visitors to the Museum. Attendance over the first two months topped 20,000, and more than 40,000 people have visited the Museum since November. Membership has doubled in that time, rising from 1,650 to more than 3,300. The new building—twice the size of its former home on Jobs Lane in Southampton Village, with three times the gallery space—has allowed the Parrish to take giant steps into an exhilarating future. ?? For the first time in its 116-year-history, the Museum is able to showcase on a permanent basis its distinguished collection of American art, while simultaneously presenting special exhibitions. The inaugural installation of the collection, established in a series of seven skylit rooms, focuses on leading characteristics of the Museum’s holdings. Each gallery provides a narrative framework within which visitors can experience masterworks of art, organized to convey and celebrate the story of America’s most enduring and influential artists’ colony—Eastern Long Island.
The new special exhibition galleries enable the Museum to increase its curatorial offerings. An exhibition of site-specific sculptural work by Josephine Meckseper (July 4–October 14, 2013) will respond to the Parrish Art Museum’s architecture and collection with pieces installed in the outdoor gallery, lobby, and permanent collection galleries. The Platform series, launched in early 2013 with works by Hope Sandrow, invites artists to consider the entire Museum as a site for works that transcend disciplinary boundaries. The major survey Alice Aycock Drawings: Some Stories Are Worth Repeating (on view through July 13, 2013) will be followed by the exhibitions Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet and Michelle Stuart: Drawn from Nature (both on view July 21–October 27, 2013).
Expanded Programming and Facilities Programming has expanded in the new facility to include music, poetry, video, and performance, while successful programs such as PechaKucha Hamptons Night and The Artist’s View continue to draw capacity audiences. Upcoming additions to the schedule include Jazz en Plein Air, the Salon Series, East End or Busk, and Architectural Sessions at the Parrish, a joint project with AIA Peconic.
Education programs have expanded as well. A highly trained, enlarged docent corps gives scheduled tours every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in addition to servicing the many group and school tours visiting the new facility. A new initiative is the Open Studio program, available for teens one Saturday morning each week and for children and caregivers three Saturdays per month. A vigorous program of workshops for children, teenagers, and families has been developed, and the new building’s purpose-built classroom affords easy access to the galleries to further enrich the learning experience.
Greatly enhanced visitor services in the new Parrish include a 49-seat café which opens onto the covered Mildred C. Brinn Terrace during warmer weather; an enlarged reception area and shop; and public spaces both indoors and out that encourage social interaction and an appreciation of the landscape. As a result of these enhanced services, the staff has been able to accommodate a ten-fold increase in visits by adult groups since the November opening.
Increased Giving “The generosity of our donors and the enthusiasm of the public have exceeded our expectations,” notes Parrish Art Museum Director Terrie Sultan. “Now that we have such a beautiful building in which to show our remarkable holdings, artists and collectors have responded with amazing gifts. And the gratifying public response has established the Museum as a dynamic creative hub and cultural resource for our vibrant and diverse region.”
The Museum was given instrumental funding towards the Permanent Collection Installation and Interpretation Program from The Hearst Foundations, the Sylvia and Joseph Slifka Foundation, and Allison Morrow. The collection is thriving thanks to recent gifts from collectors, foundations, and artists. During the last six months of 2012, the Broad Foundation donated important paintings by Richmond Burton, Louisa Chase, and Donald Sultan; Richard I. Adrian added 45 works by notable East End artists including Stephen Antonakos, Nell Blaine, Mary Heilmann, Hans Hofmann, Conrad Marca-Relli, Alan Shields, and Joan Snyder; and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation gave works by Roy Lichtenstein, Betty Parsons, Dorothea Rockburne, and George Brecht. Harrison and Julie Augur contributed a painting by John Torreano, while Arne and Milly Glimcher donated seminal works by Louise Nevelson and Joe Zucker. A travertine sculpture by Costantino Nivola was given by the Nivola family. Dan Christensen’s painting Oreo (1970) entered the collection, thanks to a generous gift from the artist’s estate. Amy Plumb Oppenheim gifted her late husband Dennis Oppenheim’s drawing for Radiant Fountain. Artists who have made recent, significant gifts to the Museum include Mel Kendrick, Bryan Hunt, Jack Youngerman, and Hope Sandrow.
The Parrish Art Museum’s Education Programs have received strong new support. The Parrish Art Museum’s educational programming is supported, in part, by the Dewitt Wallace Fund for Youth at the Long Island Community Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Elisabeth and H. Peter Haveles, Jr., The John J. McDonnell Margaret T. O’Brien Foundation, the Town of Southampton, and Southampton Rotary Club. The Museum was grateful to also receive support for its Annual Fund from artMRKT 2012, the Rowan Family Foundation, Pannonia Foundation, and Michael Fisch.
The new building has been recognized by numerous international media outlets: the Parrish Art Museum won Wallpaper* Magazine’s 2013 Design Award for the Best Public Building of the year and was named one of the best new museums by the Wall Street Journal in December 2012.
The Museum's programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the property taxpayers from the Southampton School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.
Hampton Jitney is the Official Transportation Sponsor and an Official Media Sponsor of the Parrish Art Museum.
About the Parrish Art Museum
The Parrish Art Museum is the oldest cultural institution on the East End of Long Island, uniquely situated within one of the most concentrated creative communities in the United States. The Parrish is dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of art from the nineteenth century to the present, with a particular focus on honoring the rich creative legacy of the East End, celebrating the region’s enduring heritage as a vibrant art colony, telling the story of our area, our “sense of place,” and its national—even global—impact on the world of art. The Parrish is committed to educational outreach, to serving as a dynamic cultural resource for its diverse community, and to celebrating artistic innovation for generations to come.
