CULTURE CLUB

Newly renovated, Guild Hall of East Hampton amps up summer programming.

INTERVIEW BY CHRIS BYRNE

Known for its white sandy beaches and cooler breeze, East Hampton is a magnet for Texans in the summer. Over the years, summer arts programming has become especially verdant, making the trip even more desirable, and the 92-year-old arts space Guild Hall reopens this summer after an ambitious renovation project.

Chris Byrne, owner and founder of the Elaine de Kooning House in East Hampton, visited with Guild Hall’s executive director Andrea Grover here:

Chris Byrne (CB): Guild Hall in East Hampton will reopen in July — what upcoming exhibitions and events can we look forward to at the newly renovated museum, educational space, and theater?

Andrea Grover (AG): Guild Hall reopens on July 2 after a yearlong facility-wide capital improvements project overseen by Peter Pennoyer Architects. Every square inch of our building and grounds— the museum, theater, classroom, offices, and gardens— has been thoughtfully modernized with state-of-the-art systems, mechanical, and technology while maintaining Guild Hall’s existing footprint and human scale. This near-total infrastructure replacement of a 92-year-old building was done with love and a collective effort to preserve the balance of intimacy and access to exceptional artistry that is a signature of Guild Hall. The theater will remain under construction until January, but all other areas of Guild Hall are ready to be experienced and enjoyed this summer.

CB: I understand that Peter Pennoyer’s design for the theater preserved many of the space’s historical architectural elements...

AG: Peter Pennoyer is a specialist in the preservation and restoration of historic buildings. He was charged with making Guild Hall’s museum and theater function for artists and audiences today while maintaining the character and scale of the 1931 architecture by Aymar Embury II. To do this, he partnered with Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, leading technological consultants, and Hollander Design Landscape Architects. The result is a facility that feels just like the Guild Hall so many people remember and love but functions like a new building.

The newly renovated galleries will open with a solo exhibition by artist Renee Cox, organized by independent curator Monique Long. Renee Cox: A Proof of Being is a selection of the artist’s most well-known and celebrated photographs from 1993 to the present. This survey comprises selections from the artist’s most recognizable bodies of work, including her groundbreaking Yo Mama series and her iconic photographs devoted to Jamaican national hero Queen Nanny. The exhibition will also feature the New York premiere of a recent work, an immersive video installation, Soul Culture. The avatars Cox creates are variably historical figures, art historical tropes, cosmopolitan socialites, and Afrocentric superheroes—all imbued with sexual agency and resolute confidence. Renee lives in Amagansett and Harlem and is a member of the Guild Hall Academy of the Arts.

CB: As Century Arts Foundation Curator of Special Projects, you organized the exhibition Radical Seafaring at the Parrish Art Museum in 2016...

AG: Radical Seafaring was the exhibition I was born to curate because its maritime themes related to my childhood: my mother was an artist, and my father was a commercial fisherman turned boatbuilder/boat dealer. The exhibition featured 25 international artists who use the water as a performance space, the site of research, or for temporary projects. The exhibition was in the galleries and offsite on Long Wharf, Sag Harbor, where we docked a self-sufficient “green” houseboat called WetLand by the artist Mary Mattingly. This attracted a lot of attention, especially alongside 100-plus-foot mega-yachts. The exhibition won multiple honors, including ADAA and Tremaine Foundation awards.

CB: In 2010, you were awarded a Warhol Curatorial Fellowship, which led to the publication of New Art/Science Affinities the following year. Can you tell us about your research with artists working at the intersection of science and technology?

AG: My Warhol Curatorial Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon’s STUDIO for Creative Inquiry was focused on artists who work in science and technology from the 1960s to the present. This resulted in the publication and a related touring exhibition, Intimate Science, which traveled to several venues after CMU’s Miller Gallery. The show looked at how artists initiate scientific research outside of institutions. One example was the artist Phil Ross, who developed a technique for using reishi mushrooms as a sculpting material. Later he received an international patent for his process, founded the growing company MycoWorks, and is now developing mushroombased alternatives to leather and plastic. This all began with making art.

CB: And you were a Core Fellow in residence at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, from 1995-1997...

AG: Yes, Texas rocked my world when I moved there from Chicago in 1995 for a Core Fellowship. No zoning and cheap housing had given way to dozens of artist-run spaces like Project Row Houses, Zocalo, and Commerce Street Art Warehouse. It was lawless (or at least the law wasn’t enforced). After the Core Program in 1998, I founded my own artist-run space, Aurora Picture Show, a neighborhood “microcinema” housed in a former church building. Aurora is celebrating 25 years of moving-image art programs this year. The spirit of Guild Hall is close to Aurora Picture Show. They both have a founding mission to unite people through the arts and to realize artists’ visions no matter how complex or crazy. P