Sand and Sun at the Parrish
The traffic flow of the Parrish Art Museum's Midsummer Party is as predictable as the tide: Guests race through the museum's summer exhibit, then settle in for food and drink in two tents, one with a large tree in the middle, another with a formal garden in the center. And when the "After Ten" party for young patrons starts, few make it into the museum at all.
Clementine Crawford
This year's party on Saturday night was different: The exhibit "Sand: Memory, Meaning, and Metaphor," curated by Alicia Longwell, drew guests all night long. Accessible and instructive, it is destined to be an East End blockbuster, providing myriad interpretations — from William Merritt Chase to Spencer Tunick — of the beach.
The exhibit is just one of the ways the Parrish is starting to feel more vibrant and relevant. It has a new director, Terrie Sultan, who has ambitions to make the Parrish an international destination; it has a plan for a new facility designed by Herzog & de Meuron, which will break ground as soon as the money to build it has been raised, and it has expanded its board to 25 members — its largest size ever — including sharp-shooters in finance such as Carlo Bronzini Vender and Douglas Polley.
The chairman of the museum, Alvin Chereskin, who was honored for five years of service, said he is eager to train new board members. "Nowadays, being a trustee is more work than ever before," Mr. Chereskin said.
Mr. Polley, the board's vice president, is keen on Ms. Sultan's vision: "It's intuitive that the Hamptons have a great art museum," Mr. Polley said.
For Mr. Vender, the Parrish's location on the East End is integral to its world-class identity. "There is no artist's colony in America, or perhaps even the world, like the Hamptons," he said, citing artists who have worked here — Cindy Sherman, Chuck Close, David Salle, and Eric Fischl.
Not all of the artists in the exhibit have worked in the Hamptons. A bottle of colored sand was made by an Iowan, Andrew Clemens, in 1879.
Guests included the artists Donald Sultan (Ms. Sultan's brother), Dennis Oppenheim, and Alice Aycock. Also present were the Drawing Center's executive director, Brett Littman; Allegra LaViola and Michael Bank Christoffersen, the founders of LaViolaBank Gallery, opening on the Lower East Side September 10, and Broadway producer Eric Falkenstein and his wife, Amy, on their last night out in the Hamptons until the birth of their child, due in August (they'll be staying in the city to be near the hospital).
agordon@nysun.com
