Art in Focus: The Watermill Center

Posted on May 22, 2019 by Chris Kretz

The Watermill Center, which lies some twenty minutes east of the Southampton campus, was founded in 1992 as a space to foster and incubate the work of artists across a range of endeavors. It is the vision of theater director and artist Robert Wilson, who took a rundown former Western Union lab nestled amid farmland and transformed it into a laboratory for creativity.

Elka Rifkin shared this vision with us on May 21st in the library as part of the summer Art in Focus lecture series. Elka, the Director of the Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation (which runs the Center), described the history of the site as well as the various programs, events and resources they sponsor. For those of you who could not attend, this video gives you a sense of the unique atmosphere of the Center.

The Art in Focus lecture series is co-sponsored by the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center and the Stony Brook Southampton Library and is made possible by support from the John H. Marburger III Fund of Stony Brook University.

Join us on Tuesday, June 4th, for Charles Riley of the Nassau County Museum of Art discussing the art of the 1980s.