Art, Music And History On Full Display At Sag Harbor's Cultural District Festival

Back in 2012, Eric Cohen, coordinator of technology and media at Sag Harbor’s John Jermain Memorial Library, had a discussion with library director Catherine Creedon, Sag Harbor Whaling Museum Board President Barbara Lobosco, and Canio’s Cultural Café co-owner Kathryn Szoka.

The topic? How to encourage village residents and visitors alike to spend more time exploring the cultural offerings to be found along Main Street beyond the business district.

“Specifically, we were looking at the area around Union, Garden and Main streets in front of the library, the Custom House and the Whaling Museum,” recalled Mr. Cohen in a recent phone interview. “It was an attractive space with a lot going on, but underutilized.”

That’s how the Sag Harbor Cultural District was born. Though it began with those Main Street organizations, soon other Sag Harbor nonprofit groups asked to join in the initiative as well.

“We felt it would be more effective with other organizations, and it encompasses the whole village, not just the Main Street district,” Mr. Cohen said.

Today, the Sag Harbor Cultural District comprises 12 nonprofits in the village, and each May since 2016 the group has offered a day or a weekend of events highlighting the cultural and artistic offerings to be found at the various institutions.

The theme of this year’s Cultural Heritage Festival, as it is now called, is “Sag Harbor: The Stories That Shape Us,” and from May 3 to 5 the member organizations will be highlighting the community’s stories and storytellers through literature, art, music, theater and history.

“The term Cultural Heritage Festival embodies the idea behind this,” Mr. Cohen said. “With all these cultural and arts organizations in Sag Harbor, the question was: How can we work together to increase awareness both inside and outside the village about the cultural resources we have, and work together to make these meaningful?”

He added that, in the past, many residents have considered these organizations to be primarily for summer visitors, “Which is so not true,” he said. “That’s what we hope to accomplish, we want people to see these as their resources. It’s for our whole community.”

With more than 20 events taking place over the three-day festival, there certainly will be something for everyone, from historic walking tours and boat building demonstrations, to a lesson in card magic for kids and a backstage tour of Bay Street Theater. Mary K. Edwards, a Melville scholar and sailor, will be at Canio’s to talk about her adventures aboard the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, and the Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center will screen the 1940 Oscar-winning John Ford film “The Grapes of Wrath” at Pierson High School. That film, of course, is based on the novel by one of Sag Harbor’s most famous literary residents, John Steinbeck.

Taking a different twist on history, the Eastville Community Historical Society will present an exhibition titled “Sheet Music Shapes Our Lives,” with a Vinyl and the Vine event where guests are invited to sip wine (bring your own) and listen to timeless tunes on the record player.

Mr. Cohen noted there will also be music at the library courtesy of a Sag Harbor American Music Festival concert by Long Island singer-songwriter Rorie Kelly.

“She will tell stories in her songs. Everything we’ve tried to do this year is different ways of telling stories,” he said. “The library also has a really cool drop-in event. We contacted about 20 authors, artists and musicians and recorded 3-minute snippets of them reading from their books or talking about how they create their work.”

Those recordings have been uploaded onto portable MP3 players and Mr. Cohen explained that library visitors will be invited to pick up a player and take a tour of the building, pausing at numbered stops to hear more about the artwork or books nearby.

“As you get to that spot, you’ll hear the people talk about the work, mostly literature,” Mr. Cohen said. “We also have some artists like Dan Rizzie and music by Inda Eaton and Caroline Doctorow.”

Mr. Cohen is a big music fan, and he said that a personal highlight of the weekend will be back-to-back concerts on the historic organs at both the Old Whalers’ Church and Christ Episcopal Church, which are less than a block from one another.

“Another thing we’re wrapping into the festival is Ken Robbins’s photographs,” Mr. Cohen said, noting that the late artist’s work will be on view at five Sag Harbor galleries plus the library. All the work will be available for sale in support of Fighting Chance, the East End cancer resource center that has offices in Sag Harbor and the new Phillip Family Cancer Center, which opened last week on County Road 39 in Southampton.

In looking back, when asked if the cultural weekend has succeeded in the mission envisioned in 2012 of bringing more people to Sag Harbor’s cultural institutions, Mr. Cohen responded by saying, “Yes, it’s increased every year—but it’s been a slow growth to be honest with people picking and choosing events.

“Talks about local history have been the most popular … and the music events are always packed.”

For the full Cultural Heritage Festival schedule and location of participating organizations, visit Sag Harbor Cultural District’s Facebook page.