Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum board member and the museum’s director who talk about Friday’s Luau and Saturday’s Energy Fair at the museum.
Bettina Stelle
So what can people except from this year’s Luau?
B.S: Well, we will have the pig roast and the Seafood Shop is catering it again. They have catered it for the last five years. We are going to have the same band we did last year, The Surf Dogs. Hopefully, though you never know, we are going to have some surprise guests and we are raffling off a surf board and a beach bike. The whole décor is going to be an islands theme. Marders is loaning us some palm trees and Hibiscus plants ... Of course we are praying to the whale gods for good weather, but we do have a tent ... This year, the oil show, [the exhibit “Oil: Whales, Wells . . . What Next?”], is still going to be up.
Where did the inspiration for the first Luau come from?
B.S: The first Luau was really inspired by the surf show [“Island Kings, Whalers & Beach Boys” in 2005]. It was part of a whole package. [A while back] the museum was stagnant, so we started to do things like the “Pirate Day” which was a huge success. We wanted to switch up the shows and fundraisers to go further than the annual clam bake ... When we first did the Luau we tried to make it an affordable event, but we also wanted it to be fun and not stuffy. We wanted to turn it into a celebration and have many different people make contact with the museum. The first year hundreds of people came and [the singer] Jimmy Buffett was the surprise guest. I think we had probably every East End surfer there ... With the “Pirate Day,” the surf show and then the “Tattoo Show,” there was huge effort and momentum to make our events contemporary ... There was a new group of people on the board ... [and it started] when Linley Whelan was elected to the board. Linley was the first woman on the board . . . [Before] the museum was a place some tourists visited, but locals didn’t really feel they needed to go back to it.
What makes the Luau such a lively local event?
BS: I think it is the mix of people. There are families, kids, teens, tourists and locals and surfers from Montauk to Westhampton come to the Luau . . . and the museum is a real destination. It is a beautiful building in a great location. The band plays Dick Dale themed surf music. Everyone kicks off there flip flops and dances. I think people come back to the Luau because they want to have fun.
Why is the Whaling Museum an important local institution?
B.S: I think it’s important because Sag Harbor was a Whaling town and except for a few older houses, there isn’t a destination to keep this history alive . . . In some ways with the quick development that we have now, we are losing this history . . . and for locals, this is our history and we can’t let it deteriorate.
The annual Luau will be held on Friday, July 10, at 6:30 pm at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum, 200 Main Street. Admission is $100. For more information and to reserve tickets call 725-0770.
Zach Studenroth
What should people expect from this year’s Energy Fair?
Z.S: This years fair is probably going to be a little bigger than last year, and the exhibits will be interactive. A couple of the solar companies are going to explain the specifics of how their equipment works. At least one of the outfits does energy audits and will talk to people specifically about their homes in terms of the feasibility of refitting their systems to alternative energy and other conservation measures to save on heating.
Obviously, we also want the fair to advertise the exhibit, and have people leave with not only a sense of how urgent alternative energy is right now but its historical context.
Two of our sponsors, Hampton Jitney and Modern Green Home, are helping us with a home tour. The Jitney is providing a coach and we are going to a home in Sagaponack. Modern Green Home renovated this old house, but also added a new wing onto it. The museum is going to be half price that day as a further incentive. The house tour has a fee, which is $20, and we are doing that at noon and at two o’clock. One of the designers will be on the bus with us.
We have a commitment from the town to bring one of the electric minis [which the town is leasing from Mini Cooper as part of a pilot program]. We tried to be somewhat creative in the kind of businesses represented in the fair. Even the Awning Company is one of the participating business members because awnings are an age old remedy for cutting down on sun penetration and air conditioning needs . . . We have several solar installers, like Green Logic, Solar Center and Go Solar. The Flanders Heating and Air Conditioning Company is going to be here. They are starting to install highly efficient systems.
Quite a number of non-profits who send a message in this area, like the Peconic Land Trust and the Riverhead Foundation, will be here. We wanted to broaden the theme to show that this could encompass non-profits who have a conservation mission. Other groups will be the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, the Clean Cities, Renewable Energy on Long Island.
Where did you get the idea to hold an energy fair?
Z.S: We just did it for the first time last year and it was part of the oil exhibit. When we had the idea for the oil exhibit, I started to do some reading about why whaling went out of business as quickly as it did [in the middle 1800s]. I found a number of scholars had done research [on the topic], and I found the business died quickly mostly due to the fact that the way in which whale’s oil was being harvested and rendered didn’t meet market demands. Beginning around 1850, it gets to the point where the whale oil supply isn’t sufficient . . . For one thing, a whale ship is out at sea for two to three years and they come back with only one boatload of oil. It is very time consuming and labor intensive, and the price of the commodity was reflected by its scarcity. So people began to look for alternative fuels because whale oil had become so expensive. Though whale oil had the reputation as being one of the best quality fuels. It was bright burning and tended to not be smoky or give off a smell . . . but what I find interesting is that the change didn’t happen over night. Years of research had gone into finding alternatives to take the place of whale oil.
When I think about the shift away from whale oil, I think about petroleum. Last year at the pump, gas was almost four dollars a gallon. We seem to be experiencing that same kind of moment in history. The costs of oil are becoming so prohibitive we are trying to find an alternative. That is what drives the decision. Although there are many aspects to this, I think everyone can agree that was drives the transformation of technology is the price of things. That’s why as we developed this exhibit, we also wanted to look at some of those new technologies.
This is a way to bridge the museum to the current world and perhaps help explain something that happened more than a hundred years ago.
Is the museum planning any ways to go “green”?
Z.S: I have a graduate student starting as an intern next week. He is in his first year in preservation studies at Pratt Institute. He is going to help set-up the fair, but his project for the museum is to study the building and come up with some proposals on how to retrofit the house with more energy efficient heating and cooling systems and lighting. Right now the second floor is heated with an inefficient oil burning system, but the house gets no hot water. There is no installation. There are no storm windows.
At first we want to focus on the exterior and make the building weather tight, and the next step can be to consider climate control systems at least to an extent that will be comfortable for museum visitors, but will protect the collection.
I asked Bettina this question, but I wanted to know your thoughts on this as well. Why do you think the Whaling museum is an important local institution?
Z.S: It is the only place where visitors can come to understand what the maritime history and culture is of this place. We provide school programming and tours and I think it is important for local children to know the history of their locality.
The Luau brings in a younger group for the most part and we hope people will come into the museum [at the event]. The same is true of the energy fair. We hope people will come in and discover the museum.
The Sag Harbor Energy Fair will be held on Saturday, July 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. The Sag Harbor Whaling Museum is located at 200 Main Street. For more information call 725-0770.
