Celebrating a Century of Experimentation With The Watermill Center

The Watermill Center, a laboratory for the arts and humanities founded by Robert Wilson, holds its Annual Summer Benefit this Saturday, July 27, on the organization’s 10-acre flagship Water Mill grounds.

This year’s gala honors the legendary dancer and choreographer Lucinda Childs, whose modernist sensibility with movement revolutionized the world of dance; and also celebrates the inaugural Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Partnership, which will include a new dance fellowship launching in 2025.

The theme of this year’s benefit, “A Laboratory: 100 Years of Experimentation,” celebrates the 100 year anniversary of the construction of Watermill’s building, which was originally used as a telecommunications laboratory. Wilson purchased the abandoned property in 1989 with a vision for a new kind of laboratory — a place of inspiration and a home for future generations of artists.

Conceived by Wilson as a theatrical production in its own right, Watermill’s Annual Summer Benefit offers an immersive one-of-a-kind experience for guests to explore over 20 site-specific performances and installations across the center’s campus by a roster of groundbreaking international artists. All proceeds benefit the International Summer Program and year-round Artist Residency Program, which support the work of over 120 artists from more than 35 countries annually, as well as Education Programming, giving over 1,000 local children the chance to engage in hands-on workshops with arts professionals.

In addition to new performances and installations, the benefit will also celebrate the inaugural Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Partnership, which will support all dance programming at Watermill for the year in addition to a new dance fellowship that will launch in 2025. To celebrate the groundbreaking work of this year’s honoree, there will be a series of performances re-staging Lucinda Childs’s seminal works, including “Pastime” (1963), “Carnation” (1964) and “Katema” (1978) featuring the artist’s niece, Ruth Childs; alongside “Untitled Trio” (1968) and “Radial Courses” (1976) with her longtime collaborator Ty Boomershine of the Dance On Ensemble.

Following nearly five decades of friendship and collaboration between Childs and Wilson, who began working together in 1976 for the iconic opera “Einstein on the Beach” and continued through their restaging of their 1981 piece “Relative Calm” in 2022, the event acts as a reflection on the two artists’ continued creative partnership.

The event will also feature performances by Mykki Blanco, CocoRosie, Lizzi Bougatsos and Sadie Laska’s band I.U.D. and Liz Magic Laser, an exhibition of new works by Gideon Appah.

The evening begins with cocktails, performances, installations and exhibitions from 6 to 8:15 p.m., followed by a seated dinner with live auction at 8:30 p.m. and, from 9:30 p.m. onward, dessert, cocktails and music performance.

Tickets start at $250 at watermillcenter.org. The Watermill Center is at 39 Water Mill Towd Road in Water Mill.