The Leiber Collection will host “From Montauk to Springs, via Scow: Jim and Charlotte’s Odyssey,” an illustrated talk by renowned art historian Helen A. Harrison, on Sunday, August 24, at 4 p.m.
Harrison, former director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, will trace the remarkable journey of Abstract Expressionists James Brooks and Charlotte Park through the lens of their East End home and studios. She will share rarely seen photographs of their Montauk property near Rocky Point — frequented by close friends Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner — the destruction of their studios by Hurricane Carol in 1954, and the dramatic relocation of their home across Napeague Bay to Neck Path in Springs.
The Brooks-Park Home & Studios in East Hampton is where the two noted American artists lived for more than four decades, beginning in 1957. The 11-acre site — comprising beech and oak woodlands connected by historic trails — was purchased by the Town of East Hampton in 2013 through the Community Preservation Fund for open space purposes. Following strong public advocacy for preserving the site’s structures, the town designated the property a local historic landmark in 2014.
The centerpiece of the site is the purpose-built studio James Brooks designed in 1959. Nearby is the artists’ modest house, which includes a 19th-century timber-frame cottage they had lived in since 1948 after moving from Montauk. A small structure brought from Montauk in 1957, originally part of the Tar Works fishing community, now sits near Brooks’s studio and once served as a guest cottage for visitors including Pollock and Krasner. Charlotte Park’s own studio, said to have once been a Wainscott Post Office, stands between the house and Brooks’s studio.
Despite landmark status and widespread public support — including the site’s inclusion on endangered property lists by Preservation Long Island, the Preservation League of New York State, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2021 and 2022 — preservation efforts have stalled due to a lack of political momentum and dedicated funding.
Original documents will be on display during the talk, including the Montauk deed, a moving estimate for transporting the house by scow, and Brooks’s architectural plans for his new studio. Harrison, who authored the 2014 report that led to the town’s landmark designation, brings a vivid narrative of resilience, creativity and place to life through her research and storytelling.
This special event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Charlotte Park and James Brooks ~ Of This Place,” currently on view at The Leiber Collection. Seating is limited; RSVP is recommended. The Leiber Collection is at 446 Old Stone Highway in East Hampton.
Staff Writer on Aug 16, 2025