LongHouse Reserve Opens the 2024 Season

On Saturday, March 30, LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton’s 16-acre sculpture garden and nature sanctuary, will open its 2024 season with its annual Rites of Spring celebration.

“This season will be our liveliest ever. We have art, performances, conversations, craft workshops, and well-being activities for the whole family”, said director Carrie Rebora Barratt. “LongHouse founder, Jack Lenor Larsen, left us with the instruction to be relevant, not reverent, and we follow his lead with an exciting season of art and events, carrying out our mission of inspiring living with art in all forms. We’ve become Long Island’s largest and most community-engaged open air cultural institution.”

The season opens with “Full Circle: Toshiko Takaezu and Friends,” in conjunction with the Noguchi Museum’s retrospective of her work, both curated by LongHouse curator Glenn Adamson. At LongHouse, the core of the exhibition are the pieces Lenor acquired from his friend, Takaezu, and gifts from her to him, including the iconic Gateway Bell. Lenor collected her work in depth and regarded her as a kindred spirit. Like Larsen, Takaezu (1922-2011) studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, making the long pilgrimage there from her native Hawai’i in 1951, an experience that began her long and distinguished career as one of America’s most influential ceramic artists.

Events on Saturday, March 30, begin with “Come, Sit, Stay Dog Day” from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. At the same time, a Members Morning early access session will include a hands-on activity for families to create a spring basket with The Shine Studio. From 12:30 to 2 p.m., guests can take part in a workshop to fashion a spring headdress with the Neo-Political Cowgirls and its artistic director Kate Mueth. Bring a piece of ephemera or a personal token to add among the LongHouse flora in the project to represent wishes, goals, or remembrances. Suggested for ages 12 and up, as child-unfriendly tools will be used. From 3 to 5 p.m. a LongHouse Talk will take place with Glenn Adamson and Martha Russo on “Full Circle: Toshiko Takaezu and Friends”

On Sunday, March 31, the day begins with a members-only walking meditation with Jason Amis from 10 to 11 a.m. and a Members Morning from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. From 11 a.m. to noon, Juan Yanez will lead a Kendama meditation.

Visitors to LongHouse will see new art and design works this year from Monica Banks, Anna Kang Burgess, Maryam Eisler, Maren Hassinger, Fitzhugh Karol, Bill King, Paola Lenti, Robert Lobe, Mark Mennin, Isamu Noguchi, Kenny Scharf, Agathe Snow, Toshiko Takaezu, Lenore Tawney, Martha Russo. This season, there will also be performances by Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner, The Iris Trio, Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company, Neo-Political Cowgirls, Young Concert Artists, and talks with Jonathan Adler, Liz Collins, Lynne Cooke, Machine Dazzle, Alastair Gordon and others. Permanent favorite installations include those by Buckminster Fuller, Sol Lewitt and Yoko Ono, and renewed loans by Daniel Arsham and Ai Weiwei.

LongHouse Reserve is at 133 Hands Creek Road in East Hampton and open Wednesdays through Sundays from 12:30 to 5 p.m. General admission is $20, with half price tickets for seniors, and no charge for veterans, active-duty personnel, children under 12 and students with valid school/college ID. More information is available at longhouse.org.