'New Space': Jonathan Nash Glynn Christens the Bridgehampton Museum's Tractor Barn With a Cosmic Exhibition

As far as forgotten storage spaces go, the barn behind the Bridgehampton Museum’s Corwith House was not for the faint of heart.

Packed with tools, equipment, farm implements and close to a dozen tractors, the objects represented a bygone era in the life of the museum and Bridgehampton itself — yet they sat unused in the barn for several years.

Enter Connor Flanagan, Bridgehampton Museum’s executive director, who was struck by inspiration. In recent months, Flanagan has worked to breathe new life into the barn by taking on the challenge of cleaning it out and, with the help of some handy and enthusiastic board members, transforming it into something entirely different — an exhibition space for artists.

This weekend, Bridgehampton Museum inaugurates the newly renovated Tractor Barn with an art exhibition featuring the work of Sag Harbor’s own Jonathan Nash Glynn (founder of the nonprofit organization Wings Over Haiti). Titled “New Space,” Glynn’s show is a double entendre — referring not only to the Tractor Barn itself, but also the massive paintings that he has created for the exhibition and are inspired by imagery from the Hubble and Webb space telescopes.

“The whole thing was very kismet,” said Flanagan of the partnership with Glynn. “We were building the space out with the help of our board member Steve Clarke. Steve had seen some of Jonathan’s work and when aligning the drywall, he said, ‘I know a guy with big pieces. This may be fun.’ The timeline was also interesting. I knew this would be ready for fall and it all came together quickly.”

“Steve sent me a text, and I almost dropped the phone,” Glynn added. “I had been showing at Colm Rowan Gallery in East Hampton, then it got flooded in 2023 and the gallery folded. For a year or so, I had no representation and didn’t realize how much I missed it.

“When I saw this space, I knew it was for me.”

Glynn explains that this new body of work is the zenith, so to speak, of a single Milky Way-inspired painting that he had sold through Colm Rowan Gallery back in 2021.

“I missed it, and I wanted to riff on it, but I didn’t do it,” Glynn said. “It was the only one I did. I had been looking at those photos from 2021, around COVID, and for some crazy reason I wanted to do something more.”

The expansive, newly installed white walls of the renovated Tractor Barn gave Glynn the motivation he needed to take a “giant leap,” as it were, into the next incarnation of his space-themed paintings.

“The triptych I will be installing on the back wall will be the largest painting I’ve ever done,” Glynn said.

“We showed you the wall when you came in and I saw your face light up,” added Flanagan, who couldn’t be more thrilled to have Glynn christen the new space.

When you think about it, a barn’s high ceilings, massive walls and large doors that allow work to be moved in and out with ease make it an ideal structure to transform into a gallery. Add some good lighting and the stage is set.

The new Tractor Barn exhibition space measures 35’ x 20’ and it represents just a third or so of the barn’s overall dimensions. That’s because the barn is a work in progress and much of it still needs to be cleared out and renovated.

By way of back story, Flanagan explained that the Corwith House and surrounding property remained in the family’s hands until the early 1960s, when it was sold to the Hampton Library. In turn, a couple years later the library sold the property to the museum, which had been created by a group of concerned citizens hoping to preserve the site. The barn itself was built by the museum in 1985 with the specific purpose of storing the tractors and engines that were brought out and started up each year as part of the museum’s annual engine runs.

“Cliff Foster, a volunteer at the museum, did those for years. People remember going to them as kids. It’s something we want to bring back, but it’s a lot to sort out,” Flanagan said. “After Cliff passed, the barn became a dumping ground. Tractors, engines and all sorts of stuff accumulated in there.”

When Flanagan joined the museum as its executive director at the end of 2023, one of the first things he did was to conduct a survey of the museum’s holdings to gauge the organization’s priorities.

“These barns were a huge question mark,” Flanagan said. “It was an overwhelming pile of stuff. We had 10 tractors in this barn with flat tires — and none of them would turn on. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it.”

So, Flanagan reached out to Cliff Foster’s daughter, Marilee Foster, who is on the museum board and still runs a family farm and operates the Sagaponack Farm Distillery with her brother, Dean.

“I said, ‘Do you and Dean want these tractors back?’” Flanagan recalled. “She said, ‘Yes,’ and came by with a guy from her farm and cleared most of this space. Then it was an empty room with dirt and rocks. What could the possibilities be? Everything costs money. We had to figure out what we could do with no money.”

Fortunately, board member Steve Clarke, former owner of Sperry Tents, saw potential and wanted to get involved in a hands-on way. Using his contacts, Clarke arranged for Marders landscaping to come dig out the dirt floor, which was then backfilled with gravel, while Sperry Tents donated used wooden floor panels for the flooring and material for the walls and Water Mill Building Supply provided additional construction materials for the project.

“With volunteer labor, we started in June and were able to get this finished the second week in August,” Flanagan said. “We came in under $10,000 on supplies. We knew we wanted to do some shows and all that time, I was talking to Jonathan about this fall show.”

The Tractor Barn will now be the centerpiece of the Corwith property for the foreseeable future, as the Corwith House itself, which has hosted all kinds of exhibitions and programming over the years, is currently closed to the public. Flanagan notes that in recent years, the museum focused its efforts on renovation of the nearby Rogers House, which now serves as its headquarters, leaving the Corwith House in need of repairs.

“With all the effort going into the Rogers House, this house was a little neglected,” said Flanagan who plans to bring in an architectural engineer to access what needs to be done to ensure Corwith House is structurally sound.

In the meantime, for Glynn, the creation of the Tractor Barn comes at an ideal point in his creative journey, and he sees the space as critical to moving forward in his professional career as an artist.

“After Colm Gallery went under, I was eking out work, but kind of creatively uninspired,” Glynn admitted. “Only in the past four months did it hit. I saw this space and put my ego aside because I didn’t have time to doubt myself to do this — and I went on a roll.”

“It’s pure creative energy and now I’d like to get another gallery,” he added. “This is a nice forum for me, professionally. I’d like to stay with it, so I don’t get confused. I’m totally inspired by it, and I think that’s the core of what you really want as an artist.”

In addition to the work on the walls, Flanagan and Glynn have also created a catalog to document the Tractor Barn’s first ever art show.

“Connor writes in the catalog about how we met,” Glynn said. “He has a vision for the museum. It’s the tradition of community involvement and offering a historical aspect, but not from an elitist position.”

Flanagan concurs, noting that his goal is also to inject an educational component into whatever programming the museum offers. To that end, local astronomers from the Hamptons Observatory have been invited to set up telescopes at the show’s opening reception on Saturday, October 11, from 7 to 9 p.m. The special stargazing event is weather permitting, of course, and guests are also invited to bring their own telescopes as well.

“For Jonathan’s show, we want to create opportunities for people to engage with space,” Flanagan said.

In addition, on Friday, October 17, at 5 p.m., keyboardist and composer Mercer Shavelson will present “New Space Sounds,” a live jazz performance in the Tractor Barn, and will be bringing along a musician to perform with him on saxophone.

“This will allow us as a museum to see how this space works,” Flanagan said. “A lot of artists are curious about this space. I’ve had 10 to 20 already asking to check it out. We want to treat this, not just as a museum, but more as a community center.

“Going forward, we could do movie night screenings and a lot more weird, funky pop-up things,” Flanagan said, adding that on Sunday, October 26, the Corwith House property will host the annual Lion’s Club Pumpkin Carving contest, which is traditionally held across the street at the Bridgehampton Community House, now under renovation.

“With Connor, we breezed through this,” Glynn said of the speed at which the art show came together. “It’s very difficult to have this done in a couple months. He didn’t doubt I could pull this off.”

“New Space,” a solo exhibition by artist Jonathan Nash Glynn, opens with a reception and star gazing event on Saturday, October 11, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Tractor Barn located on the Corwith House property, 2368 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton. The exhibition remains on view through October 26, with gallery hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission to the opening and exhibit is free. “New Space Sounds” with Mercer Shavelson will be presented in the Tractor Barn on Friday, October 17, at 5 p.m. Admission is $20. For more information visit bridgehamptonmuseum.org.