Parrish Art Museum Hits Major Benchmarks

The Parrish Art Museum has much to celebrate: increased membership, new acquisitions and a heap of national recognition.

Sixteen months after settling into its new Water Mill digs—an award-winning building designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron—the 116-year-old institution has seen a dramatic spike in membership, even before its big move from Southampton Village. In anticipation, Parrish membership increased 39 percent, from 1,642 members in November 2011 to 2,686 members by November 2012. That upward trend has continued through 2013, with 3,705 members by the end of the year.

The opening also spurred a significant growth in the museum’s permanent collection, with 173 gifts of art: 44 paintings, 16 sculpture pieces, 69 works on paper and 44 photographs. Fifty of the total works come from 17 artists who are new to the Parrish collection, including “Passage at Bellport,” the museum’s first work from acclaimed video artist Peter Campus.

Additionally, the Parrish earned an award from Dwell Magazine for a café chair designed exclusively for the museum, as well as several distinctions for the building design itself.

In January, Travel + Leisure Magazine awarded the Parrish with the Design Award for Best Museum in the publication’s 10th annual International Design Competition. Out of 18 categories, the Parrish was the only architecture winner from the United States. In 2013, Wallpaper* Magazine named the museum as the Best Public Building of the Year. The year before, the Wall Street Journal called the Parrish one of the best new museums and Architectural Digest listed it as one of 12 “Big, Bold, and Buzzworthy” museums.