At the Helm: Erin Kimmel Leads the East End Seaport Museum Into a New Era

Water is a way of life here on the East End, so when Erin Kimmel came on board as the new executive director of the East End Seaport Museum and Marine Foundation at the end of May, she jumped right into the rushing waters of leadership with a tall ship to steer.

As a Ph.D. candidate in art history at Stony Brook University and a sailor, Kimmel said she is dedicated to inspiring curiosity and appreciation about the past, present and future of the area’s marine environment. And although she’s spent time across the country in California, South Carolina and Texas, she now calls Long Island home and wants to foster learning about our way of life here and preserve one of the area’s most beloved landmarks, Bug Light.

With a lot on her plate, especially leading up to the annual Maritime Festival on September 20–21, we caught up with her about taking on the role and where she sees the museum going in the near future. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is your tie to Long Island specifically?

I ended up coming to Long Island specifically because I wanted to work with Dr. Katy Siegel, who is the Thaw Endowed Chair of American Art at Stony Brook University. Dr. Siegel is best known for her dynamic ability to bridge academia and the art world. She merges scholarly rigor and curatorial innovation, and has really shaped our contemporary understandings of postwar American art. I worked as her research assistant for two years while I was doing my master’s, and that’s when I worked on projects for the Met Breuer, the Baltimore Museum of Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Vuitton Foundation in Paris, and the Barbican in London. So, Stony Brook is really what drew me to Long Island.

And though I was living in the city while I was doing my master’s, I became interested in the relationship between Long Island and New York City. Long Island is so fascinating — it’s both an extension of the city and anathema to it. So, I began to study the history of its artists. I was already familiar with Orient through artist friends and as soon as I started teaching at Stony Brook, I moved to Greenport full time.

Can you tell me about your background in curation?

I started my curatorial career as the associate curator of Ballroom Marfa, which is a contemporary art space in the small, high-desert town of Marfa, Texas, made famous by the artist Donald Judd. At Ballroom Marfa, I worked with artists like Rashid Johnson, Simone Leigh, Alix Pearlstein and Sue Williams on exhibitions, performances and film screenings.

From there, I spent a few years writing art criticism for Artforum and a handful of other publications before finally deciding to embark on a Ph.D. in art history. I wanted to go back to school to embed the ethics of my curatorial practice in a more historical context.

What about EESM and this role that interested you particularly?

The East End Seaport Museum & Marine Foundation is an incredibly unique little institution! We are perched at the end of a fishing wharf overlooking Greenport Harbor in a historic former Long Island Rail Road station that was, and is today, the last stop on the line.

We are also the stewards of the “Bug” Lighthouse, which sits at the junction of Gardiners Bay and the Peconic Estuary. It is one of the only offshore lighthouses that’s visible on the Eastern Seaboard. We take over 1,000 guests there via boat every Saturday between July and October. We also host historic tall ships, and we have a working blacksmith shop in the center of town. I was excited about the challenge of managing all of these different sites. As a historian taking on an ED role, I wanted to try to put my money where my mouth is in terms of the challenge of keeping history alive.

Have there been any exhibits or events there that you’ve loved?

We have an exhibition about Frank Mundus, which was curated by this year’s grand marshal of the Maritime Festival, Paul Kreiling. It’s about the evolution of the famed Montauk fishing charter captain, Frank Mundus. Mundus was the real-life inspiration behind the character Quint in “Jaws,” and the exhibition tracks his shift from shark hunter to shark conservationist — offering an insightful examination of the shifting cultural significance of the shark over the past five decades.

And we are really lucky that Pat Mundus — Frank’s daughter, who is a very close friend of the museum and a very established sea woman in her own right — is partnering with us, as well as the North Fork Arts Center on August 30 to present a 50th anniversary screening of “Jaws.” Afterward, we’ll have a conversation with Pat Mundus about her father’s life, growing up in Montauk, and the shark fishing industry.

What are you working on now?

Our annual Land and Sea Gala is coming up on Friday, September 12, and the theme is “Under the Sea.” It’s a night of dancing, local food and drinks that takes place at Safe Harbor Marina and will feature a costume contest and a mechanical shark.

And then, of course, we have the tried-and-true Maritime Festival that is taking place September 20–21. And then after that, we host the Chowder Fest — a chowder contest that myriad North Fork restaurants compete in — hosted by PORT Restaurant on October 5. We have quite a fall lineup!

That’s a good segue! What can people expect at this year’s Maritime Festival?

This year, we’ll be back with classic boat exhibitions and maritime demonstrations, the kayak race, the famous cardboard boat regatta, and then the famous parade will feature Merry Merfolk with mermaids and pirates and other sea creature costumes parading through the village alongside the street fair, which will have live music, local food vendors, and artisan booths with more than 100 handcrafted exhibitors showcasing their unique wares.

And out of all of those many things that are happening, is there anything that’s your favorite?

The classic wooden boats exhibition is really fun because it offers people an up-close look at something that I don’t think they would normally get to see. The boat owners and captains are so kind and happy to answer any questions that visitors may have.

Is there anything new in particular this year that hasn’t been at the festival before?

Yes, because the Maritime Festival is a fundraiser for the museum, we are adding the Ping Pong Ball Drop 50/50 raffle to the lineup and a new emcee for the cardboard boat race, which will be revealed the week before the festival.

Looking forward, what are some goals you’d like to accomplish for EESM in the near future? How about long-term?

Financial solvency is always top of mind for an ED, so I’m hoping to continue to fundraise to preserve and promote the history of our area and also to inspire curiosity and appreciation about the past, present and future of our marine environment.

In the short term, we are in the beginning stages of a capital campaign to make much-needed repairs to the Bug Lighthouse, which has endured 30 years of wear and tear from its ravaging marine environment. We hope to start what we call “Rock and Dock,” which is the revetment of the rock island and the building of a new and improved dock within the year.

Once we have finished the Bug Light renovations, I’d love to see us introduce arts and science programming out there in tandem with more arts and science museum programming. We are both a museum and a marine foundation, and our buildings are separated by the Peconic Bay Estuary, so I want to do justice to the natural past, present and future of our town’s watery surrounds.

Are there any museums or organizations you are looking to for inspiration?

The Henry L. Ferguson Museum of prehistory, history and natural history of Fishers Island has incredible exhibitions and programming on island life, as well as contemporary art exhibitions. I’m also interested in the Penobscot Marine Museum in Maine, which focuses on Maine’s working waterfront: the fishing industry, boatbuilding and the lives of residents and their families.

I’m excited about Suffolk County’s recent working waterfront legislation and efforts to preserve the marine industry in Greenport. So, I’m definitely taking inspiration from the Penobscot’s efforts to honor their local industry and heritage. And of course, Ballroom Marfa.