Celebrating Creativity: Student Art Festival – Rauschenberg100 at Guild Hall

From November 15 to January 4, 2026, Guild Hall presents “Student Art Festival: Rauschenberg100,” honoring the centennial of artist Robert Rauschenberg’s birth.

Part of an international initiative organized by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Guild Hall has partnered with eight public schools and 10 East End artists to explore what Rauschenberg referred to as the “gap between art and life.”

The festival culminates in an exhibition of new works and presentations by the participating schools and artists, alongside a special display of Rauschenberg’s own work from Guild Hall’s permanent collection. This portion of the show is co-curated by the Guild Hall Teen Arts Council and the Museum Director & Curator of Visual Arts, Melanie Crader.

The participating schools include Amagansett School, Bridgehampton School, East Hampton High School, East Hampton Middle School, John Marshall Elementary School, Shelter Island School, Springs School, and Pierson Middle-High School. Guest artists collaborating in the festival include Bastienne Schmidt; Candace Hill-Montgomery; Eva Faye; Evan Yee; Kevin Teare; Laurie Lambrecht; Linda K Alpern; Margaret Garrett; Peter Dayton; and Scott Bluedorn.

Student Art Festival (SAF) is a long-standing tradition that encourages and celebrates the artistic achievement and imagination of students, kindergarten through grade 12 on Long Island’s South Fork. Through close collaboration with teachers, the program explores an annual theme, links creative production to civic participation, and partners each participating school with regional artists to produce new work.