Clare Bisceglia’s cozy Quogue cottage

Clare Bisceglia, executive director of the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, will put in another long day on the job tomorrow as she oversees the organization’s seventh annual “House and Garden Tour” fund-raiser, which showcases some of the finest homes in the Westhampton Beach area.

Like most tour attendees, she said she will be right there “ooing and ahhing” over the décor of the magazine-spread worthy homes and taking notes about the flora and fauna in the lush gardens. But, truth be told, by the end of the day, Ms. Bisceglia will happily return to her own nirvana—a modest “postage stamp-size cottage” located in the bucolic village of Quogue.

“There are certainly opportunities to find sweller digs, especially if you’re willing to commute,” she explained during a tour of her home earlier this month. “But the theater is a year-round, community-based performing arts center and I felt it was important in my position to embrace and be part of the community. I sometimes work until midnight on show days, and I love the fact that I only have a 4 minute commute to work.”

During her eight-year tenure as the head of the arts organization, Ms. Bisceglia can be credited with many accomplishments—among them, helping the children’s program expand into a world-class educational experience, and nurturing the center’s “main stage” programming so that a wide-ranging roster of performers want to return year after year (this season’s line-up includes George Winston, Lyle Lovett, Blondie, John Pizzarelli and the Fab Faux, to name just a few).

“When I first started, booking agents would ask, ‘

Who

are you?

Where

are you located?

How

many seats do you have?’ And now we have booking agents calling

us

because they’ve heard about, or their artists have experienced and raved about, the intimate space and superior acoustics,” she explained.

Ms. Bisceglia said she is also proud of the continued growth of the world cinema program, which brings in current release art house films; as well as the recent acquisition and renovation of adjacent property (including a charming courtyard) for hospitality and office space; and the fact that this relatively young arts organization is completely debt-free.

“In some ways, I feel like I’m still new here, but at the same time, I feel like I’ve always been a part of this special place,” she acknowledged while she laid out a mid-morning spread, including homemade iced tea with a sprig of mint and croissants placed on an antique smoked-glass dish—a piece from her great-grandmother’s wedding set.

The dish, plus other cherished pieces of furniture and decorations, has traveled with Ms. Bisceglia over the years from various homes in Manhattan, Atlanta and Nashville.

One of six children (her father ran a family construction business and her mother was a schoolteacher), Ms. Bisceglia was born in the Bronx and raised in Westchester.

“My goal in life has always been to work with creative people, to travel extensively, and to never have to do repetitive tasks because I have the attention span of a gnat,” said the woman who graduated from Marymount College and who first achieved her goals by working at major advertising agencies in Manhattan.

“It was the 1970s, and I was working at Foote, Cone & Belding on the 36th floor of the Pan Am Building at a time when helicopters were still landing on the roof and Charlie Brown’s, located in the basement, was the coolest bar around. It was a very fun time to be in New York City,” said Ms. Bisceglia, who at the time lived in an apartment in Tudor City .

Her dream of traveling the globe and being around creative people continued to be realized when she became head of advertising and production for Coca-Cola in Atlanta, and later when she became vice president of feature films at Columbia Pictures.

“It was during the David Putnam regime, so we released lots of artsy films and such duds as ‘Leonard Part 6,’ starring Bill Cosby,” she laughed.

Ms. Bisceglia and her possessions next traveled to Nashville, where she worked for the Tennessee Repertory Theater, the largest equity theater in the southeast, and later Gaylord Entertainment, which operates the Grand Ole Opry. It was during her time in Nashville that she wrote a book, “Country Music Mom’s Recipes for Success,” which featured favorite recipes and interviews with the mothers of such famous country musicians as Kenny Chesney and Jo Dee Messina.

“And then I came to Westhampton Beach,” she said, appearing happy with her decision to return to her New York roots.

Initially “bouncing around in rentals for a few months,” Ms. Bisceglia found her current home in a serendipitous way.

“One of my favorite things in the world is Sunday morning breakfast, complete with a great cup of cappuccino and the New York Times. When I moved here, I discovered the now-closed Inn Spot in Quogue. They had the best homemade corned beef hash, pancakes and waffles,” she said. “One day I was 
driving down Quogue Street and I noticed a ‘for rent’ sign. I loved the location, so I called the number, and here I am seven years later.”

Ms. Bisceglia’s country cottage has four main rooms (kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath), but the addition of two screened-in porches and an upstairs loft space adds to the space’s charm and square footage. And although she enjoys cooking and entertaining—and boasts a professional-looking espresso maker—Ms. Bisceglia said she limits her entertaining to small groups because of the cottage’s size.

“If it’s more than three people and myself, I make reservations,” she joked.

The kitchen contains some of the whimsical animals she collects, including a Chinese “foo dog” sculpture, which “keeps the evil spirits away,” she said, laughing. Pointing to cherished pieces from her collection, including a monkey, frogs, camels and mice made of either metal or 
porcelain, Ms. Bisceglia reported that she purchases only 
pieces that “make her laugh or smile.”

“And I have little oddball pieces of art I’m very fond of, especially landscapes and paintings of organic things, like fruits and flowers,” she said.

Over the years, she’s collected art that commemorates places she’s visited. Her living room includes landscape paintings of Yosemite, California; Tennessee; the Carolinas; and Greenwich, Connecticut. A large seascape by local artist Liz Holtz hangs on the staircase wall leading to the loft on the second floor, where Ms. Bisceglia’s guests (mostly nieces and nephews, she said) bunk when visiting.

In the cozy living room space—painted white with a seafoam green carpet—Ms. Bisceglia groups three Queen Anne-style chairs in a conversational circle in lieu of a traditional sofa or love seat. Two of the chairs once belonged to her grandmother and have been reupholstered numerous times. Pretty lace curtains (“Martha Stewart for Kmart,” she admitted) add to the old-fashioned, yet elegant, feel of the room.

Ms. Bisceglia said she took a Zen-like approach to her bedroom, which includes a hand-painted dresser; large ottoman which doubles as a chaise lounge; vanity laden with Bobbi Brown lipsticks in pink, red and brown; exotic porcupine quill lamps; and an original pen-and-ink self-portrait by Atlanta artist Creason Clayton.

Aside from being ideally located for work and socializing, the cottage is comfortable and inviting, filled with Ms. Bisceglia’s treasures, which is just the way she likes it.

“My house has no real design concept,” said Ms. Bisceglia. “It’s just an interesting, eclectic mix-and-match of things that are comfortable and make me smile at the end of the day.”

The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center’s 7th annual “House and Garden Tour” will be held on Friday, July 16, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with lunch served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Westhampton Country Club. Tickets are $75 for the tour only, and $100 for the tour and lunch. For details, call 288-1500.