New Name For Southampton Arts Program Reflects Dedication Of Longtime Supporter Dorothy Lichtenstein

In 2003, Dorothy Lichtenstein was invited by friends to an event at what was, at the time, the LIU-Southampton campus, where comedian Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft were featured in conversation, along with other esteemed guests.

“I hadn’t laughed that much in years,” she said earlier this month. “In fact, I may have fallen off my chair.”

The lively conversation between Brooks and Bancroft was followed by the “antics,” Lichtenstein recalled, of authors Frank McCourt, Roger Rosenblatt and other presenters.

Both the event and the people who organized it left an impression on Lichtenstein, who soon discovered that the program responsible for bringing those guests together — Southampton Arts — was in need of support.

“Here was something I wanted to thrive, and it was struggling,” Lichtenstein said.

So she posed a simple question to associate provost Robert Reeves. “I said, ‘How can I help?’”

Since then, Lichtenstein — the 82-year-old philanthropist and widow of famed pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, who died in 1997 — has been the primary benefactor of the Southampton Arts program, allowing it to not only survive but thrive over the years, from its beginnings as part of the Long Island University program and through the transition when Stony Brook University took over the Southampton campus and integrated the arts program into its larger curriculum.

To honor her unwavering dedication and enthusiasm for the arts program, the university has officially renamed the Southampton Arts program, which, as of an official ceremony on July 9, will now be known as the Lichtenstein Center.

The growth the program has experienced over the last 15 years is directly attributable to the financial commitments Lichtenstein has made, Reeves said, calling her support “transformative.”

She began supporting the program’s Writers Conference back in 2004, when it was still part of the LIU system, and joined the Stony Brook Foundation Board of Trustees in 2007, shortly after the campus was acquired by Stony Brook. The first Lichtenstein Fund gift came in 2013, and the Lichtenstein-Reeves Endowment was established in 2018.

Reeves and Lichtenstein have become friends over the years, and it is clear they share a mutual admiration. Reeves is effusive in his praise of Lichtenstein and her support. He said the Lichtenstein Center has long functioned as a kind of “arts colony for credit,” and said that Lichtenstein’s support of the programs combined with her trust in the people in charge of running them has been key in allowing the programs to thrive.

She is equally complimentary of Reeves’s dedication to supporting the arts community and expanding the offerings over the years, and recalls being impressed with this enthusiasm and energy from the start, when she first offered to help.

“Bob had some answers and out-of-the-box ideas,” she said. “The center should really be called the Reeves Center. I have watched Bob struggle to keep and grow our programs against all odds.”

The dedication of Reeves and other longtime leaders in the program, combined with Lichtenstein’s commitment as a benefactor, has allowed the arts offerings to grow and expand greatly over the course of 15 years.

Since 2007, the arts program has built, from scratch, MFA programs in creative writing, literature, television writing and film. The MFA in film is, notably, the first of its kind in the entire SUNY system. There is also a BFA in creative writing, and minors in creative writing, film, and television writing. Other expansions have included certificate and advanced training programs in children’s literature, social impact filmmaking, podcasting, and manuscript development.

The Lichtenstein Center will also continue to host the popular summer writing conference, as well as several community programs, including the Young Artist and Writers Project and The Southampton Review.

Part of what has made the programs under the Lichtenstein Center umbrella so successful is the variety. There are traditional academic MFA programs geared toward full-time students, but the advanced training programs are a great option for people who may not be able to commit to being a full-time student for various reasons but are eager to continue their training in the arts. The popular summer writing workshops have been a big draw for years as well.

The film school program is offered in Manhattan, and undergraduate courses in creative writing are offered at Stony Brook’s main campus, meaning that the Lichtenstein Center programs are well represented and thriving and growing in three different locations.

Trying to reach a wider audience in some nontraditional ways has been a key to Lichtenstein’s Center popularity over the years, and Reeves said that Lichtenstein’s enthusiasm for it all has made it possible.

“The name change really represents how we’re ending this period of enormous growth and we want to make the transition to stability,” Reeves said. “We need a new institutional identity. Southampton Arts started 15 year ago, and [the old name] has become really misleading because we do so much more than that. The new name will help give us a coherent identity and elevate our profile, in addition to honoring Dorothy, who has been shoulder-to-shoulder with us, and has been amazingly generous.”

Reeves added that New York State and the SUNY system has provided a “stable platform” for building programs, and another key in creating a place “where a wide range of creative artists can pursue what they want in their chosen field.”