Southampton Arts Center Offers Safe Exercise Options On Southampton Village Lawn

Text your friends, and tell them you want to go to a museum, you want to go dancing, you want to get fit. COVID-19 isn’t going to stop you this time.

According to Simone Levinson, the founding co-chair at the Southampton Arts Center, their team faced a question earlier this spring: how to continue to serve the community during the pandemic, while remaining true to the center’s core values?

The SAC has three core touchpoints, Ms. Levinson said: first, to build a community through the arts; second, to support local artists themselves; and third, to act as an economic driver in Southampton Village.

The pandemic posed an enormous threat to each of these values, she said, and the SAC team quickly tried to reinvent themselves while staying true to the center’s identity and role in town.

Currently, the SAC is hosting three outdoor exercise activations, starting with lessons by Olga Paladino of Five Pillars Yoga outdoors on the lower west lawn. The yoga classes are held daily from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., and will continue through September 7. The cost is $25 per class.

A SoulCycle activation is currently on the other side of the property, in a shaded alcove. It is far more private than other activations in the village, and nearby to Juice Press, Golden Pear, and other neighboring food stores, Ms. Levinson said.

Starting Thursday, August 13, the SAC will also be offering dance-led athletic conditioning by FORWARD_Space on the west lawn, from Thursday to Monday, at 8 a.m., and on Fridays at 11a.m. The classes cost $45.

For all three activations, attendees are required to wear masks until activities begin, get their temperature taken as they check in, and bikes and other equipment are thoroughly disinfected.

Moving forward during the pandemic required thinking outside of the box, Ms. Levinson explained. For example, the center’s latest July 25 exhibition, titled 2020 Vision, which was curated by David Kratz and Stephanie Roach, asks artists to explore what the future will look like. The SAC’s online literature prompts: “What do we want to keep as we rebuild [the world]? And what must we guard against?”

“We had an opening [for 2020 Vision]” Ms. Levinson said — but we did not promote it as such. She joked that if the opening had been advertised too much, too many people might have actually come. Instead, the Southampton Arts Center allowed the exhibition to spread by word of mouth, and enable a socially distanced setting for when July 25 arrived. The center also created an online gallery, so that viewers could observe each artist virtually and safely from their own home. These creative steps were about more than adapting to the times, Ms. Levinson said. They were about serving the community, and constantly keeping the wellbeing of the people of Southampton in mind.

“Working creatively, we saw in early spring that our Instagram was no longer just a tool to promote the Southampton Arts Center — but rather a platform for our actual programming,” Ms. Levinson said. “Our new goal was to keep residents in touch, and to engage with the community on a personal level, even if remotely. In March and April, we created a template with ‘Main Street Monday,’ ‘Takeover Tuesday,’ and so on. When shelter and place was lifted, we organized an updated, concrete list of restaurants and shops that were open, providing their information and number, to help them stay afloat.”

The SAC continues to fundraise as best as it can, but more importantly, it is paying attention to the needs of Southampton at large, Ms. Levinson explained.

“When people come to our workshops, they’ll usually stop by for local food. Especially in this world of e-commerce, it’s important to create foot traffic instead of ‘thumb-traffic.’”

Ms. Levinson described the SAC’s longstanding role in driving the village’s economy. Ten years ago, she said, its leaders proposed an idea to the Board of Trustees in Southampton Village to bolster the community through the arts: “When you give people and families an experience, and opportunity to create wonderful memories, shops and restaurants will see the fruition of an idea from years ago .”

The SAC team is rigorously enforcing safety measures for all of the COVID-friendly events. “We scratch out 30 outdoor ideas before letting a single one emerge,” Ms. Levinson noted, vetting each to make sure no civilians will be at risk.

“Now that we are seeing more residents will be staying out here throughout the fall, we are looking into inviting extracurricular activity programs to take place on the SAC ground. [We want to implement] outdoor tents and workshops for arts educators and families that will relying on virtual learning programs. We care about the social-emotional aspects of children, especially those ages 4-18, who need socialization.”

At the heart of Ms. Levinson and the SAC’s work during COVID, is the ultimate concern for using resources widely, wisely, and graciously.

“It really means everything to me,” Ms. Levinson said about the opportunity she has as to help those around her. “When you have all of these restrictions, you have to dig in deeper, and look at what resources you have. With everything that is normal taken away — we asked ourselves, ‘What do we have?’ The answer was our beautiful building and property, and we realized we needed to maximize our usage of it.

“We have been a part of a beautiful story at the SAC, where everyone comes together and builds their community for the greater good,” she said. “This emphasis on giving has been our manifesto. We have the building, the grounds, and the mandate to help — and so we have to be resourceful.

“The blessings are where you find them,” she continued. “It is a privilege now more than ever, to serve as the co-chair of SAC because the community needs us to come together for its emotional and financial wellbeing. When I see women trying yoga for the first time, or SoulCyclists walking down the street and supporting our local industries, and stimulating the economy here — I am so grateful to do something that makes a difference and has a clear impact.”