Stakeholders Discuss Arts and Culture District's Future in Southampton Village at Express Sessions Event

When the artist Paton Miller first came to Southampton in 1974, he had only $40 in his pocket, and a burning desire to continue making art. What he needed was studio space.

He found it in a way that would be unimaginable today: He walked over to a neighbor’s house, knocked on the door and asked if he could use the small studio located on the property to make his paintings.

The homeowner — who happened to be the widow of iconic artist Fairfield Porter — said yes, and he worked there for more than 20 years, making a name for himself and counting among his collectors names such as the Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Dewey Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA.

Miller was one of the panelists at the latest Express Sessions event, held on Thursday, January 12, at Union Sushi and Steak on Bowden Square in the village, where Miller has lived and worked for decades. He was joined by Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren; Dr. Georgette Grier-Key of the Southampton African American Museum; Kirsten Lonnie, executive director of the Southampton Cultural Center; and Christina Strassfield, executive director of the Southampton Arts Center.

The group was gathered to participate in a conversation, moderated by Express News Group Managing Editor Bill Sutton, about ways that Southampton Village can build on its arts and cultural heritage.

When Miller arrived in the village in the mid-1970s, he was joining an area that already had a reputation as a rich arts community, with big names like Roy Lichtenstein, Samuel Parrish, William Merritt Chase, Larry Rivers, Porter and more having called the area home.

It was a different era, but the arts tradition in the village has been maintained over the years, with new institutions like the African American Museum, the Southampton Arts Center, Peter Marino Art Foundation, the Cultural Center and more remaining dedicated to upholding it. The recent departure of two world-renowned art auction houses, Christie’s and Phillips’, and the recent sale of the iconic Southampton movie theater have the potential to affect that dynamic, to some extent.

With soaring real estate prices, an ongoing affordable housing crisis, traffic issues and more, there is an essential question facing those invested in the future of the Southampton arts community — can the village still create an arts and culture infrastructure to build a healthy economy around?

The consensus among the panelist and audience members last week seemed to be yes, and there was an enthusiastic energy mixed in with frank discussions about the challenges the village will face in ensuring it has a vibrant and thriving arts scene, and what it will need to do to address those challenges.

For Miller, finding a more modern approach to replicating the kind of support he was able to access, particularly for the next generation of artists, will be crucial.

“You used to be able to go up to someone’s house who had a large building in their yard and say, ‘Can I use it?’” he said. “And they’d either say yes or release the hounds. It was a different environment then. Now, when I say ‘release the hounds,’ I kind of mean it.

“You can’t have an arts community without artists,” Miller continued. “And you can’t have artists without studios. That’s the conundrum.”

Ensuring that artists can find affordable places to live and work in the village, and ensuring that iconic buildings like the theater will retain their original purpose as arts and culture institutions, are two of the main goals the village was after when it proposed creating an arts and culture overlay district as part of its upgraded Comprehensive Master Plan that was released last year.

A full presentation on the proposed overlay district will be presented at the next Southampton Village work session, but Warren spoke about its importance at the event last week, in response to an opening question from Sutton on why creating the district is important, what it would entail and how the mayor envisions it having an impact.

Creating the overlay district could help clear the way for creating live/work spaces for artists, and could support zoning restrictions that would require any properties within the district larger than 6,000 square feet to be restricted to arts and culture usages.

“Having some live/work space for artists will be critical,” Warren said, adding that when the village completes its sewer district in five to seven years, even more opportunities will arise in that area. “Our goal is to work with nonprofits to provide grants to artists and identify parcels of land that can serve as artists’ spaces.”

The panelists spoke about how a vibrant arts and culture community is key to the overall vibrancy and economic vitality of the village. Strassfield, a Southampton resident, pointed out the ways that arts events at local institutions naturally provide a boon for the local economy.

“Every time I come to the arts center, I will have lunch at the Driver’s Seat or grab coffee at the Golden Pear,” she said. “When people come to an art event or opening or participate in any of our programs, they definitely spend money in the village.”

Grier-Key, Strassfield and Lonnie spoke about the work they’ve done to support each other and collaborate toward solutions, and Grier-Key said she was buoyed by the mayor’s views on the priorities for the overlay district. “I’m happy to hear Jesse speak about really investing in infrastructure, because that’s what’s missing,” she said.

Grier-Key said that funding is the ever present challenge for all local arts institutions, and suggested creating an official arts council that could help secure more funding and have someone dedicated to securing grant funding. They pointed to the organization “ArtsSpace” in Patchogue, a nonprofit that specializes in creating, owning and operating affordable spaces for artists and creative businesses, including live/work apartments for artists. Housing is not only key for artists, but for anyone working in the arts industry as well, Grier-Key pointed out.

“We need housing because we need staff,” she said. “So we can bring the next generation of art workers and artists here.”

She acknowledged that the housing issue is a challenge, but said she has been buoyed by the way the leaders of the local arts institutions have come together, drawn particularly close by the shared experience of surviving through the pandemic.

“This is a great opportunity for us, and we’re in the right place to make it a reality,” she said.

In addition to creating the overlay district, and possibly creating an official arts council, with a dedicated leader, the panelists and audience members also spoke about ways other businesses and organizations could support the arts community.

Sarah Eustace, a representative from the company that oversaw the renovation of Canoe Place Inn, was in the audience, and said that the owners want the new space to be an “asset” to the arts community, and added that there is value in the intersection of art and hospitality. “It adds a great deal of value when they’re done in concert,” she said.

Amy Steinhaus Kirwin, the former director of the Southampton Arts Center who recently took over as chief creative officer at Guild Hall, was in the audience as well, and spoke about the simple yet vital role a good, old-fashioned rebranding campaign could play in ensuring the future success of the arts community.

Of course, the key to making sure Southampton Village continues to maintain and build on its reputation as an arts and culture mecca is a dedication to inclusivity. In an area that has become known, in many ways, for exclusivity, that remains a challenge. Supporting projects like the restoration of the Pyrrhus Concer homestead is part of that effort. Concer was a formerly enslaved man from Southampton who rose from humble beginnings to become a key figure and patron of the arts in Southampton Village. The Pyrrhus Concer Action Committee has been working for nearly a decade to restore his homestead on Pond Lane and create a visitor’s center to celebrate his life and history.

“He was celebrated in life but dishonored in death,” Grier-Key said, referring to the demolition of his former home. “This is not just for Black people. This is our collective history, American history. We want to tell an inclusive history.”