LongHouse Reserve: Art / Performances / Talks / Workshops / Well-being & Tours, 2025

LongHouse Reserve

2025 Season Celebrating Women, Art, Nature
Jill Platner Maren Hassinger Mark Mennin Yoko Ono Toshiko Takaezu Vadis Turner

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[April 2025 – East Hampton, NY] LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton’s vital 16-acre sculpture garden and nature sanctuary, opened its 2025 season with a Spring Awakening celebration on April 5.

“This season will be our most welcoming ever. We have art, performances, conversations, craft workshops, and well-being activities for all”, said Director Carrie Rebora Barratt. “At LongHouse, we live with art in all forms, in a space between art and nature that brings joy into our lives. Our new installations are in harmony with the garden, and our highest priority is bringing friends together in places of peace.”

LongHouse sits at the intersection of art and nature, celebrating beauty and sustainability. The historic house and garden are a haven of inspiration and serenity. Named one of the top 15 most peaceful places in New York State, LongHouse is the largest open air cultural center in Long Island where the collections, gardens, art, and programs reflect world cultures and foster creative lives.

With most of the new works by women, the season is in many ways a celebration of the feminine spirit. Visitors will be inspired by new art from Hangama Amiri, Alice Hope, Jill Platner, and Vadis Turner. Permanent favorites by Buckminster Fuller, Sol LeWitt, Grace Knowlton, Yoko Ono, Barbara Shawcroft, Toshiko Takaezu, and renewed loans by Daniel Arsham, Maren Hassinger, Fitzhugh

Karol, Mark Mennin, and Kenny Scharf welcome you back. Beautiful furniture designed by Paola Lenti invites all to rest, relax, and find respite.

Jill Platner’s exhibition, hanging throughout the Dawn Redwood Forest, is entitled Talking with Trees. With sculptures in various sizes tucked within tree branches, like fractals found in nature, her work replicates the patterns of nature, with their curves and bends, each one singular in design and movement, just as the trees they are integrated with. Jill creates a loving and lively experience where people can pause and engage with the abundance of nature around them, a meditative practice for both maker and viewer, to serve as a reminder of our duty to conserve and celebrate our trees.

Vadis Turner’s single, powerful sculpture brings Venus, the goddess of Love, to LongHouse. Venus Rising will stand upright in the Red Garden, liberated from the home, like a weaving gone wild, created out of braided bedsheets cast in aluminum, with scalloped edges made with cast dining plates, referencing flora and flame, misbehaviors and transcendence.

In the Gallery will be a display of Afghan-Canadian artist Hangama Amiri, whose applique compositions tell stories based on memories of her homeland and diasporic experience.

Textile artist Barbara Shawcroft (1930 – 2023) was a friend of LongHouse Founder, Jack Lenor Larsen. She spent three years working in Jack’s studio at LongHouse. When she passed, her estate gifted LongHouse Cosmos 1996, to be displayed for the first time this season.

Mark Mennin’s exhibition of giant stone sculptures continues. Mennin’s monumental and expressive Portrait Heads capture the human face with exaggerated features, strong lines, and textured surfaces, playing with concave space within a boulder. The carved stone object is static and meditative in its quiet dialogue with the viewer who relates to its recognizable form. Mennin’s inverted carvings provide some extra layers of movement, interactivity, and visual illusion that are not usually associated with stone carving.

LongHouse invites you to celebrations; Planters ON+OFF the Ground (June 13); the Summer Benefit (July 12), themed Luminosity, honoring community champions Mary Jane and Charlie Brock, and artist Vija Celmins; and in fall our annual Landscape Legends and Luncheon (September 12) with Charles Birnbaum from the Cultural Landscape Foundation leading a conversation on why public gardens, like LongHouse, are pivotal places now more than ever.

Artist and author talks, in collaboration with BookHampton, will be added throughout the season. On May 4, Michèle Gerber Klein will talk about her new biography, Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dalí. On May 10, the celebrated photographer and author Ngoc Minh Ngo will introduce her highly anticipated book Roses in the Garden, sharing her breathtaking images and insights into the world’s most beautiful rose gardens, from

Morocco to Japan. Later in the season, the distinguished artist Tony Bechara will be at LongHouse to launch his two new books on his work.

Alastair Gordon continues his popular architecture talks in the series Long Island Modern. Michael Jones, from Robert A. M. Stern Architects, will give a talk on the architecture of Central Park South. Edwina von Gal and the Perfect Earth Project introduce a new series of Grounded Conversations, exploring our relationship with life on earth in all forms, with guest speakers Krista Tippett and Dana Cowin. A special series on photography and the work of Peter Beard will engage Nejma Beard and others in dialogue.

Artist talks and tours continue through the season featuring Amiri, Platner, Turner, and Mennin. The critical series InsiderOutsider features conversations with underrepresented artists whose works challenge and inspire, this year in partnership with Ma’s House presenting Jake Kimble, Kris Waymire, Ella Mahoney, and Savannah LeCornu.

Performing arts will be an integral part of the season, the Neo-Political Cowgirls will perform Shakespeare in the Amphitheater; the
annual recital under the stars will be once again
performed by virtuoso pianist Llewellyn

Sanchez-Werner (August 3) in honor of Jack Lenor Larsen’s birthday.

LongHouse is devoted to creativity and making. On weekends, visitors will find art-making materials in the pavilion, special projects in collaboration with The Shine Studio, art classes with Barbara Thomas, Karyn Mannix, and Pia Leighton, and many workshops. Classes in plein air painting, watercolor, still life, and creating with clay are new. Every Sunday, Needle Sports welcomes all to come with projects to stitch in the community.

Well-being offerings at LongHouse, led by Jason Amis, include Yoga and Walking Meditations for members. Monthly Sound Bathing with Adriana Barone and weekly Tai Chi with Katherine Henderson, as well as Kendama Meditation with Juan Yanez.

Garden tours on weekends are offered by docents and experts on trees, plants, flora and fauna, and composting. LongHouse is a sustainable landscape, chemical free and a haven for birds and pollinators–bees, birds, butterflies and more. Wholly centered on ecological horticulture is a new woodland garden created in collaboration with ReWild Long Island and designed by Tony Piazza. With an array of native and local plants, the garden is a veritable classroom for the study of what grows naturally on Long Island. Matt Hartline of Bill Miller & Associates will host a workshop on garden pruning and artist Benjamin Keating will teach the ancient art of Bonsai.

Come, Sit, Stay: Dog Days, a collaboration with ARF are monthly mornings for dogs and their families, and LongHouse welcomes all to join in the play with our canine companions for a frolicking good time.

LongHouse is open 12 months of the year. The autumn colors are spectacular and the garden lights up with festive wonder during LongHouse Illuminated with ZIMA! Weekends in December will celebrate the holiday season, with treats and an artist market.

LongHouse nurtures a profound connection and appreciation for both the arts and the environment, firmly believing that the fusion of nature and art possesses the transformative power to inspire, provoke thoughtful reflection, and elevate the human spirit. This commitment is embodied in the philosophy of our founder, Jack Lenor Larsen, who lived a creative life at the intersection of art and nature, conjuring the serenity of the natural world as a force capable of uplifting and transforming lives.

LongHouse’s 2025 season is supported by Bloomberg and Whitmore’s as well as Janet Montag, Barbara Tober and a bequest from Barbara Shawcroft. Vadis Turner’s Venus Rising is made possible by the generous support of Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo and the Dorothea Leonhardt Fund at The Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc. and project support from The Jenni Crain Foundation.

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LONGHOUSE RESERVE

Nestled within the idyllic landscapes of East Hampton, Longhouse Reserve is a sanctuary in a 16-acre environment where the arts and nature converge, creating a haven for those seeking inspiration and serenity. Our unique venue offers curated gardens and outdoor art installations that invite individuals to embark on a journey of discovery, connecting with the beauty that surrounds us.

Current infrastructure work around the property leads us to the promise of opening the house for public tours, an offering that our founder desired and which we pledge to complete as soon as possible. LongHouse has been invited to join the National Register of Historic Places and is working with the Cultural Landscape Foundation to document the history of the property in its entirety, leading to landmark status and preservation in perpetuity.

LongHouse Reserve was created by artist, collector and world-renowned textile designer and weaver Jack Lenor Larsen (1927-2020) with a mission to inspire living with art in all forms. Over the past two years, LongHouse has transitioned from a founder-led to board and staff-led public institution, serving the community with vast open space, programs in art, nature, and wellness, providing a sanctuary for Long Island and beyond. The sculpture garden, featuring more than 60 outdoor works—including permanent collection works by Buckminster Fuller, Yoko Ono, Toshiko Takaezu, and Willem de Kooning, and seasonal loans from artists such as Maren Hassinger, Kenny Scharf, and Gaston Lachaise—encourages exploration and contemplation for new and repeat visitors alike. The garden is fully open to the public for education and enjoyment, with a next chapter of welcoming visitors into Larsen’s home (a modernist structure based on the Shinto Shrine at Ise), so that all can see his extensive craft and design collections.

The mission of LongHouse Reserve is to inspire living with art in all forms. The LongHouse vision is to serve as a living case study of the ever-changing interactions between nature, people, and art. The collections, gardens, art, and programs reflect world cultures and foster a creative life. Core values of creativity, resilience, and sustainability spell out LongHouse’s intentions in the years ahead. LongHouse puts its visitors first with a pledge to inspire creativity, offering a place for respite and community in a garden that will forever flourish without chemicals or harm to nature.

Learn more about LongHouse by downloading the Bloomberg Connects App and searching LongHouse Reserve.

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TO VISIT LONGHOUSE RESERVE:

LongHouse Reserve is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 12:30pm until 5pm. A Membership allows you to visit throughout the season, and come early for Member Mornings on Saturday (10:30am – 12:30pm) for art making, walking, and special programs. General admission is $20, with half price tickets for seniors, and no charge for veterans, active-duty personnel, members of the Shinnecock Nation, children under 12, and students with valid school/college ID. More information is available at www.longhouse.org.

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Photo: Philippe Cheng

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Visit AAQ / Landmark: LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton …. link

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