Sylvester Manor: Call for Artist Submissions, ‘[R]evolution’ for Summer Exhibition / Walking Tour & Catalogue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SCULPTURE @ SYLVESTER MANOR [R]evolution

Call for Artists Submissions

—————————–

Sylvester Manor is delighted to announce [R]evolution, the third annual exhibition of outdoor sculpture and installations on the historic property. Following the resounding critical and public success of the Inaugural Exhibition and that of Paradise Lost in 2025, Sculpture @ Sylvester Manor is inviting artists whose practices have drawn meaning from the East End of Long Island to submit proposals for selection in the 2026 summer exhibition.

As in the past, artists are encouraged to submit works that are studio created and installed, created on site for the duration of the exhibition and then removed, or with leave no trace materials that bio-degrade back into the environment.

Curated by artworld veteran Tom Cugliani, the 2026 theme of [R]evolution commemorates the 250th signing of the Declaration of Independence, paired with those groundbreaking theories of evolution developed by Charles Darwin in the mid 19th century. The exhibition will be loosely organized around their mutually radical texts: The Origin of the Species by Darwin published in 1859 and Common Sense by Thomas Paine published in 1774.

Sylvester Manor has a significant pre-colonial heritage with a documented history dating to the 1651 arrival of Europeans to Manhansack Aha Quash A Womak – the Island Sheltered by Islands. Today it is one of the very few properties of its size, topographic and cultural diversity made available to the public after having been privately passed through 11 generations of Sylvester family descent. As a venue for public art, Sculpture @ Sylvester Manor features sites of pastoral meadowlands, old growth forest, waterfront estuary and formally designed gardens.

Owing to a life-long association with Shelter Island, Tom Cugliani is uniquely positioned to bring a contemporary artworld sensibility and native sensitivity to the development of Visual Arts Programming at Sylvester Manor. Sculpture @ Sylvester Manor has demonstrated a growing attendance that includes visitors of all interests from the casual to the artworld professional. This singular forum of art, culture and history has a devoted media following with support in the print, digital, radio and virtual sectors.

Sculpture @ Sylvester Manor provides a self-guided walking tour complete with catalogue descriptions of the artworks in the exhibition, curatorial commentary and links to the artists websites and social media platforms. Additionally, a digital catalogue that memorializes the exhibition is available online and for the further promotion of the artists’ works after the exhibition closes.

Additional information for the submission of proposals can be found here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sylvester Manor: The lands of Shelter Island’s Sylvester Manor were home for millennia to indigenous Manhansett People. The 236-acre site is the most intact remnant of a former slaveholding plantation north of Virginia. Known today as Sylvester Manor, the site was home to eleven generations of Sylvester descendants, from 1652 until 2014, when it was gifted to the nonprofit organization Sylvester Manor Educational Farm. Over the past 370 years, Sylvester Manor has been a provisioning plantation, an Enlightenment-era farm, and a pioneering food industrialist’s summer estate; and today includes the 1737 Manor House, a restored 19th-century windmill, an Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground, a working farm, and educational and cultural arts programs open to all.

Sylvester Manor was designated a Historic District of national significance on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. For more information, visit www.sylvestermanor.org.

——————————

Visit AAQ / Landmark: Sylvester Manor, c. 1737, Shelter Island …. link