Guild Hall is known for its year-round roster of internationally-renowned artists, performers, and programs, but when it comes to giving back, especially during a pandemic, the East Hampton institution focused on its own backyard—the East End of Long Island.
—–
While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced countless museums, art galleries, and theaters to shutter their doors—displacing the artists who rely on those channels for their livelihood—Guild Hall has lived up to its mission to “collaborate with artists of Eastern Long Island, to foster the artistic spirit and to provide a meeting place for all.”
—–
Besides offering its 82nd Artist Members Exhibition in-person and virtually, where about 400 artists showcased their works, and holding the annual beloved Clothesline Art Sale, Guild Hall has also provided a platform, through the John Drew Backyard Theater, for emerging and established performing artists to play for live audiences under careful pandemic protocol.
—–
“Every performance sold out,” said Josh Gladstone, Artistic Director of the John Drew Theater, about the August performances at the JDBT. “We were able to fit in about 20 performances, and it was a pretty rich variety of pieces. Almost all of the artists have strong connections to the East End—they either live here full-time or are quarantining here, and then they brought in guest artists as well,” he said, referencing G.E. Smith, Ronald Guttman and Laurie Anderson, along with Harris Yulin and Mercedes Ruehl, all year-round Hamptons denizens.
—–
For those who did come “from away,” Gladstone said those artists were housed at nearby lodgings and fed by local caterers and restaurants, to support the local hospitality and restaurant community.
—–
“And we’re not just helping the artists, we’re helping our team,” said Gladstone of the Guild Hall staff of production and technical employees, security, front-of-house, and others. “They live here too.”
—–
In addition to providing artists with a place to express themselves through their medium, Guild Hall, as a member of the Hamptons Art Network, participated in the HAN Artist Relief Fund, which distributed $168,000 in emergency grants to visual artists, performers, filmmakers, dancers, writers, and musicians living and working on the East End.
—–
“Early on in the pandemic, we took what little money we had and put it toward a sort of internal WPA federal arts project, where we decided to try and stimulate the local economy,” said Guild Hall’s Executive Director, Andrea Grover. “We could pay the artists who are right here to either be on our backyard stage or to split the revenue with them in the museum, creating a symbiotic and synergistic relationship, one where the money flows in and out,” she said.
—–
Between the two big museum shows, and performance fees, plus redirecting its Artist-In-Residence programs to include local artists, Guild Hall has managed to pay out well over $100,000 to the Hamptons arts community since mid-March brought the pandemic shutdown in hard-hit Suffolk County.
—–
“Of course, as a non-profit, we rely on support from the public,” Grover said. “But it’s in this institution’s DNA to give back as well. I’m just so grateful that, during this pandemic, we’ve managed to pay artists, and stay open, and retain 100 percent of our administrative full-time staff. It’s because our patrons, and our board, continued to support us, we were able to support artists, recirculating the funds into our own community.”
—–
On the $168,000 in grants made by the Artist Relief Fund from Hamptons Art Network—a consortium of 19 East End arts organizations, Grover said, “You’ll see that HAN as a group is one of the largest employers out East, and has a measurable impact on the economic health and vitality of this community. This is why it was all the more important for us to reopen and why we, Guild Hall, felt the responsibility to help the creative professionals in this community weather the loss of opportunity during our closures.”
—–
Museum Director Christina Strassfield echoed Grover’s sentiments. “Putting the Artist Members Exhibition on line this year is something we have talked about for a while. We were delighted to put this together when we had to close, and through this effort we were able to sell about four times as much of the art as in a regular year thus helping artists earn some much needed money,” she said.
—–
“We will continue next year with this initiative, as artists were thrilled both to sell and for the exposure they received. As the artists came to retrieve their work they noted how helpful this was to them at this turbulent time,” she added. Strassfield is also offering scheduled virtual studio visits of the art spaces through Guild Hall’s website.
—–
For more information on upcoming Guild Hall programming,
