LongHouse Reserve, the 16-acre sculpture garden and nature sanctuary in East Hampton, opened its 2025 season on April 5 with a Spring Awakening celebration.
“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. 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 appliqué 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 will also host a variety of celebrations including Planters ON+OFF the Ground on June 13; the Summer Benefit on July 12, themed Luminosity, honoring community champions Mary Jane and Charlie Brock, and artist Vija Celmins; and in fall th annual Landscape Legends and Luncheon on 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 will 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, and virtuoso pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner will once again perform the annual recital under the stars on 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 everyone 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, weekly Tai Chi with Katherine Henderson, and Kendama Meditation with Juan Yanez.
Docents and experts on trees, plants, flora and fauna, and composting offer garden tours on weekends. 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, is a monthly morning for dogs and their families, and LongHouse welcomes all to join in the play with our canine companions for a frolicking good time.