Thirty years ago, almost as a means of self-preservation, Marya Martin founded the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.

    Soon after her marriage, the flutist embarked on the summer festival circuit, an annual cross-country pilgrimage that required she leave her new husband, Ken Davidson, a businessman, for eight weeks at a stretch. Dissatisfied with spending so much time apart, the couple decided to start their own festival a bit closer to home.

    They began the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival in 1984 with just four artists and two concerts, held at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. In its anniversary season, the festival includes more than 40 musicians, who will perform in 11 concerts over the course of the next month.

     “In the beginning, before the first concert, a lot of people said we’d never get an audience, that people in the Hamptons are too interested in cocktail parties,” said Ms. Martin, the festival’s artistic director, who will perform in each of the concerts. “There was no music out here and it was the perfect place to have music, and we just kept thinking of the dream of having these great concerts here.”

    A native of New Zealand, Ms. Martin has performed as a soloist with major orchestras throughout the world. Over the course of her career, committed to expanding the flute repertoire, she has commissioned nearly two dozen new works.

    According to Ms. Martin, who studied at Yale and has been a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music since 1996, “chamber music” consists of more than two instruments but no more than 13. Another defining characteristic is that it lacks a conductor, with the musicians forced to rely on one another to know when to slow down or quicken the pace.

    The musicians will typically have rehearsed for three eight-hour days before every concert this summer. By the time they take the stage, each performer will not only know his or her part cold, but will be able to respond to slight nuances in each other’s playing almost instantaneously.

    Part of the thrill of chamber music is its spontaneity. For instance, if one musician suddenly feels inspired to slow down or play a bit louder, the others will automatically follow suit.

    “The more you rehearse, the freer you are,” explained Ms. Martin. “We know each other’s parts inside and out.”

    Back in the early days of the festival, Ms. Martin was the young up-and-comer, a role that has shifted with the passage of time.

     “When we founded the festival, I was the youngest and some of my colleagues were 10 years older,” she said, while declining with a smile to reveal her precise age. “Thirty years later we’re the 50-year-olds, and we really have a great bunch of young people coming in each year.”

    Apart from rehearsal time, Ms. Martin sees part of the magic happening during the evening dinners that she and her husband host three nights a week. During these dinners, she said, egos are finally set aside, with everyone growing tolerant and accepting of one another. The young performers stay with local families, who volunteer to house them for a week at a time, rather than in hotels, which would be nearly impossible, said Ms. Martin, on the festival’s budget. (She is always looking for more families with the space and interest to host.)

    During the year, Ms. Martin splits her time between Bridgehampton and Man­hattan. Come July, the festival is her sole focus. While many warned her in the early years that turnout would be a problem, the 350-seat Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church routinely sells out.

    A free outdoor concert was held last night on the grounds of the Bridgehampton Historical Society to open the series, and the festival will hold its annual benefit concert at the Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton on Saturday night. On Aug. 9, concertgoers will attend “Midnight in Paris: An Evening of French Music Where Classical Meets Jazz” at the Channing Sculpture Garden in Bridgehampton. Ticket prices for that event run $100 to $150, including appetizers and a wine tasting.

    All other performances will take place at the Presbyterian Church, where, Ms. Martin noted, the air-conditioning flows freely and the acoustics are superb.

    The festival, which emphasizes American composers, will also feature well-known pieces from Bach, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and, on Aug. 11, a piece by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts, commissioned by and for the festival.

    For Ms. Martin, what began as an experiment has now become an institution. She plans to run the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival indefinitely, energized by all the hard work. During the second half of each performance, after she has left the stage, she can often be seen at the back of the house, where she stands to take it all in.

    “When I see people walk out of the church with a smile on their face, or after a standing ovation, I realize that we’ve not only connected with these people, but that everyone is better off for it,” she said. “They’re better off — and I am as well.”

    Tickets can be purchased on the festival’s Web site, bcmf.org, or by calling 631-537-6368. Prices for most events range from $30 to $50.

Hanging Art to Dry

    Guild Hall’s annual Clothesline Art Sale happens on Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The annual event, which dates from 1946, features the work of nearly 400 artists and always attracts mobs of interested browsers and beginning collectors.

    Prices range from $50 to $2,000, with all proceeds split evenly between the artist and Guild Hall. The event is free.

New at the Fireplace

    The Fireplace Project in East Hampton will present its new group exhibition, “Reverse Engineering,” beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

     Organized by Bill Powers, it showcases the works of Aurel Schmidt, Josephine Meckseper, and Alisa Baremboym. The artists share a practice that prompts the viewer to ask “why” they might make an object, when they should ask “how,” according to Mr. Powers. “I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of reverse engineering and the associated fear that if a newfangled technology fell into the wrong hands, someone might deconstruct an object and spill all its secrets,” he said.

    The exhibition will run from August 2 to 19.

Goldin at QF

    The QF Gallery in East Hampton will present “Nan Goldin: Wish You Were Here,” an exhibition of photographs organized by Carrie Mackin. It will open on Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

    Ms. Goldin’s photographs are known for their personal and confrontational images depicting friends, family, and lovers. Her work has been exhibited in major retrospectives internationally, among them the Whitney Museum and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Her recent “Scopophilia” show was part of a program at the Louvre in 2011.

    The exhibit will be on view through Aug. 18.

New Installations at LongHouse

    Tomorrow, LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton will begin showing two of its new installations by the international artists Ai Weiwei and Yoan Capote.

    Mr. Ai’s exhibition consists of gold animal and zodiac heads. Mr. Capote, a Cuban sculptor, will present  a new compilation of works on paper in an exhibit called “The Other Nature of Things.”

    The opening preview will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. and will include a concert on the lawn at 6, given by the Voxare Quartet, a young and innovative string quartet. Admission is $20, $10 for members. An off-site benefit dinner celebrating the exhibitions and concert costs $200; reservations can be made through the LongHouse office.

    Through Aug. 17, at 8 on Saturday mornings, Jim Owen will hold sound meditation classes at LongHouse on the theme of transcendence. The classes will focus on helping students awaken “their own inner divinity,” according to a release. Admission is $20, $18 for members.

    Twilight tours of the plantings and artwork on the grounds of the reserve are offered at 6 on Monday evenings, through Aug. 26. Tours are conducted by members of the LongHouse Garden Committee, and are limited to 15 people.

New York Dolls in East Hampton

    The photo exhibit “New York Dolls” by Judy Mauer will  be on display at the Lawrence Fine Art gallery in East Hampton from tomorrow through Sunday, with a reception and artist talk on Saturday at 5 p.m.

    The photographs feature display-window mannequins while also capturing reflections of the city outside.

Grenning Shows Fenske

    Ben Fenske will be the featured artist at Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor from Saturday through Aug. 18. Mr. Fenske’s figurative paintings and a sculptural debut, “Wild Boar,” made with Richard Zinon, will be on view.

    The artist first studied painting and drawing in Minneapolis with Peter Bougie and Joseph Paquet, before traveling to Italy to study at the Florence Academy of Art. He now works in New York and Italy.

    There will be an opening reception at the gallery on Saturday, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Fischl on Friday

    The Hampton Library will continue its Fridays at Five program this week with Eric Fischl.

    Mr. Fischl, a resident of North Hav­en, is a figurative painter and sculptor with an international following and works in the collections of several  major museums. He published an autobiography this year, “Bad Boy: My Life On and Off Canvas,” from which he will read tomorrow.

    In a May review, The Star said that “what is different and effective in this book is that Mr. Fischl, who is as candid as can be about his own issues and hang-ups, lets others who played significant roles in his life have their say, even those whom he considered rivals, sometimes bitterly so.”

    The library is at 2478 Main Street in Bridgehampton. Gates will open at 4:30 and beverages and hors d’oeuvres will be served in the rear garden. Admission is $15 per person.

Aycock Now at LongHouse, Too

    Continuing her tour de force over the South Fork with exhibitions at the Parrish Art Museum this spring and currently at the Drawing Room, Alice Aycock’s new contemporary work, “Maelstrom,” is now on view at the LongHouse Reserve through Oct. 31.

    “Maelstrom” is part of “Paper Chase,” an installation made up of six different works. “Paper Chase” will be exhibited on Park Avenue in Manhattan next spring. “Maelstrom” is a 30-foot-long aluminum sculpture, painted white. It will be expanded to 70 feet when shown in New York.

Canio’s Branches Out

    Canio’s Cultural Cafe in Sag Harbor will begin its master artist studio series today with a visit to Whitney Hansen’s studio. The series will continue with James McMullan and Sheila Islam in coming weeks.

    Each visit includes a tour  and an opportunity to meet and speak with the artist. Ms. Hansen is known for her landscape paintings, created both in oils and the woodcut process of printing. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Staten Island Museum. The studio will open at 4 p.m.

    A single studio visit is $30, and a package price for all three is $75. Mr. McMullan’s tour is Aug. 15 and Ms. Isham’s is Sept. 5. An Oct. 5 afternoon fund-raiser at April Gornick’s studio will cost $125.

Stuart at Pierre’s

    Pierre’s restaurant in Bridgehampton will present a photography show, opening on Saturday, of the work of Eve Stuart. The artist lives and works in New York City and East Hampton, and her work has been exhibited both there and here.

    An opening reception will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. The photographs will be on display through Sept. 3.

Two New at Horowitz

    “Tara Geer: Carrying Silence” will be the next show at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton, opening on Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Ms. Geer draws “large and kinetic charcoal universes, neither bodies nor landscapes, but microcosmic resolutions of form and psyche,” according to the gallery. What they look like are webs of cells and scaffolding, thumbprints, and scrawl or more figurative renderings. The show will be on view through Sept. 3.

    On Monday, the photographs of the “Megumi Portfolio” in honor of Megumi Eda, a dancer who is also the subject of the images, will go on view. He is part of the Armitage Gone! dance company in New York, led by Karole Armitage, its director and choreographer. Ten artists worked with Mr. Eda in different styles and mediums: Chuck Close, Patrick Demarchelier, Eric Fischl, Bruce High Quality Foundation, Ralph Gibson, Nate Lowman, Mary Ellen Mark, Enoc Perez, David Salle, and William Wegman.

Armstrong Returns

    Bill Armstrong will return to the Sara Nightingale gallery in Water Mill with  “Buddha & Mandala,” opening on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

    Mr. Armstrong’s “Infinity” series, begun in 1977, consists of photographs of found images with the camera’s focusing ring set at infinity. According to the gallery, “the appropriated images are subjected to a series of manipulations — photocopying, cutting, painting, re-photographing — which transform the originals and provide new context.”

    Since his first show in 2003, Mr. Armstrong has exhibited in a number of notable institutions, including the Smithsonian Institute. The show will run through Sept. 3.

Surfer DNA

    Alberto Guglielmi will bring his “SurferDNA” exhibition to the Montauk Beach House, tomorrow through Aug. 14.

    Mr. Guglielmi is a photographer and lifelong surfer. The exhibition aims to raise money for and awareness of the long-term struggles of Hurricane San­dy’s victims. He worked with artists, photographers, filmmakers, architects, and others to depict the subjects’ ties to the ocean with surfboard fins emerging from somewhere on their body. They include Cynthia Rowley, Richard Phil­lips, and many others.

    Proceeds will go to Waves for Water’s Sandy Relief Intiative.

Popping Up in Montauk

    Fabiola Beracasa and Art Production Fund, in association with Gary Carrion-Murayari and Joyce Sitterly of the New Museum, will present “Pop Up 1: Montauk.” The show features outdoor installations by Anya Kielar, Virginia Overton, and Olympia Scarry on view today through Sept. 8. on a vacant lot at 333 Old Montauk Highway.

    The show will be open Thursday to Sunday from noon-6 p.m. A public open­ing reception for the artists will be held tonight from 6 to 8.

   The Walt Whitman Birthplace Association has named Fran Castan the 2013 Long Island poet of the year. The honor goes to a “nationally known and well-respected poet who champions poetry” through his or her “writing, teaching, and support of the Long Island community of poets,” the association said in a release.

    An induction ceremony, reading, and reception will take place on Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. at the association’s home at 246 Old Walt Whitman Road in Huntington Station.

    Ms. Castan, who lives in Springs and taught writing and literature at the School of Visual Arts in New York for 25 years, has had her work published in Poetry and Ms. magazines, among many others, and anthologized in books including “From Both Sides Now: The Poetry of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath.” She is the author of the collections “The Widow’s Quilt” and, most recently, “Venice: City That Paints Itself,” which combines her poems and paintings by her husband, Lewis Zacks.

    Below is a new, previously unpublished poem by Ms. Castan.

“Pollen”

Without a calendar, I would know

June, in the deep pile of the carpet,

on my pillow, the mirror,

the brush I moisten

for mouth and teeth.

Eyes, nostrils, the crescent

between each nail and finger —

entered — as if all of me were an ovary.

Not even my tongue in its salivary bath

can dissolve these grains.

If I were to run naked

through June’s first week,

I would become mother

of pine. I could not escape

June’s yellow love

filling every crevice.

If it could, June would billow

into July and August, too,

with its insistent sex.

And you, love?

Remember how you chased me

up the stairs to our bedroom?

What about you? What about now?

Come, be a songbird

in my fragrant arms.

“Running on Empty”

John A. Strong

Excelsior Editions, $29.95

   In 1963, Brooklyn-based Long Island University, a private institution established in 1926, opened a campus in Southampton. The university president and trustees were responding to a perceived need for teacher education programs in eastern Suffolk County, expecting that the new college could participate in the postwar population growth in Nassau County that had fueled the expansion of L.I.U.’s C.W. Post campus during the late 1950s. The college they founded enrolled about 300 full-time students in its first-year class, justifying optimistic expectations.

    In “Running on Empty: The Rise and Fall of Southampton College, 1963-2005,” the ethno-historian John A. Strong, who taught in the history department at Southampton for 33 years, picked this enrollment figure from a range of confusing different numbers offered at the time. For him, the confusion is but one example of the administrative disorganization that characterized the early days of Southampton College, both internally and in the fledging institution’s relationship with the university center in Brooklyn.

    In his detailed chronicle of events, the author identifies three persistent “patterns” that became evident during the first year of operation. Like L.I.U.’s center, the satellite campus had “the tendency to jump into an initiative without sufficient planning and adequate funds.” On the other hand, and perhaps accounting for the college’s 42-year life, no mean achievement, faculty and staff responded to challenges with “creative imagination and energetic initiative.”

    A third pattern that emerged, according to the author, was a fairly persistent student profile where “most came from the bottom three-fifths of their high school classes, and half ranked in the lowest two-fifths . . . a mix of late bloomers, rebels, and serious students.” Representative Tim Bishop, who was hired onto the admissions staff in 1973, promoted to provost in 1986, and took a leave of absence in 2002 to run for Congress, reflected on the closing in 2005 that the successful actions of certain faculty, staff, and administrators “offset the problems posed by the lack of funds and a poorly designed campus built on the cheap.”

    Mr. Strong appears to agree with the congressman; to this reader, the author’s profiles of leaders, exploring their backgrounds and decisions, best propel the narrative and enliven the book. Although they need to be pieced together, these sketches jump out in spite of the study’s chronological organization.

    Dr. Edward Glanz, a department chairman at Boston University and disciple of interdisciplinary studies, became the first provost (1963-71) at Southampton. Recognizing the significance of the regional marine environment, he hired staff to organize a marine science major. In the humanities, he envisioned an interdisciplinary program in order to access the talents of available artists and writers. Mr. Glanz also hired faculty to develop “social programs that reached out to African-American, Native American, and working-class members of the [local] community.” The strategy met with mixed success, largely hampered by the lack of an endowment, which fostered a reliance on continually increasing students’ tuition charges.

   One major success was the marine science program. By 1970, the college could boast national recognition, with an expanding department and a new laboratory: “Students came in with SAT scores about one hundred points above the scores of the rest of the student body,” Mr. Strong notes. A decade later, there were 650 natural science majors, making up about half the student body of 1,305.

    In 1993, Southampton College appointed a wealthy businessman, Robert F.X. Sillerman, “honorary chancellor.” Serving without pay, he helped with fund-raising and made substantial personal contributions over a period of years. Mr. Sillerman helped monitor the critical reform efforts that began in 2002, when the cumulative college debt had reached $50 million. Agreeing with L.I.U.’s president, David Steinberg, he opposed the option of closing the college.

    At the 2003 commencement, the chancellor announced that L.I.U. supported a campaign to raise $60 million for the college and that he had pledged $20 million. An additional $15 million would come from private donations. The remaining $25 million, the chancellor continued, would come from the other university trustees if the college couldn’t raise the money.

    By the spring of 2004, the $60 million goal had not been met: The other trustees did not pledge substantial amounts, leading Mr. Sillerman to refuse to provide interim financing. On June 16, the L.I.U. president notified the college community that the campus would be closed, citing a projected $77 million debt by 2005 and low enrollment.

    Mr. Strong describes various efforts to save the college, or, at least, to salvage certain programs. Attuned to the atmosphere on campus, the author notes that “a palpable undercurrent of hostility toward the university remained well into the spring of 2005.” The last graduation took place in May 2005. In 2006, L.I.U. accepted the offer of $35 million approved by the State University of New York board of trustees to purchase the college.

    In an epilogue, Mr. Strong writes that SUNY’s Stony Brook University has absorbed the marine science and creative writing programs. Efforts by the new owner to re-establish a college have failed, even after investing “an estimated $43 million beyond the $35 million purchase price.” In 2012, proposals to build a teaching hospital and to organize a Peconic Bay Region Sustainability Institute were made. The community has to await their futures.

    This fine book relies upon many interviews and on extensive research among written records. Evaluating it as interpretive history, Mr. Strong seems torn about the legacy of Southampton College. While he offers “Running on Empty” as a “celebration of a small campus community,” on the crucial issue of why the college did not survive, the author writes that readers must “come to their own conclusions.” To this reader, a section that addressed a comparative framework for educational institutional failures would have helped here, enhancing the usefulness of Mr. Strong’s contribution and the insights gained by general readers.

    Filling a distinct void in local and New York State history, this work will find a place among other studies of small colleges of the era.

   Ann Sandford is the author of “Grandfather Lived Here: The Transformation of Bridgehampton, N.Y., 1870-1970.” She lives in Sagaponack.

    John A. Strong’s previous book was “The Unkechaug Indians of Eastern Long Island.” He lives in Southampton.

    Tomorrow, Guild Hall and the East Hampton Historical Society will present “The Sound of Music” outdoors at Mulford Farm. With music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, the classic 1965 film won five Academy Awards. Admission is $5, free for those 5 and under. The start time is 8 p.m.

    Sunday morning at 11, the series Fashion Insiders With Fern Mallis will continue with a discussion with Simon Doonan, the “creative ambassador” for Barneys New York and its longtime window stylist. He is featured elsewhere in the arts section this week. Admission is $15, $13 for museum members. V.I.P. tickets, at $75, are also available and come with an opportunity to meet Mr. Doonan during a lunch reception catered by East Hampton Gourmet Foods.

    Starting on Friday, Aug. 9, Lois Bender will host a teatime watercolor workshop at the Hedges Inn. It will run through Aug. 23. Participants will be shown new techniques and methods, and tea will be provided along with a variety of appetizers and pastries. No painting experience is necessary. Admission is $65 per workshop. They take place from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. each Friday.

    Also on Aug. 9, Guild Hall’s Summer Gala will celebrate Chuck Close at the Bridgehampton estate of Louise and Leonard Riggio. The evening will have music, dancing, dining, and a live art auction. Guild Hall will offer a V.I.P. preview of the exhibition “Chuck Close: Recent Works” from 5 to 7. Following the preview, there will be cocktails and a sit-down dinner at the Riggios’ house.

    Tickets begin at $500 for the exhibition preview and cocktails, and $1,200 for the entire evening. Guild Hall’s special events department has more information.

    “Summer Roses III,” a classical and operatic recital, will be given on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center. Sarah Moulton Faux, a soprano, and Junko Ohtsu, a violinist, will perform works by Paganini, Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, Puccini, and Donizetti.

    Ms. Ohtsu has been featured as a soloist with orchestras such as the St. Louis Symphony and the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra. Ms. Faux made her operatic debut at the age of 12 with the Opera of the Hamptons. She has also appeared with the New York City Opera and the Pocket Opera of New York.

    Admission is $40, $20 for children 14 and under. Ten dollars of every ticket will benefit the Southampton Animal Shelter.

   The Sylvester Manor Farmers will gather for a summer contra dance on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The band DuneGrass, with Dave Harver as caller, will lead the traditional barn dancing with fiddles, mandolins, and old-time calls. This musical event for the whole family will take place on the lawn of Sylvester Manor, at 80 North Ferry Road on Shelter Island. Admission is $10, and $5 for students.

    On Aug. 10, Janet Jennings will hold a plein-air painting workshop on the manor’s grounds. In it, Ms. Jennings will help beginners and advanced painters capture the scenery in watercolor, oil, or acrylic paint. The class will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $75, or $60 for students and senior citizens. Participants have been advised to take their own lunches, materials, and insect repellent. Registration is available on the workshop’s Web page at brownpapertickets.com.

    On Wednesday at the Montauk Library, Janice Friedman, a singer and pianist, will perform favorites from the American Songbook, several Brazilian tunes, pop songs from the 1960s and 1970s, and her own compositions.

    Her piano playing “carries the aura and variety of a big band,” The New York Times wrote. She has performed at jazz clubs and concert halls across the country, including Carnegie Hall. The free event will run from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

   The Parrish Art Museum’s Jazz en Plein Air series will resume tomorrow with the Richie Siegler Quartet’s jazz with Brazilian and Latin influences. Mr. Siegler is the founding director of Escola de Samba Boom, a 50-member percussion group that plays Brazilian music.

    The music is presented outdoors, and jazzy drinks by Art of Eating will be available at the cafe. Those attending may want to take with them beach chairs or blankets in case seating fills up. The program is free with museum admission, which is $10 for adults, $8 for those over age 65, and free for members, children, and students.

   “A Hundred Miles to the End,” a film by John Beattie that captures surf culture from Long Beach to Montauk, will be screened at Solé East on Second House Road in Montauk on Sunday as part of Smash Fest 1, a series of happenings from Brooklyn to Montauk showcasing surf films and art.

    The film, which includes some of the area’s best surfers, follows Mr. Beattie, who suffered a debilitating stroke that denied him his own passion for the sport and lifestyle, as he visits surfing communities “to reconnect with his passion,” according to smashsurf.com.

    On Sunday, local musicians including Dalton Portella and the Montauk Project, and Oogee Wawa, a surf punk band from farther west on the Island, will play starting at 6 p.m. The screening will be at 8. Tickets cost $15 and can be purchased online at smashsurf.com, with an additional fee, or at the door.

    SMASH FEST 1 is, according to the site, the “first profit-sharing surf film festival for independent filmmakers.”