A furniture store, a trip to Cuba, a legend regarding four wolves — how does one tell and preserve the stories and history of a family aside from the oral tradition? For decades and even centuries, the answer for many households was through the assemblage of quilts.

    The Bennett family has donated two uniquely well-preserved examples of the medium to the East Hampton Historical Society, and they will be included in an exhibition of recent acquisitions planned for late spring and early summer of next year.

    For almost as long as there has been fabric, creative sewers have taken the scraps to tell stories with them in colorful patterns, fine needlework, and fanciful evocations of the natural world. Quilting is one of the most sophisticated folk art mediums we have.

    Although surviving examples of the craft date back to Mongolia in the first century B.C. or first century A.D. and were commonly used in the Middle Ages to provide a protective layer between armor and skin, quilting really ascended in popularity in the 19th century when mechanical weaving processes allowed fabric produced commercially to be affordable for most households. Women who had previously been consumed with weaving could now focus on other sewing projects, including needlework and quilting.

    East Hampton was no exception. Joanna S. Rose, who presented a huge and well-received show of her collection of red-and-white quilts at the Park Avenue Armory in New York in 2011, noted at the time that quilts were so prevalent that for years antiques dealers in East Hampton would wrap furniture in them as protection during delivery.

    Kathleen McNally was the Bennett family descendant who decided to donate the quilts — one referred to as the “wolf quilt” for its panel of four wolves, and a crazy quilt that includes a lot of embroidery — after consulting with a cousin who lives in Huntington. She had received them from her mother and put them away for safekeeping, but began wondering what would happen to them if something happened to her.

    The family knew the wolf quilt was something special from their own perspective, but its more general appeal became apparent when it was included in a 1992 catalog and a 1993 show called “New York Beauties: Quilts From the Empire State,” put together by the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City.

    The cataloguing information refers to it as a sampler, and it was credited to Mary-Ann Bennett, who lived from 1851 to 1904 in East Hampton. The quilt itself was dated to the late 19th century and made of pieced and appliqued cotton. It is considered a quilt top because it was never attached to batting or a backing. In fact, it appears that even the panels were not finished. It is short one row and one column.

   According to Richard Barons, the executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, the wolf quilt is “one of the most imaginative, brilliantly colored and conceived applique quilts I have seen. It is in the top 100 of quilts made in New York, and there were a lot of bed covers made in New York.” While every panel might have been based on a known pattern, “she added more and changed it. There is an amazing imagination and freedom that bursts from that quilt. The quilt just bursts.”

    In the folk art museum’s catalog, Ms. McNally’s mother, Olga Bennett Collins, described the quilt as “a picture history of her [grandmother’s] life here on Long Island and her family. A family of fishermen, farmers, and just plain, good folks,” who could be traced back to the time of the granting of Gardiner’s Island by England.

    According to Ms. Collins, the initials appliqued throughout the panels represent the names of her grandmother’s children — Ms. Collins’s father, aunts, and uncles. She said she believed the cutout handprint was based on her grandmother’s hand. “The remaining appliqued blocks pertain to the area and manner in which her life was spent. The squirrel and the acorn are indicative of the surrounding oak trees in the area. The blocks with horses and horseshoes indicate their mode of travel — horse and buggy. The quail and the birds represent the wildlife of the area.”

    The panel that earned the wolf quilt its moniker illustrates four wolves and represents a bounty paid to an ancestor, Edward Bennett (who also fought in the Revolutionary War), for killing four wolves. The bounty is in the early town trustee records, according to both Ms. Collins and Ms. McNally, and was also included in Jeannette Edwards Rattray’s book “East Hampton History and Genealogy.”

    Ms. McNally’s daughter Diane McNally is currently clerk of the town trustees. She has three other daughters: Patti Daniels, Dot Field, and Colleen Stonemetz. Although Ms. McNally now lives in Vermont, all of her daughters still live in East Hampton Town.

    Ms. McNally said she gave the quilt to the historical society “for safekeeping and for people to see.” Wrapping it up in a closet for all these years has kept it looking remarkably vibrant, but she felt that locking it away was not doing anyone much good.

    Mr. Barons said the sturdy flannel fabrics that were staples of the households of farmers and fishermen helped in the quilts’ preservation, particularly in the case of the crazy quilt — they were usually constructed of more delicate silks and satins in the Victorian era. Even so, Mr. Barons said, he did not plan to exhibit it for more than a month’s time and only in Clinton Academy, which has UV shades to block out harmful light.

    When the quilts are not on view, the historical society has them rolled up in acid-free paper and covered with acetate because folding would weaken the fabric. The quilts will be part of an eventual online database of the historical society’s entire collection.

    “When I first took it [to the historical society], I didn’t know for certain that they would want it . . . maybe it isn’t a wonderful thing, maybe it was just important to me,” Ms. McNally, who recently took up quilting herself, recalled. “Then, when I showed it them, they said it was a great find. So I’m glad I did.” She said she looks forward to its exhibition and to the publication of the note cards, which is planned for the end of the year.

    “I feel all of my mother’s sisters would feel the same” about the donation and why it was important for the community, which will now share in this wonderful snapshot of a bygone era.

See below for more images.

The "wolf quilt" in its entirety. Durell Godrey, photos.

Another detail with the wolves.

Mary-Ann Bennett's handprint.

The Bennett's crazy quilt.

A detail from the crazy quilt.

B is for Bennett?

To Fool the Eye

    Todd Norsten will be featured in the solo show “This Isn’t How It Looks” at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

    According to the gallery, Mr. Norsten expends a lot of energy making it look like he didn’t in his minimalist and text-based paintings. The gallery will show 25 works from 2010 to 2013, many of which feature “meticulous trompe l’oeil depictions of mundane materials like Scotch and blue painter’s tape . . . with bits of dust, fingerprints, and ragged edges.”

    The artist was born in Minnesota in 1967, and still lives and works there. He has exhibited at galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial. His work is in the collections of the British Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Walker Art Center.

    The exhibition will be on view through May 18.

Everybody’s Talking About Larry

    To commemorate its acquisition of the Larry Rivers archive, New York University is hosting a daylong symposium dedicated to the way the artist refused to be bound to just one medium of expression.

    “Crossings: Larry Rivers and His Milieu” will be presented by Carol A. Mandel, dean of the school’s division of libraries, and David Joel, the executive director of the Larry Rivers Foundation, tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Fales Library and Special Collections in the Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South in New York City. A reception will follow in the Tracey/Barry gallery in the library, which is presenting Rivers’s work in a show of the same title.

    The panel discussions, four in all, will look at Rivers’s art, his literary and social circles, his poetry, and his performance of jazz saxophone with experts from each field and those who knew him.

Harper’s Bizarre Redux

    Going bizarre in winter was not enough for Harper’s Books, so the East Hampton gallery and photography book dealer has decided to do it again on Saturday with a live auction, party, and exhibition opening that will begin at 10 a.m. and continue all day, with the party from 7 p.m. on.

    The exhibition on view will be Matt Weber’s third show at Harper’s Books. A black-and-white film photographer, Mr. Weber’s subject is the constantly changing New York street scene. His devotion to analog photography reminds viewers of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moment” in an era otherwise devoted to digital manipulation.

    The preview of the “mystery auction” will begin in the morning. The auction will include books, photographs, posters, artworks, and odds and ends, starting at affordable opening bids. The items will only be available for viewing the day of the auction.  The auction will start at 6 p.m. and will be followed by an after-party with food, drinks, and more book deals, priced from $5 up. Mister Lama will serve as DJ.

Academy in Cheek

    Romany Kramoris Gallery in Sag Harbor will present work by four members of “The Academy,” a group with a slightly irreverent take on the realist painting tradition, beginning today, with a reception on Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m.

    Those exhibited will be Thomas Condon, Pingree Louchheim, Joan Tripp, and Richard Udice. The show will be on view through April 25.

    Mr. Condon, a part-time East Hampton resident, focuses on landscapes both rural and urban and stresses shadow and light in his work. Ms. Louchheim, who lives in Sagaponack, will feature her owl series, realistic yet personalized depictions of the snowy owl, barn owl, and long-eared owl, and other works. Ms. Tripp will show her renditions of the gaseous, ephemeral, celestial delicacy, and lightness of the nebulae captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, along with her East End landscapes. Mr. Udice paints landscapes in oil in an Impressionistic style with a muted palette and a somber and mysterious tone.

    Romany Kramoris Gallery is open Friday through Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., later on weekends.

Wednesday on the Weekend

    The Wednesday Group will show their plein-air paintings at Ashawagh Hall in Springs this weekend with a reception on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.

    The show is titled “Points of View Large and Small” and features the work of Anna Franklin, Peter Gumpel, Cynthia Loewen, Deb Palmer, Alyce Peifer, Gene Samuelson, Christine Chew Smith, Frank Sofo, Cynthia Sobel, and Pam Vossen.

   Medicine Show Theatre Company will present two plays by John Jonas Gruen, a longtime resident of Water Mill, on April 9 and 10 at 7:30 p.m. at its theater at 549 West 52nd Street in Manhattan.

    “Ballbreaker” is about an impossibly irritating woman whose sole interest in the man who cares for her seems to be his sexual prowess, according to the company. When he decides to withhold his sexual favors, all hell breaks loose.

    “Henry’s Happiness” centers on two male roommates, both schoolteachers, who may or may not be gay. When one of them responds to a classified ad seeking a male companion, the other goes to pieces and discovers the truth about himself.

    Tickets are $10, $7 for students, and can be reserved by calling 212-262-4216 or sending an e-mail to [email protected].

    “As the Eye Is Formed,” a survey of recent developments in moving-image art, will be screened at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill tomorrow at 6 p.m. Peter Campus, a practitioner of video art, selected the 14 artists in the exhibition, which is co-presented with the Hamptons International Film Festival. Mr. Campus will introduce the screening.

    For the program, an open call was issued for movies under 15 minutes made by artists living in New York State. The selected artists are Aaron Bowles, Ahmet Civelek, Solange Fabiao, David Galbraith, Neil Goldberg, Theresa Hackett, Amber Heaton, Peter Macapia, Jason Mitcham, Alexandra Momin, Joe Nanashe, David Weiner, Roger Welch, and Sheri Wills.

    The title comes from a phrase by the poet William Blake: “As the eye is formed, so is its power.”

    As moviemaking technology evolves, so does the way we perceive and make meaning of moving pictures. According to Andrea Grover, the museum’s curator of special projects, “What constitutes a ‘movie’ is no longer stable or simple to define. The convergence of media in the 21st century and the rise of moving images on everything from billboards to computers and handheld devices has expanded the possibilities for artists working in moving-image art.”

    Tickets are $10, free for Parrish members, children under 18, and students with ID.

    The Claque, an arts and performance conglomerate based in New York City, will present a reading and workshop for its third annual play series, “The Quick and the Dirties: Pump Up the Play,” tomorrow from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor.

    The workshop production is designed to turn good plays into great ones, according to the Claque, and focuses on plays that are beyond the point of developmental readings but not yet ready for full production. The “Quick and Dirties” allow for experimentation and discovery to help a play realize its full potential.

    Admission is by a suggested donation of $10.

    Rich harmonies and jazz rhythms will combine with moving texts and jazz interpretations of standards from the American songbook in “Frost, Love, and Jazz,” a program by the Choral Society of the Hamptons, on April 7 at 5 p.m. at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church.

    Jennifer Scott Miceli, head of the music department at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, will serve as guest conductor. Ms. Miceli directs the Long Island Sound Vocal Jazz Ensemble, among other groups.

    The afternoon’s featured work will be the first East Hampton performance of “A Little Jazz Mass,” which sets the text of the Latin Missa Brevis in jazz meters and chords, accompanied by a trio of piano, bass, and drums. The first performance happened in 2004 in New Orleans.

    The “Frost” in the program’s title comes from four poems of Robert Frost. Set to music by Randall Thompson, they are a hushed setting of “The Road Not Taken,” “The Pasture,” “A Girl’s Garden,” and “Choose Something Like a Star.”

    The “love” on the bill comes from a work by Eric Whitacre, known as the creator of virtual choirs, which electronically bring together thousands of singers from around the world in a single online performance. Mr. Whitacre won a Best Choral Performance Grammy Award in 2012.

    Two instrumentalists who also sing in the chorus, Jane Hastay (piano) and Peter Martin Weiss (bass), will join with the saxophonist Richard Scollo to infuse the afternoon with four favorites from the American Songbook. They will perform a medley of “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and “Singin’ in the Rain,” as well as “Easy to Love,” by Cole Porter, and “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.”

    Tickets cost $25 in advance or $35 at the door, with youth tickets available for $10 or $15. Preferred seating tickets are available at $50. Tickets and information on both events can be found at choralsocietyofthehamptons.org. Tickets are also available from members and at the Romany Kramoris Gallery in Sag Harbor.

    A fund-raising reception with the performers will follow the program at the Palm restaurant at the Huntting Inn, one block from the church. Tickets cost $100.

   Waving an arm toward the historic Sylvester Manor House on Shelter Island last week, Dr. Stephen Mrozowski, a professor of archaeology, spoke of the charred corncobs he’d found buried there alongside clamshells, the remains of 17th-century Indian clambakes — just an appetizer in the banquet of his findings during excavations from 1998 through 2006.

    Alice Fiske endowed a study of the historic property after the death in 1992 of her husband, Andrew, a 13th-generation descendant of Nathaniel Syl­vester. Since then, Dr. Mrozowski, director of the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts, has unearthed “hundreds of thousands of artifacts,” he said, among them African-style pottery with European design elements, Dutch building materials, European coins, English and Dutch pipes, multiple building foundations, and one Dutch brick believed to have been part of the original circa-1660 manor house. His findings will be on display at New York University beginning on April 10 in a wide-ranging exhibition called Sylvester Manor: Land, Food, and Power on a New York Plantation, curated by Jennifer Anderson.

    Originally 8,000 acres, the manor grounds once encompassed much of Shelter Island, and the 1652 homestead and plantation has remained in the hands of the same family ever since, one of the few in the United States to make that claim. Today, Bennett Konesni, the founder and creative director of the Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, represents the 15th generation of manor stewards. He has established, on the 243 acres that remain, an educational experience that celebrates sustainable food, local history, and arts, with nonprofit programs offered on the grounds surrounding the 1735 manor house and historic windmill.

    There are thought to be up to 200 graves on the grounds, the final resting place of Manhansett Indians, enslaved Africans, and European indentured servants, who helped to supply food, timber, and materials to the West Indies — including supplies for the Sylvester family sugar plantations in Barbados — as part of the colonial “triangle trade,” in which slaves were bought on the African Gold Coast with New England rum and then traded in the West Indies for sugar or molasses, which was brought back to New England to be manufactured into rum. Last week, at the request of the board of the educational farm, Dr. Mrozowski and a team from N.Y.U. performed ground-penetrating radar surveys to help determine the locations of the gravesites.

    The working plantation became a gentleman’s farm in the 18th century. After the Civil War it became the country estate of E.N. Horsford, a scientist said to have revolutionized industrial food production through the introduction of chemical fertilizers. His daughters, meanwhile, revived the colonial gardens, remnants of which can still be seen on the grounds along with the Georgian manor house, 18th and 19th-century outbuildings, and a rare 1810 Dominy windmill. Mrs. Fiske, who died in 2006, restored the gardens, including trees believed to have been brought to America as cuttings in the 17th century.

    Music has also played a part at Sylvester Manor, both past and present. Today, the educational farm holds an annual “Plant and Sing” festival in October and sponsors contra dances and concerts at the Shelter Island School. The most recent, a bluegrass concert by Della Mae, a Boston bluegrass band, was a sellout.

    Mr. Konesni can often be seen singing and playing a fiddle or banjo himself, as can his wife, Edith Gawler, who performs folk tunes both locally and professionally. The couple will open a show on April 6, along with the Sylvester Manor Worksongers and Cindy Kallet and Grey Larsen, well-known folk musicians. Traditional Irish music, Scandinavian fiddle duets, old-time fiddle and guitar tunes from southern Indiana, and new original music will be performed at the farm for a fee of $15, $5 for students.

    The following week, on April 10, an opening reception for the N.Y.U. exhibition will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South. Correspondence with Thomas Jefferson is included in the show, as are land deeds signed by Nathaniel Sylvester with Native Americans — among them Wyandanch, sachem of the Montaukett tribe — in the 1660s. The exhibit will also celebrate two books about Sylvester Manor: “The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island,” by Mac Griswold, and “Slavery before Race: Europeans, Africans, and Indians at Long Island’s Sylvester Manor Plantation, 1651-1884,” by Katherine H. Hayes.

    The exhibition is free and open to the public. Reservations for the opening reception are required, and can be made through [email protected]. Information about guided tours of Sylvester Manor can be found at sylvestermanor.com.

    A young girl glides through a museum that has some of the greatest works of art on display. In verse she finds herself reacting to the surroundings. Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” makes her “twirly-whirly, twinkly, sparkly, super swirly.” Edvard Munch’s “Scream” makes her gasp, and a Degas dancer has her up on her tippy toes.

    The illustrations of the paintings and surroundings in “The Museum” are by Peter H. Reynolds, a popular and critically acclaimed illustrator from Boston. The words are homegrown, however, penned by Susan Verde, an East Hampton educator, writer, and children’s yoga instructor.

    Published by Abrams earlier this month, this is her first children’s book. The book itself is also of South Fork vintage, having its genesis at the Southampton Writers Conference under the guidance of Emma Walton Hamilton.

    In a way, it was a quid pro quo, Ms. Verde recalled recently over coffee. “There is some history there. I taught her son at the Hampton Day School through nursery school and kindergarten.” They then reconnected as parents when her daughter and Ms. Verde’s son entered the same class.

    “I had all these ideas brewing and had been writing all of my life, but I really started writing children’s books over the last couple of years.” She took some of her ideas to Ms. Hamilton, who suggested that Ms. Verde take her workshop at the conference, which is held every summer at the Stony Brook Southampton campus.

    A year later, after refining a number of ideas from the previous workshop and finding new ones through her own children and other sources, she took the children’s workshop again, this time with Mr. Reynolds. “One of the wonderful perks of being in the workshop was to show him my work. He came across ‘The Museum,’ gave me a few suggestions, and in the same breath said, ‘I want to illustrate this.’ ”

    Ms. Verde was floored. “Are you talking to me?” she recalled saying to herself. Still, she took the opportunity and ran with it, going home to work it over and refine it. “We met a few more times and it became this amazing story.”

    It was a story inspired by Ms. Verde’s three children and an afternoon they spent at Guild Hall — “particularly one of my sons. We were looking at all of the paintings and he was starving. We had seen a painting of food, and he was complaining and writhing on the ground and I thought, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to distract him?’ ” She found some paper and started writing a poem “about how all the various pieces of art made us feel. And it worked.”

    It began as a chronicle of that day, but as she reworked it, she decided to make it more universal, including all of “the art that had inspired and influenced me and made me feel something.” Ms. Verde was raised in Manhattan and had seen many of the pictures she chose in New York City as she was growing up.

    The book took about two years to be completed. Her collaboration with Mr. Reynolds was unusual. “Typically, the writer doesn’t get to meet the illustrator,” who is usually assigned by the publisher, “but we got to create a dummy together, and Mr. Reynolds suggested giving it to his agent,” who took it to Abrams.

    The book was launched in Massachusetts at a bookstore in Dedham that Mr. Reynolds owns. There will be other events here in the summer to mark its publication.

    The response has been positive, including from Ms. Verde’s favorite critic, a second grader who gave it “two thumbs up and all toes up” after hearing it read in a class in Massachusetts. She is currently working on a few other ideas for more children’s books, all in the formative stages.

    Ms. Verde received her degree in education at the old Southampton College and taught preschool and kindergarten at the Hampton Day School for several years. She then had her own children: Joshua and Gabriel, twin boys who are 9, and Sophia, her 7-year-old daughter. She now teaches yoga to children at the Ross School’s lower campus.

    Children’s yoga “is very different from adult yoga,” she said. “I take my adult classes in the morning and feel grounded and peaceful, but that’s not yoga for children.” She said there are meditation and grounding in children’s yoga, but of a different sort. “There’s a lot of moving and talking. It’s certainly not quiet.”

    Her goal in this practice is to teach her students body awareness — “where they are and how they feel and how they can manage those feelings.” The meditation portion is “not chanting and Sanskrit, but a lot of good self-talk.” She said one of the most valuable things the children learn is how to connect with their breath. “Anywhere you are, whenever things are too busy or too crazy, you can find your breath. It’s always there.”

    A mother of one of her students told her recently that she was in the supermarket with her daughter and she stopped what she was doing and started to breathe deeply. Ms. Verde said the woman asked her daughter what she was doing and her daughter replied, “ ‘Susan told me I could just breathe when I was feeling a little crazy, and that’s what I’m doing.’ I love hearing that.”

    Although there has been some concern in other states about a possible religious component of yoga, Ms. Verde said, “It’s really about managing who you are and treating yourself well . . . connecting your body with your mind. The biggest part of it is getting them to relax. Even 15 seconds is a long time to be lying there, not touching their neighbor, not talking. But they manage it and over time it gets better.”

    The Watermill Center’s yearly Berlin Benefit patron trip happens April 16 to 18. Patrons have been invited to join Robert Wilson for the world premiere of “Peter Pan” with the Berliner Ensemble and music by CocoRosie. The benefit will be hosted by Baroness Nina von Maltzahn.

    The full three-day patron trip costs $3,000 and includes a dinner at the residence of the American ambassador on the evening of April 16. Gallery visits and a private lunch are scheduled prior to the premiere of “Peter Pan” on the 17th, followed by a reception with Mr. Wilson and CocoRosie. On the 18th, the trip will continue with a backstage tour of the Berliner Ensemble and a visit to the American Academy in Berlin, with shuttle service from the Regent Hotel. The trip will conclude with a dinner in honor of Mr. Wilson and the Watermill Center hosted by Baroness von Maltzahn at her private residence.

    A two-day patron trip, April 17 to 18, costs $2,000 and includes the same events, with the exception of the April 16 dinner. Premiere tickets for the April 17 performance, which include gallery visits and a private lunch prior to the premiere as well as the post-performance reception with Mr. Wilson and CocoRosie, cost $1,000.

    Tickets can be purchased at watermillcenter.org/events/berlin-benefit-trip. For more information or to make early reservations, Pinki Patel can be called at 212-253-7484, extension 16.

Docents Have Their Say

    Visitors to the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center may know them as interpreters and keepers of the legacy of two of the most influential artists of the 20th century who worked in our backyard. But those who know docents outside of that role, know they also like to express themselves in other ways. This weekend, for the first time, all of their creative endeavors will be brought together in a show at Ashawagh Hall that will demonstrate how much their artistic output is shaped by what they do in their day job.

    “Under the Influence: Art by the Docents of Pollock-Krasner House” will include the work of Sara Coe, Pamela Collins Focarino, Ruby Jackson, Tracy Jamar, Tim Roepe, and Rose Zelentz. Each has shown work previously in other venues, but never together in this context.

    The show opens Saturday morning and there will be an artists reception beginning at 5 p.m. It will remain on view through Sunday at 3 p.m.

Early Spring

At Pritam and Eames

    Pritam and Eames will have an “Early Spring Show” running tomorrow through May 21.

    The show will combine decorative arts pieces and fine examples of American craft with paintings and drawings in the “Art at Home” series.

    Furniture will include a polished steel coffee table by Fran Taubman, a bronze and steel sideboard by Gary Magakis, and a coffee table made from thermally modified oak and decorated with 4,800 nails by Peter Sandback.

    Linda Capello, Aubrey Grainger, and Karen Kluglein will exhibit paintings and drawings. On April 19, the gallery will show Jen Alnwick’s “Working Cowboys” series of photographs.

    The gallery is open Fridays through Sundays through the spring, with other hours arranged by appointment.

New Center, New Show

    James Daga Albinson and Cindy Neuendorf will expand their Hamptons Studio of Fine Art into the Sag Harbor Fine Arts Center, an academy-like environment for instruction, education, and exhibitions on Rose Street in Sag Harbor.

    The first exhibition will be a solo show of work by Karen Kaapcke. Called “Drawing 50,” the show highlights the past six months of a long-term project devoted to self-portraiture during the artist’s 50th year. An opening reception will be held Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

    Ms. Kaapcke has studied with Ted Seth Jacobs in New York and France and enjoys working outside the studio setting, including a series done around Occupy Wall Street called “Painting Occupy” and a series of drawings done after the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy.

    The center will also offer training in different mediums by artists from around the globe. Weekly classes and specialty workshops will be held in a professional working studio. A courtyard and sculpture garden will provide opportunities to sketch or interact with art along with what is hanging in the exhibition studio.

Gilmour at Marcelle

    An exhibition of work by Gina Gilmour will open at Peter Marcelle Gallery in Bridgehampton on Saturday and remain on view through April 14. A reception will be held April 6 from 6 to 8 p.m.

    Ms. Gilmour is a Mattituck artist whose work blends the figurative with the abstract, with the figurative sometimes more mysterious than that which is unrecognizable. According to Long Island Pulse magazine, “in the best tradition of Dadaists, Gina Gilmour’s paintings are as sarcastic as a stick in the eye.”