The Southampton Arts Center will join the many other East End cultural venues celebrating Earth Day with its next exhibition, “EARTH: Artists as Activists,” which will open Saturday and continue through July 11.
“EARTH is a timely and actionable multidisciplinary exhibition featuring artists who use their talents to focus on environmental conservation and activism, whether through painting, sculpting, photography, film, music, prose, or other forms of artistic expression,” said Tom Dunn, the center’s executive director.
“It also asks this important question: What can each of us do to make a difference? Collaborating with some 30 artists and 16 exhibition partners is an intentional nod to the reality that no one can do this work alone. And that inspiring change is more powerful in numbers,” he added.
The exhibition was organized by Amy Kirwin, the center’s former artistic director and now Guild Hall’s chief creative officer. It was originally scheduled for the spring of 2020 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. While the pandemic put those plans on hold, “The timely subject matter isn’t confined to an anniversary,” she said, “so it was an easy decision to reschedule to this spring.”
“The incredible artists, writers, poets, scientists, and conservationists featured in ‘EARTH’ dedicate their lives and their practices to shining a light on the tenuous state of our planet and its inhabitants,” said Ms. Kirwin. “The exhibition will be shockingly powerful while at the same time incredibly beautiful, but most importantly it will educate and inspire.”
The public programs related to the theme of the exhibition include artist workshops, panel discussions, and film screenings. Among the in-person programs will be “Art and Environmental Action” with Carl Safina and Erica Cirino of the Safina Center, and “Organic Gardening and Landscaping” with Taralynn Reynolds of Group for the East End, Anthony Marinello of the Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons, and Edwina von Gal of Perfect Earth Project.
Film screenings include “Fantastic Fungi,” a 2019 documentary narrated by Brie Larson that combines time-lapse cinematography, computer-generated imagery, and interviews to provide an overview of the biology and environmental importance of fungi.
Virtual programs include “The Artist’s View: Contrasting Expressions of Nature,” with the artists Scott Bluedorn, Anne Sherwood Pundyk, and Cindy Pease Roe, who will discuss how the beauty of the East End informs their work. Kathryn Szoka, a photographer and co-founder of Canio’s Books, will moderate.
The other participating artists include Roisin Bateman, Kristian Brevik, Megan Chaskey, Erica Cirino, Rossa Cole, Janet Culbertson, Tom Deininger, Alejandro Durán, Jim Gingerich, Mamoun Friedrich Grosvenor, John Haigney, Kara Hoblin, Michael Light, Pamela Longobardi, Christa Maiwald, Tucker Marder, Janine Martel, Steve Miller, Patricia Paladines, Aurora Robson, Lauren Ruiz, Anne Seelbach, Jonathan Shlafer, Diane Tuft, and members of the South Fork Natural History Museum’s Young Environmentalists program.
The exhibition is free, and the gallery is open Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. The evolving schedule of public programs can be found on the center’s website.
