Be part of—wade into—the start of a two-month-long communal latch hook rug mosaic that will evolve throughout the time the exhibition is on view. Upon its completion, the latch hook becomes part of the Wading Room.
This program has no fee, but feel free to make a donation!
Guild Hall, in collaboration with the John Chamberlain Estate, invites you to explore Living with Chamberlain, a visually stunning and deeply personal exploration of John Chamberlain’s legacy published by ASSOULINE.
This compelling new volume goes beyond the museum walls to explore how Chamberlain’s work transforms the lives of those who live with it. Featuring a foreword by Rick Owens, and interviews and conversations with family, friends, gallerists, and collectors, this intimate and personal volume uncovers how Chamberlain’s art has impacted the lives of so many, including personalities as diverse as Chamberlain’s wide-ranging artistic expressions.
The evening will feature a conversation with Alexandra Fairweather, Director of the Chamberlain Estate. Fairweather will be joined by special guests for a discussion on the intersection of art, design, and the impact of Chamberlain’s work.
The conversation is programmed in-tandem with the exhibition, Functional Relationships on view from May 4 – July 13 at Guild Hall.
Join Max Hollein, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for an engaging discussion on the future of museums, the power of cultural storytelling, and The Met’s evolving role in a global art world.
Presented in partnership with The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Join The Artist Profile Archive (TAPA) for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at their films in production, featuring artists Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Julian Schnabel, and Ralph Gibson. Be among the first to preview their debut feature-length documentary, Pictures of Pictures: The Metro Years, which explores the lasting impact of Metro Pictures. This special presentation offers a rare glimpse into the evolution of TAPA and its filmmaking process.
Following the screening, founding producer and director Sophie Chahinian will lead a conversation with Robert Longo and other featured artists.
Join designer and collector Lisa Perry and visual artist Almond Zigmund for an engaging discussion moderated by Melanie Crader, Guild Hall Museum Director and Curator of Visual Arts. The conversation will highlight Perry’s vision for Onna House, a creative hub dedicated to championing and amplifying the voices of women artists, alongside Zigmund’s Guild Hall exhibition, Wading Room, an immersive installation that redefines spatial perception through bold geometric interventions.
Both Perry and Zigmund share a deep interest in abstraction and spatial storytelling, using design and structure to transform environments. They will explore how their work intersects, the role of women in contemporary art and design, and the power of thoughtfully curated spaces—whether a home, a gallery, or an installation—to shape perception and inspire dialogue.
The 2025 Student Art Festival: Rauschenberg100 honors the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth by joining an international museum initiative organized by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Guild Hall will partner 8 Public Schools and 10 East End Artists to collaboratively delve into what Rauschenberg called the “gap between art and life,” valuing chance and collaboration in a wide range of materials, subjects, styles, and creative techniques.
The Festival concludes with an exhibition of new works and creative presentations by the partnered public schools and artists, and a special presentation of Rauschenberg’s work held in Guild Hall’s permanent collection. The permanent collection exhibition will be co-curated by the Guild Hall Teen Arts Council and Museum Director & Curator of Visual Arts, Melanie Crader.
Participating Schools: Amagansett School; Bridgehampton School; East Hampton High School; East Hampton Middle School; John Marshall Elementary School; Shelter Island School; Springs School; Pierson Middle-High School
Participating Guest Artists: Bastienne Schmidt; Candace Hill–Montgomery; Eva Faye; Evan Yee; Kevin Teare; Laurie Lambrecht; Linda K Alpern; Margaret Garrett; Peter Dayton; Scott Bluedorn
ABOUT THE STUDENT ART FESTIVAL
The Guild Hall Student Art Festival (SAF) is a beloved tradition that encourages and celebrates the artistic achievement and imagination of students, Kindergarten to Grade 12, on the South Fork of Long Island. Through close collaboration with schoolteachers and districts, we explore an annual theme, partner each participating school with regional artists, produce an exhibition of new works, and link the tenets of creative production to civic participation.
Almond Zigmund makes large-scale site-responsive installations, discrete sculptures, works on paper, and paintings that explore the interplay between space, perception, and the built environment. Her work is characterized by crisp geometry, vivid colors, and intricate patterns that often suggest walls, barricades, and enclosures. Zigmund is also the creator of Almond Artist & Writers, family-style dinners at the restaurant Almond in Bridgehampton where people come together to share and celebrate the artistic process; she has organized more than sixty-five gatherings to date. It is in this spirit of supporting the power of community engagement that Zigmund was invited to create a site-specific environment in conjunction with the exhibition Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture.
Wading Room houses selections from Guild Hall’s permanent collection; functional, artist-made furniture for public use, including chairs designed by Almond Zigmund in collaboration with Justin Allen (Shepard Co Design); and other artist-made objects: lighting, chairs, rugs, stools, vessels, and sculpture. The artists Sabra Moon Elliot, Kurt Gumaer, Saskia Friedrich, Karen Simon, and Nico Yektai have also contributed to the space. A series of participatory public programs and collaborative projects will take place throughout the run of the exhibition.
We encourage visitors to linger, lounge, and interact in an artist-designed environment and to visit often to explore its potential.
This exhibition was organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum manager and registrar and Claire Hunter, museum coordinator and curatorial associate.
Artists often come to be associated with specific mediums or bodies of work when in fact their practices are much more expansive. Visual artists are frequently also musicians, designers, performers, filmmakers, writers, furniture makers, and so on. An encounter with one of the couches made by John Chamberlain, an artist best known for his metal sculptures, can be surprising, but the reality is that artists integrate their studio practices into all their life activities.
This presentation focuses on East End artists who have produced functional furniture as an extension of their creative practices—as a means of problem-solving, as an element of designed living, and as a way to foster social spaces. Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture presents work by Scott Bluedorn, John Chamberlain, Liz Collins, Quentin Curry, Peter Dayton, Connie Fox, Kurt Gumaer, Mary Heilmann, Yung Jake, Donald Judd, Julian Schnabel, Karen Simon, Strong-Cuevas, Mark Wilson, Robert Wilson, Evan Yee, Nico Yektai, and Almond Zigmund.
In conjunction with Functional Relationships, Guild Hall commissioned two projects as further explorations of this common practice: Lindsay Morris’s photographs of interior spaces show how artists utilize furniture and shape their domestic environments, while Almond Zigmund’s installation Wading Room in the Marks Family South Gallery provides an artist-designed environment for activation through public use and a series of participatory programs.
This exhibition was organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum manager and registrar and Claire Hunter, museum coordinator and curatorial associate.
Mary Heilmann: Water Way will be the artist’s first large-scale solo presentation with an institution on the East End of Long Island, where she has been an integral part of the region’s creative community for decades. From California to New York City to Bridgehampton, Heilmann has prioritized living in close proximity to water, which has had a profound influence on her life and work. Whether as a direct image or referential title, water has long been a recurring theme throughout her practice. Guild Hall is pleased to realize an exhibition that Heilmann has had a strong desire to stage—one that brings together over 40 works of a focused area of her output. The exhibition includes works on paper, ceramics, and paintings spanning from the 1980s through the present.
This exhibition was organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum manager and registrar and Claire Hunter, museum coordinator and curatorial associate.
Please join us for the first presentation of an ongoing series “The Ranch Presents”—artist-centered panel discussions led by Max Levai, founder of The Ranch, located in Montauk, New York.
Levai, joined by art critic Barry Schwabsky, will moderate a discussion between artists Sayre Gomez and Jamian Juliano-Villani, which will focus on their respective exhibitions at The Ranch and the legacies of Jack Goldstein and Mike Kelley. The panel discussion coincides with the completion of the publication for Jack Goldstein | Sayre Gomez, a two-person exhibition exploring the pair’s intergenerational connections.