2020 Hamptons THAW brings tours, special events to mark end of winter
Anne Chaisson and Alec Baldwin arrive to honor the 2019 lifetime achievement award recipient, director Brian De Palma, at the 27th Hamptons International Film Festival on Oct. 12. Credit: John Roca
THAW FEST — an annual event that includes exhibitions, theater performances, film showings, music, tours and workshops to celebrate the end of winter- will be held for a month instead of just a weekend for the first time this year, marking an extended effort to promote the Hamptons as a year-round arts destination.
“It’s our third year and the first that we’ve decided to have it last a month rather than simply a weekend so that more people can come and be exposed to everything that the 19 institutions involved have to offer,” says Tracy Mitchell, executive director of Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, which is part of THAW FEST. The participants are all nonprofit organizations that belong to the Hamptons Art Network (HAN) and include the historical societies of East Hampton and Eastville, Long House Reserve, Madoo Conservancy, Parrish Art Museum, Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center & Museum, Southampton African American Museum, the arts and cultural centers of Southampton and The Watermill Center.
Mitchell says that in previous years the event “went well” but that there wasn’t a lot of time for people to get to see and do everything when just a weekend was involved. This year THAW FEST will be held March 6-29. Some events are free. Information on the offerings and a complete calendar of events can be obtained by visiting https://www.hamptonsartsnetwork.org/thaw-fest-2020-schedule. “Instead of one weekend there’ll be more opportunities,” and more of a chance to patronize local businesses, adds Maria Vann, director of the East Hampton Historical Society.
Here’s a sampling of some THAW FEST events to look out for:
A SPECIAL EXHIBITION
WHAT Robert Dash: Printmaker, 11 a.m. Saturday, March 7 at The Madoo Conservancy, 618 Sagg Main St., Sagaponack
Master printmaker Dan Welden talks about printmaker Robert Dash, who in 1967 settled into a home in Sagaponack that he named, “MADOO,” where he devoted himself to painting, poetry and gardening. Included in the exhibit will be prints of his paintings of the Sagaponack landscape from the 1970s to 1980s, illustrating a variety of techniques including lithography and serigraphy — revealing the reciprocal relationship between painting and printmaking in his work.
Anne Chaisson and Alec Baldwin arrive to honor the 2019 lifetime achievement award recipient, director Brian De Palma, at the 27th Hamptons International Film Festival on Oct. 12. Credit: John Roca
CELEB-LED FILM DISCUSSION
WHAT Screening of the 1983 film, “Silkwood,” with a discussion featuring Alec Baldwin, 6 p.m. Saturday, March 7 at Guild Hall of East Hampton, Inc., 158 Main St., East Hampton
Actor Alec Baldwin, who has a home in Amagansett, participates in a talk on “Silkwood,” a drama thriller starring Meryl Streep in the biographical story of nuclear whistleblower and union labor activist Karen Silkwood, who died in a car crash while investigating alleged wrongdoing at a plutonium plant where she worked.
TALK AND BOOK SIGNING
WHAT Women & Migration: Responses in Art & History, 6-8 p.m. March 13 at Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill
Presentations and conversations will be included in this event that examines the “profound and turbulent” experiences of women and migration as seen in the contexts of politics, war, love and family. Part of the evening will be a book signing of “Women and Migration: Responses in Art & History,” containing essays about the ways these stories have been documented in writing, photography, art and film.
TRAVELING SMITHSONIAN EXHIBIT
The Smithsonian's Water/Ways exhibition is open at Clinton Academy Museum in East Hampton from Feb. 29 through April 11. Credit: Museum Association of New York
WHAT Waterways Exhibit Tour, 7 p.m. March 27 at the Clinton Academy Museum, 151 Main St., East Hampton
The East Hampton Historical Society has arranged for the local Clinton Academy Museum to be the only place on Long Island to host the Smithsonian’s “Water/Ways” exhibition and the final stop on the display’s trip to a total of six locations in New York State. Learn about the importance of water to this maritime community and how people respond, interact, and impose upon this valuable resource. “This exhibition can be enjoyed by Long Islanders because of our very direct and proud connection to our rivers, ponds, lakes, and ocean,” says the Society’s director, Maria Vann.
